League’s most controversial emote brought back by Team BDS after Riot removed it

League of Legends has allowed pro teams to put their own emotes in the game, with sales from those emotes directly supporting the teams. Team BDS chose to bring back the bait ping in their emote, something that was purposely removed by the developers.

Why would a ping that indicates you should bait the enemy be controversial? Well, at the time it was released, people were frequently using its resemblance to a noose to say some unsavory things to other players.

At the time, Riot developer Auberaun called the way the bait ping was being used “unacceptable,” and it was subsequently removed from the game.

Now, almost a year later, Team BDS has brought back the in-game bait ping as an emote along with a cute pengu, sporting the team’s logo on his hat.

If we look at this new emote beside the since-removed bait ping, some changes have been made to make it look a bit more like an actual fishing hook and less like a closed loop.

Riot Games

That hasn’t stopped League players from seeing the resemblance and wanting to get their hands on the emote, and not just because they’re big fans of Team BDS.

Additionally, Team BDS’ very own promo video about the emote had the same bait emote that got removed from the game in it rather than the redrawn one, so the correlation is hard to shake considering the org themselves have made it.

While some teams chose to design emotes that represent their organization, many others have created cosmetics just for the sake of creating a fun emote.

For instance, Team Liquid chose to go with Teemo raising the white flag, something that doesn’t represent their team. However, the emote has more potential to sell to a wider audience that may not even care about the esports side of LoL.

Regardless of the reason behind the original bait ping’s removal, it is just a fishing hook at the end of the day. Perhaps things will go over a bit better this time. However, others are wary of the “consequences” this move could have considering how the bait ping was used before.