Summary
- A new update to League of Legends has made unlocking champions as a free-to-play player a lot harder.
- According to content creators and players, it can take over 800 hours to unlock a new character after exhausting a Battle Pass.
- The grind aspect of LoL stands in stark contrast to Marvel Rivals’ free updates, as well as Dota 2’s decision to make its characters free.
Since its initial release in 2009, there’s no denying just how popular League of Legends is. Factor in the game’s presence on Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service, plus the immense success of the Arcane animated series, and the series has arguably never been more popular.
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Now the animated show is over, you’re probably thinking about the game that inspired it.
However, if you’re planning on jumping into the game, you may want to reconsider your decision. Specifically, if you plan on doing so as a free-to-play player. That’s because a recent update has players calculating hundreds of hours of playtime to unlock new champions (characters).
That’s Almost 37 Days Worth Of Time
As first shared by a League of Legends content creator on YouTube and subsequently discussed on Reddit, it apparently takes 882 hours to unlock a new champion as a free-to-play gamer.
Via a new Battle Pass system introduced in the 2025 update, over the course of a calendar year, players can earn 24 champion crystals and 28,500 Blue Essence a year. Champions can range in Blue Essence cost, though more popular additions can run up to 6,300. Assuming a player exhausts all of their options, they can earn 50 Blue Essence per every level past 50 on a single pass, leading to a calculation of nearly 900 hours of in-game playtime to get a new character.
It’s a lot of math to ultimately determine that the game is seemingly inaccessible to new players or those looking not to spend money. That said, Andrei van Roon, the head of League Studio, shared on Twitter that “unlocking new champions via blue essence wasn’t meant to get harder,” before confirming that things are being looked into.
“This game’s largest issue is that it isn’t accessible to new players at all,” one user wrote in part on Reddit. “And these clowns are just making the problem worse every single patch they release.”
Elsewhere, other users cited the need for champions to become free for everyone, similar to what Dota 2 did, and how Marvel Rivals is currently handling things. It’s unclear how exactly, if at all, things will be reworked, though what is clear is that fans are hoping for some sweeping changes soon.
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