Russian League of Legends players will experience censorship again. The issue is the new skins for Caitlyn and Vi.
In recent years, Riot has been openly talking about same-sex couples or the orientations of individual heroes. A romantic relationship between Diana and Leona or Graves and Twisted Fate has been confirmed. Homosexual characters such as Neeko and K’Sante have also been published.
Unfortunately, not in every country can you read full versions of stories related to the aforementioned characters. Russia or China often censor LGBT+ related content, as you can read in older articles.
Another example of censorship has emerged, although it’s not as blatant as the reworking of stories or champion lore. It involves the latest Valentine’s Day skins.
Censorship of Vi and Caitlyn’s skins?
After the premiere of the Arcane animated series, no one among League of Legends fans doubts that Caitlyn and Vi have something more in common. Riot itself has admitted that it wants to develop this thread in the second season of the series. Fans of the pair have believed for years that the girls share a romantic relationship, which can be seen and felt in their interactions.
This year, in honor of Valentine’s Day, the creators have created three new skins that will go to the aforementioned heroines and Amumu. While the issue of the little mummy is not controversial, the splash art of Vi and Caitlyn shows the heroines in an unambiguous way – from the comments of the players it seems that no one doubts that the girls have caught each other’s eye and there is a noticeable chemistry between them.
The splash art was published in two versions, and one of them has a graphic with hearts added in the middle, where one is pierced with an arrow and a cupcake (referring to what Vi calls Caitlyn). It turns out that this version of splash art will not reach Russian LoL fans.
According to commenters, such a version of censorship is pointless, to say the least. Removing additional graphics with hearts will not make players suddenly forget what the two heroines have in common. The same happened with K’Sante’s lore, where the word “beloved” was replaced with “partner.” The community laughed that, after all, everyone knows that the champion was in a relationship with another man.