League of Legends has introduced a feature allowing pro teams to create their own in-game emotes, with sales directly benefiting the teams. Team BDS opted to reintroduce the bait ping as their emote, a feature that was previously removed by the developers.
Why was the bait ping controversial? When it was originally released, players often exploited its resemblance to a noose to make inappropriate comments towards others.
Riot developer Auberaun had condemned the misuse of the bait ping as “unacceptable,” leading to its removal from the game. Now, nearly a year later, Team BDS has reintroduced the bait ping as an emote, featuring a cute penguin wearing the team’s logo on its hat.
The new emote has been slightly altered to resemble a fishing hook rather than a closed loop, yet many players still see the resemblance to the original and are eager to acquire it, not solely due to their support for Team BDS.
Adding to the controversy, Team BDS’ promotional video featured the original version of the bait ping instead of the redesigned one, making it hard to ignore the connection. While some teams have created emotes that represent their organizations, others have designed purely fun emotes without any direct team association.
For example, Team Liquid chose an emote of Teemo raising a white flag, which doesn’t specifically represent their team but has broader appeal.
Ultimately, despite the bait ping’s past issues, it’s just a fishing hook. Whether it will be received better this time remains to be seen, though some players are cautious about the potential repercussions, given its previous misuse.