League Of Legends Went Down Because Someone Forgot About An Expiring Security Certificate

In a world of advanced cyber-attacks, sophisticated network technology and more code than any one person can keep track of, there are a lot of things that can cause a multiplayer game to go temporarily offline. However, on rare occasions, these game-threatening problems are far simpler than one would think.

On January 4, everyone simultaneously lost the ability to log into League of Legends. This was during Riot Games’ annual holiday break, so, presumably, the live operations team wasn’t at full strength when this alert came in. A poor systems engineer on call during the final day of their holiday was probably bombarded with messages to solve an issue that rendered the entire game unplayable.

Could Have Happened To Anyone

In the end? It turns out Riot simply forgot that its Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate for League of Legends’ client was expiring on January 4, meaning nobody could access the client until the certificate had been renewed. There is a comedic element to the fact that a multi-billion-dollar company like Riot Games didn’t have an alarm or alert set up anywhere forewarning this event, but alas.

This exact scenario actually unfolded exactly ten years ago, when the last security certificate for the client expired unbeknownst to Riot. At the time, engineer Brent “Brentmeister” Randall wrote, “We’re aware of this and taking a look now! Appears our cert expired for the new year when it should have auto-renewed. Happy New Years Redditors!”

League of Legends content creator Vandiril revealed that the certificate had expired, and made a video explaining that you could still access the game if you changed the clock on your PC to “go back in time.”

Obviously, this causes a myriad of other issues with other programs. Still, if you were desperate to play a game of League of Legends with others who were already logged into the client at the time of the cert’s expiry, then it was a valid option.

Thankfully, the issue has now been resolved, and League of Legends is back up and running. Personally, I hope people are reading a similar news article about another expired certificate in 2036 after Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok’s sixteenth World Championship victory.

League of Legends

Systems

Released

October 27, 2009

ESRB

T for Teen: Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco

Engine

Proprietary