‘League of Legends' Expensive Faker Tribute Skin Wasn't Meant For Average Players

The ‘League of Legends’ community has experienced moments of great highs and terrible lows over the past few weeks, and boy, it’s not easy to keep up with the emotional tide. Just a few hours ago, we had the teaser for the second (and final) season of ‘Arcane’, which will not only bring the award-winning animated series to life, but will also be the next step for Riot Games in expanding its universe into other media. On the other hand, we have the case of the skin and pass commemorating Faker’s induction into Riot’s Hall of Legends, which caused controversy among fans due to its high price and even led to players boycotting the company.

Riot Games assures that it will not keep this type of cosmetics

During the Summer Game Fest, PC Gamer interviewed Pu Liu, Game Director of ‘League of Legends’, who spoke about this controversy, assuring that this type of content, although few, helps the game subsist and is focused on a percentage that is “willing to spend $200 a month on their hobbies.

“I think there are people who are very upset about [the Ahri skin],” Liu said. “And I also think it’s kind of justified because when you have a 14-year-old product that starts doing new things that are expensive, when [players] are used to everything living under a certain price point, all of a sudden, it can be kind of jarring.”

Liu comments that as a free-to-play game, “the vast majority of players spend $0,” meaning that much of the game’s revenue as such comes from “a small, single-digit percentage of players” who play, watch esports, and enjoy the content, music, and cinematics, “and they do this at zero dollars.”

Liu then comments that these types of packages are focused on other types of players, “there are players who are willing to spend $200 a month on their hobbies. [...] it’s really important that we capture that willingness and that ability to spend.”

At the end of the interview, Liu acknowledges that these transactions are not for everyone, and that if there were a change in spending habits, they would be the first to admit, “Oh God, what have we done?”

The Hall of Legends Pass and its Controversy

At the end of March, a pass was released to commemorate the arrival of Faker, aka The Demon King, as the first inductee into the League of Legends “Hall of Fame”. Along with the Hall of Legends Pass, a series of collections were also released that included a series of cosmetics ranging from $35 to $500, which caused a great deal of discontent among MOBA fans.

But hey, if that’s not enough to generate money for esports, we know Riot will always have a Lux skin up its sleeve.