League of Legends' infamous bait ping is making its return via a cute emote, and there's absolutely no way it'll be used for anything else

Some fun news in the world of League of Legends has popped up, as a selection of new emotes are coming to the game courtesy of an esports collaboration between Riot Games and the tier 1 teams across the globe. However, one specific emote has caught the eye of the cheekier sorts among the League player base, as it features the infamous bait ping, removed from the game due to its unintended use by the community.

The emote in question is Team BDS's Bait Da Sardines emote, which features a cute little penguin holding a fishing rod with the beloved and now very much dead bait ping attached to the end. You'll be able to buy this emote, as well as emotes for the rest of the teams in the professional League of Legends ecosystem, right now.

But why was this emote removed? Well, it was first introduced when Riot Games attempted to expand the in-game ping system for League, in hopes that it would improve communication without you having to actually talk to the freaks and monsters playing on your team. One of these new pings was a yellow fish hook, which was intended to communicate 'baiting', the act of luring enemy players into a trap for your team's gain.

There were two problems. According to Riot it was removed due to lack of use, but it's worth noting that this fish hook looks a bit like a noose, which the League of Legends community noticed almost instantly. So instead of using it as Riot intended, players would spam this bait ping at players on their team who mess up. Telling people on your team to hang themselves is definitely against the terms of service, but spamming an in-game ping? Totally fine!

Except it wasn't, certainly not for Riot Games, which is why the company removed it from the game. Since then, the community has been left sad and hookless like a Bronze 2 Thresh main. Until now of course, thanks to Team BDS. One wonders how this emote was allowed to even pass through, when anyone with any knowledge of how the League community behaves can predict that spamming this emote in-game will just become the new hot way of telling junglers to... Well, you know.

But hey, maybe this is inevitable. It's not like League became this lovely, friendly, hopeful place ever since the bait ping was removed. People have dishing out sort of stuff to each other for over a decade, so why not package that king of message alongside a cute penguin? It's also a brilliant financial move by Team BDS, as 30% of the revenue from emote sales go back to the team who helped design it, lining them up to make some serious bank. Maybe this is the secret to actually making money in esports.

Are you planning on buying any of these emotes? Let us know why below! You don't have to tell us, we know why.