League of Legends developers provide update on champion pricing changes in season 13 and beyond

On February 16, 2023, the developers of League of Legends provided major updates on several additions to the game, including brand new champions, quality-of-life changes, and incoming skins from Wild Rift to the MOBA game's PC version. Alongside these, they also provided an update on the pricing for champions in season 13 and beyond.

This is something that the developers briefly addressed in season 13 back in January 2023. However, they have now provided full details on the same, with the ideas discussed being explained in this article.

The entire point of adjusting champion prices is to make the game more inclusive for newer players. The developers feel that easy champions shouldn't have abnormally high pricing, which forces inexperienced players to play harder options and ultimately affects the overall experience for everyone in the summoner's rift.

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Full details regarding the champion pricing changes in League of Legends

The decision to rework champion pricing came into consideration in League of Legends on account of the older system being far too linear. In a relevant post, the developers stated:

"Our existing pricing model is a bit archaic. It's slow to update, only considers the age of the champion, and isn’t in line with how we feel players should be acquiring their roster these days. After all, League is about the champions, so we’re going to improve it!"

Based on this, the developers want to ensure that easy-to-play champions are accessible to newer players and that pricing should denote the difficulty level of the units. Hence, the brand new system for pricing will focus more on how many seasons it has been instead of how many units have been out since the release of a specific champion.

It seems that brand new units will continue to be priced at 7800 Blue Essence. However, after two seasons, their pricing will be adjusted based on trends amongst newer and returning players in League of Legends. In other words, if newcomers are loving the champion, then it'll be adjusted to a much lower price.

The same will be applicable for VGUs, CGUs, and midscope updates as well. Lastly, the developers have mentioned that if a champion ends up becoming more difficult to play after a rework, they may consider raising its price. Nevertheless, this is something that they would want to avoid at any cost.

Regardless, the League of Legends developers have provided a chart on how the pricing will vary for champions in the game. The chart is as follows:

Champion Pricing *(BE: Blue Essence, RP: Riot Points)	Reasoning
450 BE/260 RP	These are champions who are very easy to play and learn. For instance, Malphite, Miss Fortune, and Yuumi
1350 BE/585 RP	These are champions that are more difficult than the earlier tier. However, these champions have an approachable kit and can be learnt with sufficient practice by any new player. For instance, Yasuo and Lucian
3150 BE/790 RP	These are champions that are extremely difficult to master and have a very high skill ceiling. These champions will take not just practice, but understanding of the game in general to master. For instance LeBlanc, Katarina, and Yorick
4800 BE/880 RP	Most of the champions will fall under this category
6300 BE/975 RP	Pricing of the champions in the first two seasons after release
7800 BE/975 RP	Price of brand new champions on release

For many fans, the pricing looks fair and it seems that the developers are clearly taking newer players into consideration. There might be an argument that two seasons is a bit too much, as anyone who considers committing to the game for that long will most likely unlock most of the roster before the price changes.

At the same time, there's a counter argument that new champions will continue to be released in the two years that a player commits to the game. This means there will always be more champions to chase and master in the game.

In any case, these changes will be introduced to the game alongside League of Legends patch 13.5, which will be released somewhere around March 8, 2023.