Late last week, Riot Games released one of their periodic Developer Blogs, focused on the announcement that free Hextech Chests, and the cosmetics within, will not make a return, but it’s hard to take the LoL dev at face value. Here’s are my thoughts on why…
Hextech Chests are gone for good, but why?
Hextech Chests were essentially the end-all and be-all of free League of Legends cosmetic rewards for many years. Chests, and the Keys to open them, would be handed out for positive performances and playing a diverse pool of champions. When Season 15 began, they disappeared from the free rewards system altogether. The recent Riot Dev Blog has confirmed that Hextech Chests will not be returning in anything resembling their old form, but the reasons Riot gives just don’t end up feeling convincing – at least not to me.
The key reason for removing Hextech Chests, according to Riot, was that it was giving out too many free skins, and that needed to be rolled back in order to
Riot points to a lot of other systems, premium cosmetics in particular, as things it has tried, but doesn’t seem to comment on the efficacy of these trials. League fans have had the $500 USD Faker Hall of Legends skin, a $250 USD Jinx Arcane tie-in, a gutting of the Mythic Essence system, and a revamp to Prestige skins, plus the addition of the Exalted tier of skins. All this without mentioning Teamfight Tactics, the most popular strategy game on the planet, having a well-established Gacha cosmetics reward system. The past six months have been punctuated with a new expensive cosmetic offering or cosmetic system revamp every few weeks, but now fans are supposed to believe it didn’t work?
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok spent one hour streaming on TikTok to promote his Hall of Legends skin, and it reportedly raked in almost $5 million. I’ve seen the new premium-only TFT Arcane tie-in skins all over, and a fair number of the $250 Jinx skin. And, in the midst of this premium cosmetics push, Riot has been laying off the very artists who make the content..
Wonder if you should you play League of Legends?
Riot’s description of Hextech Chests doesn’t line up
Riot’s description of the experience of Hextech Chests also doesn’t link up with this 15-year LoL veteran’s hands-on experience with the cosmetic rewards system.
In 2024, I received 30 skins through the Hextech Chest rewards system. Out of 30 free skins, only 3 of them are for champions I regularly play: all of them regular or Legacy skins. The rest of the skins are for champions outside of my main role, or champions I don’t play.
Hextech Chests didn’t make me decide not to buy skins, it got me to pick up new champions because I had opened a fun skin, making me more likely to potentially purchase more cosmetics for that champion. I was never going to purchase the four Legendary skins I unlocked for free (lucky, I know), but I have played significantly more games of Veigar, Pyke, Rakan, and Zed than I otherwise would have. For the three skins for champions I do play, I already owned skins I prefer on those champions.
The rare occurrence of unlocking a skin for a champion you owned was far outweighed by receiving a skin for a character in a role you hardly touch. Having an appealing cosmetic for a new character, has, in my experience, led to more players trying new characters that they end up enjoying than players who have their chase cosmetic granted to them for free.
Riot’s move may well be the easiest, or quickest to complete, but it doesn’t feel like, even remotely, like the best solution. Rather than figure out how to get fans more likely to be excited and engaged by skins, they’re pulling the one source of free cosmetics from fans’ hands, hoping that absence makes the heart grow fonder. It’s a flawed plan, and one I think will ultimately backfire.
