Riot Games could have found a way to fight back against bot-crawling replay systems used to train bots and likely to level up fresh accounts, without destroying many content creators' work. Riot's first solution was brutal: on October 7,
the editor announced its plan to cut off access to replays, putting at risk the livelihoods of many content creators and coaches who relied on the system.
The original update restricted access to League of Legends match replays, meaning players could only download replays of games they had participated in directly through the game client. Replays from other players’ matches could no longer be downloaded through third-party applications or websites, which also lost access to replay downloads entirely
The announcement sparked an outcry, and Riot Games initially
postponed the implementation of the measure, stating that they were “
working on a solution to ensure the creators and coaches out there that rely on replays are not meaningfully impacted by this change”. Announced on October 20, the final solution limits replay access to a maximum of ten per hour.
Vibe-coded apps that crawl replays were a danger for Riot
With the arrival of
Patch 26.21, the number of downloadable replays per hour will be capped at ten in order to fight crawlers and bot creators. This change aims to fight a disruptive system without making life harder for coaches, pro players, and content creators. Ten replays per hour is likely a number
Riot thinks won't be high enough for crawlers to train their bots efficiently, since, as we know, AI requires large amounts of data to learn faster and better.
On the other hand, it is thought to be enough for channels that build their work on publishing pro-soloq replays and reactions, and the same goes for coaches, who will be able to set up their day efficiently thanks to such a high download limit.
A solution loved by the community
The reception of this solution has been the complete opposite of the last one, when hate and criticism went hard against Riot. This time, content creators, community members, and fans loved the proposal. The community also feels like Riot is listening: when players, creators and coaches speak up together, even a decision that looks final can be reworked into something that protects the game.
