Riot disables Orianna at Worlds 2022 due to bug
Riot Games has announced that the Lady of Clockwork, Orianna, will be unavailable to use for the 2022 League of Legends World Championship tournament until further notice. The decision came after a bug that could give the champion an unfair advantage was discovered during a recent match.
Orianna is a Mid-Lane champion who has a lot of utility and can effortlessly assist the group win team battles. She is also one of the most effective control mages. She is accompanied by The Ball, which she is able to control. Between casts, The Ball incurs a 0.15-second global cooldown on all her abilities.
As of this writing, the developer has not indicated whether Orianna will return at some point during the championship.
Orianna’s bug
League “bug hunter” Vandiril saw the bug on Day 3 of Worlds 2022 Groups during a matchup between Rogue and GIGABYTE Marines (GAM) Esports. He then posted his discovery on Twitter.
Vandiril wrote, “In RGE vs GAM game there was an Orianna ult bug. Her Ult appears to be on top of her, but she actually hits Viktor, that is away from her. I wonder if it qualified for chronobreak (it should, unless worlds buglist [that teams get] specifically says otherwise).”
In the video included in the tweet, the bug was shown to occur during a fight near Baron Nashor. Rogue Mid-Laner Emil “Larssen” Larsson casts Orianna’s ultimate, but the indicator for the ability is incorrect. Larssen uses Command: Attack (Q) to thrust Orianna’s ball directly into GAM’s backline in the middle of a team fight, then immediately follows up with Command: Shockwave.
Even though the Shockwave hit all of its targets, the ability’s visual was focused directly on Orianna, as if to imply that the ball was still in her hands. However, GAM did not request a pause and thus did not receive a chronobreak when the bug appeared.
Vandiril then went on to say that although Riot said the bug was “recently discovered,” it had been present since the initial release of the Worlds patch (Patch 12.18). He also confirmed that the bug was not a visual or spectator bug but rather one that could change the game’s outcome and jeopardize the competitive integrity of the esport.
Previously disabled champions due to bugs
Orianna isn’t the first Worlds champion to be disabled due to a bug discovered during the tournament. In 2016, Aurelion Sol was temporarily unavailable due to a bug found in a game between TSM and Royal Never Give Up. In the final game, Aurelion Sol’s passive particles got too close to a wall and vanished, making them extremely difficult to see.
Gragas was also disabled for the remainder of the 2015 Worlds tournament after a bug was found during a match between Europe’s Fnatic and China’s EDward Gaming. The bug rendered Gragas’ Q ability and Barrel Roll functions useless.
Notably, Orianna will be the second champion unavailable for LoL Worlds 2022, joining the newly designed Udyr. The Juggernaut was disabled due to Riot Games’ policy that “new Champions and VGUs must be enabled for playoffs in all four of the top regions in order to be playable at the next international tournament.”
The Worlds 2022, which began on September 29 and will end on November 5, is the largest LoL Esports tournament of the year, bringing together the best teams from Korea, China, Europe, North America and elsewhere to compete for the title of world champion.
