‘It is time to boycott’: LoL players furious as free chests and skins disappear

As League of Legends season 15 hit the live servers, players were flabbergasted. Riot Games sneakily took away the free Hextech chests and keys and put them in the store, taking away the chance to get free skins.

A League player took their grievances out on Reddit and said they have 77 Hextech chests in their inventory, and with no key or chest drops anymore, they won’t be able to open them to get free skin shards. They called it the “worst decision they [Riot] could have made in the entire history of League.”

Other players shared their opinions on the situation. One said, “I bought many skins and passes over the years, but now it is time to boycott. Since they only care about money, they remove a simple chest every now and then.” They added that Riot would only listen to the community’s woes if they voted with their wallets and did not spend anything on the game.

The Hextech chests and key changes are visible on Riot’s official support page, where the developer says you can now purchase them with RP. After buying them with RP, you can open your Hextech chests and use the skin shards to upgrade them to permanent skins using orange essence. Many players also reroll the skin shards to get their random high-tier skins, encouraging them to try out new champions to use the skin.

The change doesn’t sting much for the old players, who have already spent an unhealthy amount of RP to get the skins and build their share of free skins. But the changes make the game’s progression feel less rewarding, pushing players to earn rewards from seasonal battle passes instead. With Arcane’s growing popularity, new players would find it less rewarding to grind the game and unlock new champions without getting free cosmetics.

Being a free-to-play title, Riot needs to make money to sustain the game for the long term, which goes without saying. But from the overpriced Faker’s Hall to Fame cosmetic to the gacha mechanics involved in selling the Jinx’s Exalted skin. Even though Riot has responded to these queries by saying it is helping cover the cost of esports, the jury’s still out on how players feel about these changes.