Garena’s legacy in League of Legends is mixed to say the least, and its exit from the scene as the SEA region’s provider continues to solidify its reputation as an example of poor behavior.
Garena is the company who has, for the entirety of the region’s existence, distributed League of Legends to the SEA region. During that time, it has been mired by controversy, exploitative business practices, gambling misbehavior and more. Its final month has been no less controversial than the time before it.
It was announced earlier this year that SEA would no longer have to look to Garena to provide League of Legends.
Instead, Riot Games will be stepping in to directly provide League of Legends to the players. The largest change ensuing from this is the death of the Garena client, a separate game client for player who accessed League of Legends through the company. The Garena client has increased skin prices, skins locked behind loot boxes, limited windows for purchase for cosmetics that are evergreen in other regions, and similar exploitative purchase mechanics.
The most recent cosmetics event is quite literal about the nature of these additions, calling itself “GGamble.”
At the same time, the Garena client has massively discounted most of its skins, trying to rake in as much as possible before losing its involvement in the single largest video game in the world. Despite the name and the backlash reaching social media platforms like Reddit, the event seems to be one of the more fan-friendly sales that Garena has done, un-vaulting tons of limited skins to make them available for purchase.
One way or the other, this is the last that League of Legends fans will have to hear about the provider’s antics given the impending switch over to Riot Games control in January of 2023.
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