A new feature in League of Legends was added to the public beta environment (PBE) the other day which drew a mixed response from the community.
The ‘Make My Profile Private’ option was added to PBE v11.23. When checked, it’d allow players to hide their rank, match history and gameplay stats from other players, though the summoner name, icon and level would remain public.
However, Esports News UK understands this was not intended to go live on the PBE server just yet, and sources have said it will be removed soon. Whether it will be re-added at a later date or not is unknown.
If it wasn’t intended to be added, then why was it? It could be that it was an accident or a test to see the community reaction. The PBE is after all a testing area – not all changes or additions make it to live servers.
The private profile feature was first spotted by ThePotatoWard on Twitter below and was also discussed on the League of Legends subreddit, in a post titled: ‘Now what is going to happen to Solo Queue?’
Response to the potential change was mixed. By hiding a player’s profile, this would in theory prevent third-party stats services like OPGG or Mobalytics from publicly displaying the user’s win rate, preferred champions and other performance metrics.
Some players nowadays use services like Mobalytics to see additional in-game info, for example to see the win rates, play style and recent match history of their teammates during the loading screen or champ select. This can cause some players to dodge the match by closing the League of Legends game client, or even flame other players.
So some LoL players would be happy to see stats like this removed, while others rely on said stats to help them get better insight and knowledge into a game, for example a game of solo queue on Summoner’s Rift.
The introduction of a private profile option could, however, ostracize those who choose to hide their stats, cause their teammates to dodge or flame them for hiding their info, or make them question why they’re hiding their match history.
Here are two opposing opinions from the community. League of Legends coach Neace was happy about such an option potentially being added:
Zero, a data analyst and scout for Finnish esports organisation Nyyrikki, said it would cause problems for scouting talent in the future:
As someone who does scouting, if this extends to the Api it’ll be awful for lower Leagues. You essentially won’t be able to scout teams at lower divisions with no noted comp experience.
— Zero (@ThatStatGuyZero) November 5, 2021
There are many more mixed comments on the original tweet at the top of this article and in the linked Reddit thread.
It’s worth taking this news with a pinch of salt. Like we say, the PBE is a test environment and this option could return later, or go live after all. But for now we’ve heard it will be removed from the PBE in the future. We’ll follow this story and update this article with any further developments.
Riot Games and match history service providers have not yet responded to Esports News UK’s requests for comment.
Riot made another change recently which drew a vocal response from the game’s community: All-chat is being removed from League of Legends to ‘address verbal abuse’.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
