According to Riot Games, a "social engineering attack" that occurred last week resulted in the theft of source code for League of Legends (open in new tab), Teamfight Tactics (open in new tab), and the "Legacy Anti-Heat platform". and are currently being held for ransom.

Riot first reported the attack on January 20, stating that its systems had been compromised, but that "there is no indication that player data or personal information was obtained." The studio promised to keep followers informed of the situation as it continues its investigation.

And today it revealed that the source code was stolen and that the thieves sent the studio an email demanding an unspecified ransom. Riot said it would not pay, but warned that the release of the source code could lead to an increase in new cheats. Riot said, "Since the attack, we have been evaluating the impact on anti-cheat and, if necessary, have been prepared to deploy a fix as quickly as possible."

Perhaps hoping to manage expectations preemptively, Riot also warned that the leaked source also included many "experimental features" that may or may not be released at some point in the future: "We are working to ensure that these game modes and other changes, some of which we hope will eventually be made available to players, but most of this content is prototype and there is no guarantee that it will be released."

"Our security team and globally recognized outside consultants continue to assess the attack and audit the system," Riot tweeted.

"We have also notified law enforcement and are actively working with them as they investigate the attack and the group behind it.

"We are committed to transparency and will release a full report in the future detailing the attackers' techniques, areas where Riot's security controls failed, and the steps we are taking to ensure this does not happen again."

Riot stated on the official League of Legends Twitter account (opens in new tab) that a hotfix with some content planned for the 13.2 patch will be rolled out on January 26, but some material will be in the 13.3 patch scheduled for February 8. He said that it has been postponed; the Teamfight Tactics (opens in new tab) account basically said the same thing, and both said that everything will be fixed by the end of the week and that they will be able to "keep up the pace of regular patches."

A Riot representative declined to comment further, but reaffirmed that a full report on the incident would be released in due course.