Riot Patch 26.20 Ends Replay Access To Other Players' Matches
Riot answered a real security problem by cutting a study habit the ranked and pro scene built its improvement around, and it shipped the cut before Worlds with no replacement tool in place.
Reporting from 1 source: Automaton.
Riot Games released patch 26.20 for League of Legends on October 7, the last adjustment before Worlds. The patch applies champion buffs and nerfs and item adjustments, and it also restricts replay access so players can only open replays of matches they played themselves. Third-party apps and sites lose replay downloads. Riot cites security vulnerabilities and third-party abuse of game memory, and says data acquisition is now limited to the official API.
The restriction is a side effect of a security fix. Riot says third-party abuse of game memory is rising and that it is limiting data acquisition to the official API, and the replay change follows that line.
For players, the practical result is narrower than a patch note suggests. Replays already cannot be downloaded or played back across patches, and now the only matches a player can open are the ones they were in. Anyone who wanted to study a pro's skill usage, mechanical precision, or strategy has to wait for that player to record and publish the replay. Marcin Jankowski, the former pro known as Jankos, said analysts use replays to improve team play and argued the feature should not go without an alternative.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.