diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 35412744d..5e8322f73 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 
     <groupId>com.github.steveice10</groupId>
     <artifactId>mcprotocollib</artifactId>
-    <version>1.20.2-1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>1.20.2-1</version>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
     <name>MCProtocolLib</name>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/github/steveice10/mc/protocol/data/status/ServerStatusInfo.java b/src/main/java/com/github/steveice10/mc/protocol/data/status/ServerStatusInfo.java
index 5ded28bfd..17efd43a1 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/github/steveice10/mc/protocol/data/status/ServerStatusInfo.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/github/steveice10/mc/protocol/data/status/ServerStatusInfo.java
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 import lombok.NonNull;
 import lombok.Setter;
 import net.kyori.adventure.text.Component;
-import org.jetbrains.annotations.Nullable;
 
 @Data
 @Setter(AccessLevel.NONE)
@@ -16,5 +15,5 @@ public class ServerStatusInfo {
     private @NonNull PlayerInfo playerInfo;
     private @NonNull Component description;
     private byte[] iconPng;
-    private @Nullable Boolean enforcesSecureChat;
+    private boolean enforcesSecureChat;
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/github/steveice10/mc/protocol/packet/status/clientbound/ClientboundStatusResponsePacket.java b/src/main/java/com/github/steveice10/mc/protocol/packet/status/clientbound/ClientboundStatusResponsePacket.java
index 70fced4a0..6a501ecf1 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/github/steveice10/mc/protocol/packet/status/clientbound/ClientboundStatusResponsePacket.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/github/steveice10/mc/protocol/packet/status/clientbound/ClientboundStatusResponsePacket.java
@@ -28,6 +28,10 @@
 @With
 @AllArgsConstructor
 public class ClientboundStatusResponsePacket implements MinecraftPacket {
+
+    // vanilla behavior falls back to false if the field was not sent
+    private static final boolean ENFORCES_SECURE_CHAT_DEFAULT = false;
+
     private final @NonNull ServerStatusInfo info;
 
     public ClientboundStatusResponsePacket(ByteBuf in, MinecraftCodecHelper helper) throws IOException {
@@ -54,7 +58,7 @@ public ClientboundStatusResponsePacket(ByteBuf in, MinecraftCodecHelper helper)
             icon = this.stringToIcon(obj.get("favicon").getAsString());
         }
 
-        Boolean enforcesSecureChat = null;
+        boolean enforcesSecureChat = ENFORCES_SECURE_CHAT_DEFAULT;
         if (obj.has("enforcesSecureChat")) {
             enforcesSecureChat = obj.get("enforcesSecureChat").getAsBoolean();
         }
@@ -88,9 +92,7 @@ public void serialize(ByteBuf out, MinecraftCodecHelper helper) throws IOExcepti
         if (this.info.getIconPng() != null) {
             obj.addProperty("favicon", this.iconToString(this.info.getIconPng()));
         }
-        if (this.info.getEnforcesSecureChat() != null) {
-            obj.addProperty("enforcesSecureChat", this.info.getEnforcesSecureChat());
-        }
+        obj.addProperty("enforcesSecureChat", this.info.isEnforcesSecureChat());
 
         helper.writeString(out, obj.toString());
     }