The League of Legends Boards and Forums has played an integral role in League of Legends and its community since the very beginning. It is a treasure trove of invaluable information regarding the game, and the closest thing League of Legends has to a legacy. This petition hopes to appeal against Riot Games’ plan to permanently remove the boards and forums. Rather than make this legacy permanently inaccessible forever, Riot Games should find an alternative solution to make it accessible in some way or another e.g. put the boards and forums on read-only mode, as has been done before, which would benefit current and future generations of players, or make a database dump available.

There are several functions of the Boards and Forums which cannot be replaced by alternatives.

1) Technical help
The forums and boards contain information to solve issues e.g. installation and client issues which is not found anywhere else. Even though some information may be outdated, other technical information is still very much relevant today.

2) History
The discussion forums contain exclusive information regarding lore, character development, fanart and design which showcases the growth of the LoL community over the years and will continue to inspire future such works

3) Memories. The forums and boards discussion contains over 10 years worth of information, from the very first seasons (including beta), the first generation of players to the World Championships over the years. Without the forums and boards, there would be nothing to remember by these moments, especially for the older generation of players who have spent hours on the game and on the forums and community. Newer generations of players will not be able to relate to the experiences of older players without them. 

4) Finding teammates. The Boards are still very much used to organize teams, find friends and teammates. Other platforms such as Discord and Reddit are not designed for this and not organized enough. Furthermore, the Boards, which are organized into various regions, greatly facilitate this.

5) Diversity and caring for the community. The Boards appeal to a different audience compared to other platforms, and the greater the variety of channels of expression, the better. The Boards also offer an alternative for voices to be heard that are often not heard on other platforms.

6) Other games e.g. World of Warcraft, Hearthstone have their own forums with threads going back several years of history, and it is important that League of Legends maintain this as well.

7) Uniqueness of the Boards. The Boards come with their  and own unique sections (e.g. Player Behaviour, Story Art and Sound, Dev Corner), their own unique emoticons, with topics of discussion and a function and experience that cannot be adequately replicated in alternative platform.

The Boards and forums are over 10 years in the making, and the content and effort by the community at large was entrusted. They are the closest thing League of Legends, and Riot Games has to an important library or museum, and a legacy.  of various important collections that capture and tell the story of a generation, for other generations. The reasons given to justify their closure (e.g. not as popular as of this point in time) is very superficial and short-sighted.

As another case in point, there is a reason why World of Warcraft Classic is doing so well now, and people are looking for old forum threads online and reconnecting with old friends today. What was not popular then, has become popular (and profitable) now. And that is because of the legacy that was left behind, which people are now trying to recreate in hindsight.

Should Riot go ahead with the Boards and forums closure, it would be a great loss and to the immense detriment of the League community, both now and in the future.

What is the value of a legacy? No one can put a fixed number on it. But as shown by other examples, it benefits past, current and future generations in tangible and intangible ways, and may very well be priceless. It would be an overwhelming loss if they are no longer accessible. Please sign this petition to tell Riot Games to keep the Boards and original forums accessible.