Summary
- Grand Reckoning Alistar has been removed from League of Legends’ Public Beta Environment.
- Riot has been under fire for aggressive monetisation practices and a reduction in the quality of League’s cosmetics.
- Riot has since begun to roll back unpopular changes.
League of Legends is amidst a public relations disaster following the introduction of controversial monetisation changes, such as the removal of the Hextech Chest system, whereby players could randomly roll free skins if they achieved an S rank on a unique champion. There has also been community criticism of several upcoming skins, deemed to be below the quality that players have come to expect from Riot, namely Sahn-Uzal Mordekaiser and Grand Reckoning Alistar.
Following overwhelmingly negative community feedback, Riot has since agreed to roll back several of these changes. A video released yesterday committed to giving players a set amount of free Hextech Chests per Act, lowering the cost of champions by 50 per cent and improving the quality of future exalted-tier skins (which can cost up to $250). These changes were met positively by the community, but there’s still an understandable level of distrust and anger regarding the increasing monetisation of League of Legends after 14 years.
Grand Reckoning Alistar’s Grand Removal
In a near-unprecedented move, Riot has actually deleted an upcoming skin from League’s Public Beta Environment (PBE). This is an experimental version of League of Legends where Riot tests balance changes and new cosmetics. Grand Reckoning Alistar is essentially a recolour of his base skin being sold for a premium price. The community has pointed out that Riot hasn’t even changed the shape of Alistar’s horns in the new skin.
A Reddit thread from DarthFurby summarises the community’s feelings about the skin, which is below the quality the community has come to expect from Riot’s artists. The company laid off 11 per cent of its workforce in early 2024, including some of the art team. The community has been very critical of the direction Riot has been heading under chief executive officer Dylan Jadeja, who took over from Nicolo Laurent in mid-2023. The introduction of extremely expensive “gacha” skins under Jadeja has coincided with a drop in the overall quality of skins, along with the aforementioned unpopular changes to League’s monetisation.
This is the first time that Riot has outright deleted skin from the public beta environment since Sewn Chaos Blitzcrank and Amumu in 2017. These two skins were deemed to be below the quality required to ship in League of Legends and were subsequently never released despite being essentially finished. Ironically, players are commenting that these two discontinued skins from eight years ago are actually of a higher quality than Grand Reckoning Alistar, which may now suffer the same fate.
- Released
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October 27, 2009
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco