Classic LoL champ is being censored after 15 years

Gragas, one of League of Legends’ oldest champions, is being censored after 15 years. However, days after announcing changes to his identity, Riot has announced its plans to slightly walk back the changes.

Riot announced on April 18, 2025 that it would be renaming one of Gragas’ abilities. League of Legends’ Gragas is one of the oldest characters on the roster, with the champion first released on February 2, 2010, just a few months after the game came out.

What makes him unique in a way is how his entire kit essentially revolves around him drinking and being intoxicated. 

Take a look at “Drunken Rage”,  which not only allows him to reduce damage after drinking his brew but also increases his damage in his next attack. That said, after all these years, Riot was set to change the ability name, and a few other essential details. Now, however, things have changed somewhat.

Gragas is now a lot more “discreet” with his brews

The initial announcement was shared by League Studio head Andrei van Roon on April 18, 2025. Though there were no tweaks to his actual abilities and how they function, various bits of text were set to be changed.

In an X post, van Roon explained: “For anyone wondering – We’ve made some updates to Gragas’ ability names to remove ‘(Drunken)’ in order to stay compliant with age ratings across various regions.

“Feel free to pour one out for him if desired,” he added. Following this, he also assured fans that Gragas still enjoys his brews. Only this time, he’s being “very slightly more discreet about it.”

Five days later, van Roon followed up with further details, clarifying that the ability name itself doesn’t need changing to comply with regulations. In fact, Riot is able to “go lighter on the adjustments overall,” he confirmed.

“We do need to update the ability description (remove ‘drunkenly empowered’ and adjust ‘guzzles down brew’). We also need to tweak his in-client bio slightly.

“We don’t need to change the ability name though, or his bio on Universe, so we’ll be sticking with “Drunken Rage” and his overall bio.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time that a champion has been modified or toned down to comply with age ratings. Graves is also a character that had received a similar change in the past, essentially having his cigar removed.

Nonetheless, a lot of fans haven’t been thrilled by news of the changes to Gragas.

One user argued that this change is “awful,” considering his whole identity is “literally centered around drinking.”

“His passive is called HAPPY HOUR, and his lore is about searching for the perfect brew..? Pretending otherwise doesn’t make the game any more PG, especially when way more mature stuff exists rn.”

Meanwhile, a different user said: “Whyyyyyy change it? I don’t think children should be playing league anyway. Big sad.”