Shan Hai Scrolls Jhin bug: How Riot fixed the invisible abilities issue
The Discovery of the Game-Breaking Bug
League of Legends players encountered an unprecedented issue with the newly released Shan Hai Scrolls Jhin skin in early 2021. The premium cosmetic, introduced in Patch 11.2 as part of the Lunar Beasts event, contained a critical visual bug that rendered Jhin’s Deadly Flourish (W) ability completely invisible during matches.
Testers on the Public Beta Environment (PBE) first reported the invisibility glitch, but the problematic skin still made its way to live servers. This oversight forced Riot Games to take emergency action, temporarily removing the 1350 RP skin from availability while engineers worked on a solution.
The timing couldn’t have been worse – Jhin stood as the centerpiece of the 2021 Lunar Beasts celebration, with his Shan Hai Scrolls skin offering a visually striking alternative to his existing Blood Moon variant. While aesthetically impressive, the skin’s technical issues created significant gameplay imbalances.
Riot’s Response and Temporary Solution
Riot’s development team moved swiftly once the severity of the bug became apparent. Within days of the skin’s live release, they made the difficult decision to disable Shan Hai Scrolls Jhin entirely. This marked one of the fastest disablements in recent League of Legends history for a cosmetic item.
“We’ve disabled the skin and it will remain unavailable until we implement a fix, likely by Monday,” announced Jonathan ‘Bellissimoh’ Belliss on January 30. The developer also confirmed Riot would conduct a full retrospective analysis to understand how the issue bypassed their quality control measures.
The community response was mixed – while players appreciated the quick action, many questioned how such a disruptive bug could escape detection during PBE testing. This incident highlighted the challenges of balancing rapid content updates with thorough quality assurance in a live service game.
Technical Analysis of the Bug
The invisibility bug created severe competitive imbalances in matches. Jhin’s Deadly Flourish (W) serves as his primary crowd control tool, with its long range and root effect being crucial for setting up kills. When invisible, opponents had no visual cues to dodge the ability, essentially turning it into an unavoidable skillshot.
Technical analysis suggests the issue stemmed from incorrect particle effect rendering in the skin’s visual assets. Unlike typical ability visibility bugs that might make effects slightly harder to see, this case completely removed all visual indicators – including the targeting line, projectile, and impact effects.
🔥Join Neeko to defend the world from the Evil Creator Jhin & his army of monsters! pic.twitter.com/UZ2C3BsAwF
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) January 28, 2021
The Fix and Lessons Learned
Riot deployed the permanent solution in Patch 11.3, just weeks after the initial issue emerged. Katey ‘KateyKhaos’ Anthony confirmed the fix via Twitter, allowing players to finally enjoy the skin as intended. The update properly restored all visual elements of Jhin’s abilities while maintaining the skin’s distinctive artistic style.
Beyond the technical fix, Riot initiated comprehensive reviews of their skin development pipeline. The incident served as a wake-up call for improving communication between art, design, and quality assurance teams. New safeguards were implemented to catch similar issues earlier in the development cycle, particularly for ability effects that could impact gameplay fairness.
Shan Hai Scrolls Jhin will be re-enabled with patch 11.3. Thanks for your patience! pic.twitter.com/rc98VwT9jf
— Katey (@themermaidxo) February 2, 2021
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