League of Legends fans baffled as Riot lays off more devs - including the $500 Ahri skin designer - only to unveil a gacha-fuelled $250 Arcane skin 24 hours later

gamesradar.com:

Earlier this week, League of Legends developer Riot Games announced a wave of layoffs, notably impacting skin designers including the person behind the controversial near-$500 Ahri, and it's now confirmed that the studio is introducing a whole new gacha system to sell even more expensive skins. 

Although the number of affected developers wasn't initially confirmed, Riot later revealed in a statement to Eurogamer that 27 people on the League of Legends team have been affected, as well as five people in publishing roles. As previously mentioned, these include Ben Rosado, who designed the Ahri skin that was part of the Signature Immortalized Legend Collection bundle to celebrate four-time world champion player, Faker. This bundle set purchasers back a whopping $450 in RP (in-game currency), and while the exact number of sales isn't known, despite the fact that some planned to boycott the character, plenty ended up buying it.

Hey everyone! I'm sad to say this but I have been impacted by the recent Riot layoff. I have given my all to Riot and I met so many amazing people there. These were some of the best years of life but now its back to the job board. Check out my recent works! pic.twitter.com/R4MP8VOVxfOctober 15, 2024

Rosado isn't the only skin designer affected, as Tereza 'Teya' Rozumkova, a character artist behind 23 different skins including Star Guardian Akali and Mythmaker Irelia, was also impacted after four and a half years at the studio. It's a shocking loss of talent, and even more surprising when you consider Riot's claims that the layoffs weren't about saving money, but "making sure we have the right expertise so that League continues to be great for another 15 years and beyond." 

Just to make matters worse, the reveal of this new gacha system came just one day after the layoffs were announced.

I've just been laid off after 4.5 years of being a Character Artist at Riot Games. During my time on LoL, I made 23 skins and outsource managed over 40 skins. I