Fans rage over allegedly racist emote in League of Legends

Ivan Frigato Published August 30, 2024

A new K’sante emote sparked discourse among the League of Legends fandom for allegedly racist implications.

League of Legends is many things, and toxic is certainly one of them. The community has famously attracted the ire of critics for how over-the-top its toxicity can get.  Many saw the Akali emote debacle, in which players debated over the emote’s perceived emasculation of players, as proof of this. However, that’s not the end of Riot’s emote woes. K’sante recently received a new emote that is seeing similar scrutiny. On the surface, it’s not too bad. “Cope” emotes with breathing masks are a common insult in any gaming community, and the emote wouldn’t have garnered attention otherwise.

However, the unfortunate name brought up some uncomfortable memories for North American players.

Is the K’Sante emote racist in League of Legends?

Some League fans claim the “Lemme Breathe” emote is a racist joke about police brutality towards black Americans.

The art depicts K’Sante in a breathing mask, and, combined with the title Lemme Breathe, the interpretations can get uncomfortable. Some players believe this refers to the multiple instances of police brutality towards black Americans, particularly the death of George Floyd in May 2020. Many fans called for a name change, given the potentially negative connotations that toxic players can use the emote for.

“If the name were copium it would be fine wtf is that name, they shouldn’t even add this in the game now it’s just going to be used racially,” said one user on the League of Legends subreddit.

Many other users shared the same sentiment, suggesting a name change to “K’opium” to mitigate the racist implications. Some believe Riot should remove the emote altogether, given its potential as a bigoted dog whistle. Others believe that people overreacted and that the emote should stand as is.

The arguments for those who want to keep the emote say that only Americans would be bothered by the alleged racism. Critics cited how the Akali emote was banned for upsetting Korean players specifically as a counterpoint. After all, certain radical groups in Korea used the infamous gesture to spread toxic rhetoric.

Riot has not officially responded to the emote discourse as of this writing.