League of Legends champion prices finally get the overhaul we needed

pcgamesn.com:

The League of Legends champion prices have remained a divisive for some time, with some beginner-friendly champions priced far beyond new players’ reach. Thankfully, coming into 2023 Riot has adjusted the price of the MOBA‘s characters to better fit the player ecosystem.

It’s safe to say that League of Legends can be a very, very expensive game. From dazzling skins to adorable cosmetics; there’s a lot of different ways to empty your wallet. Ironically, though, buying champions isn’t really one of them.

You can pick up characters using the in-game Blue Essence, and get them even cheaper if you combine said sparkly blue crystals with the champion shards that drop semi-frequently. I personally have never dropped RP (Riot Points, the game’s premium currency) on a champion, but perhaps I’m among the minority.

Recently, though, players challenged Riot over its pricing system, claiming that supposedly beginner-friendly champions like Yuumi still cost a little too much. In response, Riot confirmed it was working on a solution, and it’s finally here – well, it’ll arrive with patch 13.5, so close enough.

Describing the current pricing model as “a bit archaic,” lead champion designer August ‘August’ Browning and senior design lead Jordan ‘BarackProbama’ Checkman state that “this new structure still uses the age of a champion, but is no longer directly tied to champion releases.”

Instead, it focuses on “how many seasons the champion has seen rather than how many champions have released since. We plan to keep the existing flow of new champions having an initially higher price point and being discounted after a week, with an additional discount after two seasons, where they’ll be placed in a tier based on the data we see with new and