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.
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 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.
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 had the audacity to charge five bucks a pop for something so seemingly simple in the first place.
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.