The new emotes feature has been added to League of Legends Patch 7.20, which goes live Wednesday.
First announced two months ago, players will now be able to equip different emotes on their new Emote Wheel, which functions like the Ping Wheel. Players can equip up to five emotes at a time and access the wheel through the default key binding on the T-key. To start off, every player will get the “Thumbs Up” emote for free, and more options will be available for purchase through the in-game store. There will be 25 at launch, but more will be released over time.
More emote options could potentially mean more in-game spamming, so the ability to mute emotes from the enemy players or individual players will also be added to the game. Players will also be able to mute the Mastery Emote from players, which has become less of a show of mastery of a champion, and more of a way to further infuriate dead opponents.
Some exclusive emotes will be available as rewards. With the new missions feature in League, players will be able to unlock emotes by fulfilling mission requirements, and the new leveling system for 2018 will include some emotes based on significant leveling milestones. The emote feature was initially added in Patch 7.18 in the Oceanic server.
Charity voting begins
Riot Games will match 25 percent of the Championship Ashe skin sales from this year’s worlds in a donation to three charities: BasicNeeds, Learning Equality, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Fans can vote beginning in Patch 7.20 for which of those charities will receive the largest share (50 percent) of the donation; the other two will receive 25 percent.
The players who have a high Honor level in League of Legends will have their vote count for more. Players with Level 3 and below will have their votes count as one, while Level 4 players will get a 1.5 multiplier, and the votes of Level 5 players will count as double.
Like last year, 25 percent of the proceeds raised by Championship Ashe and the Season 7 Championship ward skin will be added to the total prize pool of worlds. Last year’s sale of Championship Zed and the Season 6 Championship ward skin doubled the total prize pool, which reached more than $5 million. Championship Ashe is available for 1,350 RP ($10) and the Season 7 Championship ward skin is available for 640 RP ($5) through the in-game store.