Emojis in League of Legends: Every Way to Express Yourself in LoL

There are two kinds of emojis in League of Legends. Emotes are the animated icons you equip in the client and show above your champion by holding T in a match. Chat emojis are ordinary text characters you type with your system’s emoji picker (Win + . on Windows, Ctrl + Cmd + Space on Mac), though not every one displays in League’s chat font.

Emotes vs emojis in League of Legends: what’s the difference?

Emotes are items. You own them, equip them in a loadout and play them in-game, where they pop up above your champion’s health bar for everyone nearby to see. Chat emojis are just characters in a message. They cost nothing, live in the chat box and are only seen by people reading chat.

The confusion is understandable (people say “emoji” for both), but the two systems don’t touch. You can’t type an emote into chat, and a smiley you paste into chat won’t show above your champion. Which one do you actually want? If it’s to react on the map, you need emotes. If it’s to add a face to a message, the emoji picker does it.

Using emotes, the animated emojis in League of Legends

Emotes need two steps: equip them in the client, then trigger them in a match. Neither takes long.

Setting up your emote wheel. In the client, open Collection and then the Emotes tab. Drag the emotes you own into the slots: the wheel has a centre slot and eight around it, and there are separate reaction slots that fire on their own at moments like game start, first blood, an ace and victory. A new account starts with a handful of basic emotes, so the wheel is never fully empty.

Using emotes in a match. The default controls are simple:

1. Hold T (the default key) to open the emote wheel.
2. Move the mouse toward the emote you want.
3. Release T to play it.
4. Tap T without holding to play the emote in the centre slot.

You can rebind the key in Settings under Hotkeys if T clashes with something. The champion mastery badge has its own shortcut (Ctrl + 6 by default) and doesn’t use a wheel slot.

Why emotes sometimes stop working. Riot’s Emotes FAQ answers this one directly: emotes go on cooldown if you overuse them, or if taking damage interrupts one. Spam them and the next one simply won’t fire for a bit. Emotes also don’t work in custom games or in the Practice Tool. Test it in a normal game instead.

Look, the interruption rule (taking damage cancels the emote) is why your carefully timed emote sometimes vanishes the instant a minion hits you. Long story short: emote after the fight, not during it.

How to type emojis in League of Legends chat

Riot doesn’t build an emoji panel into the chat box, so you borrow the one from your operating system. Click into the chat box first, then:

The catch is display. Your message is sent fine, but whether the emoji shows up depends on the font League uses in that chat, and characters the font doesn’t support appear as empty boxes on everyone’s screen. Simple yellow faces are the safest bet; newer emojis, flags and skin-tone variants are the ones most likely to break. Want to be sure? Send it to a friend in the client before using it in a match.

Old-school text emoticons are the bulletproof option. A 🙂 or <3 or a ^^ is just letters and symbols, so it shows correctly everywhere.

How to get more emotes

New emotes come from four places, and only some cost money. According to Riot’s Emotes FAQ, every emote sold for RP in the store can also drop from loot (including mystery emote shards), while earned emotes like event rewards and champion mastery ones never appear in loot. Here’s the short version:

• The store, for RP, including paid event emotes.
• Hextech loot drops and mystery emote shards, which can give any store emote.
• Event passes and missions, which hand out emotes you can’t get any other way once the event ends.
• Promotions such as esports viewing rewards and Twitch Drops, which Riot announces on its news page when they run.

One thing you can’t do: gift an emote. Riot’s FAQ says gifting isn’t available “right now.” If you want a specific event emote that’s gone, there’s no official way to get it later.

How to mute emotes, pings and chat in League of Legends

Riot’s support pages list several ways to mute:

• Mute all enemy emotes at once in the in-game settings menu.
• Open the scoreboard (Tab) and use the three icons to the right of a player’s items to mute their emotes, their pings, or everything.
• Type /mute followed by the player’s name to mute their emotes, pings and chat for the rest of the match.
• Hover over a player’s name in champion select to mute them before the game even starts.
• Use /ignore with their name to keep them muted in future games too.

Muting an emote also mutes that player’s champion mastery badge. Put simply, if someone flashes their mastery after every kill, the scoreboard mute fixes it in one click. The mute only lasts for that match, so a repeat offender needs /ignore if you keep meeting them in queue.

The classic expressions: laugh, taunt, joke and dance

Before emotes existed, League already had four built-in expressions, and they still work. Every champion has a laugh, a taunt, a joke and a dance, each with its own animation and voice line. They’re free and need no setup.

Many skins change these animations, and some legendary and ultimate skins add whole new routines. So does a dance mean the same as an emote? Not quite: it plays on your champion, not as an icon, and an attack or movement order cancels it.

Emote etiquette and the honor system

Emotes are communication, and Riot treats communication the same everywhere. A thumbs-up after a good gank is fine. Spamming a crying emote on a player who just died twice in lane is the kind of thing that gets reported. Can you be penalised for emotes alone? To be fair, Riot hasn’t published an emote-specific rule, but its reporting system covers in-game behaviour broadly, so repeated taunting can land you in trouble the same way chat can. Our guide to the League of Legends honor system explains how positive play is rewarded instead.

If you’re setting up a fresh account and wondering what to equip first, start with the free emotes you already have and a mastery badge for your main; the rest can wait for loot. For more on getting a new account game-ready, see our page on League of Legends accounts, or check this week’s free champion rotation to find a main worth earning mastery on. Either way, emotes and emojis in League of Legends are meant to make a match more fun, so keep them friendly.

FAQ

How do you use emotes in League of Legends?

Equip emotes in the client under Collection, Emotes. In a match, hold T, move the mouse to an emote and release, or tap T to play the centre emote.

How do you type emojis in League of Legends chat?

Click into the chat box and open your system emoji picker: Win + . on Windows or Ctrl + Cmd + Space on Mac. Some emojis may show as empty boxes if League’s chat font does not support them.

Why are my emotes not working?

Emotes go on cooldown if you overuse them or if taking damage interrupts one. They also do not work in custom games or the Practice Tool.

Can you gift emotes in League of Legends?

No. Riot’s Emotes FAQ says emote gifting is not available.

How do you mute emotes from other players?

Mute all enemy emotes in the in-game settings, or open the scoreboard and mute a single player’s emotes with the icons next to their items. Typing /mute and the player’s name mutes their emotes, pings and chat.

Can emotes drop from Hextech loot?

Yes. Any emote sold for RP in the store can drop from loot or mystery emote shards. Earned emotes such as event rewards and champion mastery emotes cannot.