As League of Legends players blast 800-hour grinds, Riot says this "wasn't meant to get harder" and "we messed up" on the whole First Blood thing too

gamesradar.com:

The latest League of Legends season hasn't got off to a fantastic start, as fans have spotted an enormous change made to the amount of time it takes to unlock new champions for free, and the lead gameplay designer is already admitting "we messed up" with Feats of Strength's 'First Blood' Feat, too.

When it comes to unlocking new League of Legends champions, if you don't want to splash the cash on League's premium currency, RP (which can be used to quickly unlock the game's now almost 170-character roster), you can also spend Blue Essence – usually earned from leveling up, opening Champion Capsules, and completing missions. While it takes time, it ensures that even free-to-play players can get their hands on all the champions eventually. However, with the start of League of Legends' latest season, it's been suggested that it could now take around 882 hours after completing the Battle Pass to unlock a single one this way.

As explained by content creator Remus on YouTube, from now on, once you hit level 30, you'll no longer receive a Champion Capsule every level up, and on top of that, your first win of the day will no longer grant the 50 Blue Essence it once did, instead giving out Battle Pass XP. Speaking of the Battle Pass, in the current eight-week season, only three Champion Capsules are included, alongside 4,750 Blue Essence in the first 50 milestones. 

After completing the whole thing, four out of the five repeatable milestones will grant 50 Blue Essence each, which really isn't much. Thankfully, you still won't have to spend a penny to earn any of it, but for reference, champions cost you 7,800 Blue Essence on the week of their release. After dropping to 6,300 for their first two seasons, their price varies, but Riot previously claimed the "majority" are 4,800 each. With that in mind, you'll probably be able to get one new champion with this Battle Pass, unless you grind those repeatable milestones endlessly, which is probably where the supposed 882-hour figure