There's A New Way To Personalize Champions In League Of Legends

League of Legends is rolling out something called “champion mastery” across the game’s many servers this week. It’s an experimental feature that sounds like it could scratch an itch that League players have felt for a long time: the desire to toy with their favorite characters in immediate, tangible ways.(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c&cid=872d12ce-453b-4870-845f-955919887e1b'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c" }).render("79703296e5134c75a2db6e1b64762017"); }); Champion mastery adds a fresh layer of gamified goodness on top of one’s League of Legends player profile. “You now get points, ranks, and rewards for the champs you play,” reads the description from League developer Riot. “Finish a game of League and you’ll earn points for your champion based on your team’s performance as well as your own contribution. Earn enough points and you’ll level up that champ’s mastery level, giving you rewards as you progress.” Simple enough. As you increase a champion’s mastery level, players will earn bigger and better crests that will rank their performance with that champion compared to others. The system is starting out with five snazzy-looking crests: …with the possibility of more to come later. Each champion also receives honorific titles based on the specific role in which they play—support characters go from being an “aide” or “protector” at low ranks to becoming a “defender” or guardian,” while a fighter can start from the bottom as a “scrapper” and ultimately rise to the level of a full-blown “destroyer.” The promise of the system—and the thing that makes it an exciting addition for League of Legends—is that it gives players more opportunities to assess their own performance and get a sense that they’re actually making progress in the n98 game over time. The way League has worked so far, the game doesn’t give its players much of anything in that regard besides the overall level they’re able to achieve in the fiercely competitive ranked mode. Since it takes a long time to reach a level where you can even compete in ranked games (let alone compete effectively), it’s hard to stay motivated if you find yourself chugging along with a preferred champion or two for months on end. A new character-specific leveling system is a good way to help players overcome such moments of discouragement. Crests, honorifics, and letter grades are still all fairly superficial outcomes, though. Riot isn’t as specific about how champion mastery rewards will work once the system is up and running. Here’s how they touch on the subject in their FAQ: What other kinds of rewards are planned for the future? We are going to see how people enjoy using the system and what they like about pp slot it before we finalize our future plans. We’d love feedback on this. Will skins ever be a reward? It’s not something we’re considering right now, but we are exploring other ideas for unique rewards we think you guys might like. Many League players were either hoping or expecting that Riot would add some sort ability that allows them to unlock special skins or other aesthetic variations for their favorite characters once champion mastery. The pricy “chroma packs” that change the color of champions’ clothing seemed like an easy option—especially considering that Blizzard’s competing MOBA Heroes of the Storm already makes those sorts of color variations free in its character-leveling system. That, and the fact that many League of Legends players were upset that Riot super slot had the audacity to charge five bucks a pop for something so seemingly simple in the first place. https://kotaku.com/league-of-legends-players-are-rebelling-against-overpri-1696860941 It’s telling that Riot has shied away from tying anything so tangible as champion skins or skin colors—i.e., things they could charge money for—to a system meant to give players a better sense of how they’re progressing in the game. It will be interesting to see if the champion mastery’s crests and letter grades are enough to command players’ attention until other types of “unique rewards” show up. Contact the author at [email protected]