It’s been a whole month since the new season started and we’re already seeing some concerning changes in League of Legends. Has the hit game finally hit a new low or is this just a series of growing pains? Let’s talk about it.

No More Free Loot

At the start of the year, Riot announced that there would be a change to the reward system in League of Legends. At first, fans didn’t think much of it. This was mainly because the main announced change was to the battlepass. It was so that the battlepass could closely resemble ones from other games.

Unfortunately, the change in battlepass came at the cost of the free loot boxes also known as Hextech Chests. Starting last patch, players could no longer earn free chests the usual way. They removed the chests rewarded for completing weekly missions and leveling up your champion mastery. In other words, champion mastery and progression had no use other than stats.

Obviously, fans did not take kindly to this and have since been on a pseudo boycott of the game. In a form of protest, players have begun taking to the comment section of every single Riot Games post. Regardless of the topic, post, or video, players would simply place memes about Hextech Chests or statements regarding the Hextech Chests.

Even after a whole month of memes and obvious outrage, Riot still hasn’t shown any signs of rescinding their decision. There have been whispers among some branches of Riot that the return of the chests may be possible, there are still no conclusive statements given. It looks like the keys that players have will remain unused for now.

It Gets worse

Just when you think that Riot couldn’t sink lower, they’ve managed to screw over the rewards system even more. In a recent Dev update, they announced that Honor orbs and capsules will no longer be given upon leveling up and reaching thresholds in the Honor system. That’s right, they even took away the ability of players to get champion shards and free champions.

This is immediately after they changed the rate at which players can earn the free in-game currency. Players will no longer earn Blue Essence as much as they used to and will have to resort to buying the battle pass.

This is especially bad considering that Riot, for quite some time now, has been pumping out 250 USD skins that you can only get from a gacha system. As if that wasn’t already a greedy corporate move, they’ve now limited the free rewards in game. This is especially bad for players who just got into the game. Instead of grinding slowly and earning Blue Essence for free, they now have to buy champions at a much slower rate or pull out their wallets.

Why The Change?

The reason is plain and simple. Riot saw the success of the battle passes in games like Marvel Rivals and wanted to be more like that. The problem there is that the rewards for those battle passes are actually good. Not to mention, the battle pass in Marvel Rivals actually gives you a decent amount of free rewards.

League of Legends, on the other hand, gives players 300 Blue Essence and a crappy chroma they call a free skin. It’s an insult to the players who dedicate time into the game but don’t have the budget to spend. There was no reason to take out the free capsules and orbs from the player progression system. All it shows is that Riot is a company now that will monetize anything and everything. All for the sake of earning a bit more.

Needless to say, players are absolutely not happy with the decisions of the new CEO. League of Legends has several skins announced, including a 250 USD skin for Mordekaiser, and fans only care about the return of the chests. If the company keeps this up, it’s sad to say that League may be on its way out.

Wanna hear about other corporate game mishaps? Check out the Assassin’s Creed Shadows issue.

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