Riot Games recently posted a dev update that tackled several issues in League of Legends (LoL), but most importantly, it mainly talked about Hextech Chests. This dev update essentially concluded the latest chapter in the Riot Games Missing the Mark: Loot Box saga.
In case you’re new here, or just want a recap of the whole story, we’re going to take a look at what caused the fan outrage and all this talk surrounding Hextech Chests over the past few months in the LoL community.
1. Hextech Chests
First, we need to look back at what Hextech Chests are and why they are so important to the community. Hextech Crafting was first introduced back in 2016, a system which allows players to earn, craft and ‘disenchant’ in order to be rewarded with various cosmetic items such as Summoner icons, Ward skins, and most importantly Champion skins.
One of the primary method in which players are able to engage with this system is with Hextech Chests, which players can earn through normal gameplay. Hextech Chests are LoL’s rendition of the lootbox mechanic. It was introduced during the same year that Overwatch’s lootboxes were released, a time commonly dubbed by players as the “lootbox era”.
There were various tweaks and adjustment to how Hextech Chests could be earned throughout its lifetime, but typically players were able to earn Hextech Chests through regular play. Players are also able to buy Hextech Chests using the in-game premium currency, Riot Points; however, due to the random or ‘gacha’ mechanic behind Hextech Chests, some players may be incentivised to buy the cosmetic items they want outright instead of gambling their hard-earned cash on Hextech Chests.
Regardless, the system was overall well-received, as it rewarded players’ loyalty to the game with in-game cosmetics, and provided them with a sense of achievement.
2. The Death of Hextech Chests
At the start of 2025, Riot Games implemented a different approach to each season of LoL. Now, each year is split into 3 thematic seasons, with each season further split into 2 acts. Each act will have its own Battle Pass system called a Seasonal Pass, split between a paid pass and a free pass. The first season of 2025 was themed after Noxus, exploring the events after the ending of Arcane.
The new battle pass system also shifts all player rewards into this system. This is a big shift from how players usually obtain rewards, as in the past, players were rewarded once they leveled up their account, as well as for their in-game performance.
As players explored the new system, they soon found out something was awry: the Hextech Chests were nowhere to be found!
As the news about the removal of Hextech Chests spread among the playerbase, so did the outcry. The players soon demanded an explanation for the quiet removal of Hextech Chests and for them to be returned. Many fans threatened to uninstall the game in protest over the Chests’ removal.
The popular sentiment was that the rewards given in the free battlepass are not a good replacement for Hextech Chests, and are clearly a downgrade, stating that this is an example of the ‘enshittification’ of LoL.
3. Hextech Memes
As the outrage grew, the community expressed their demands in the only way they knew how – memes.
Memes started to flood all things League-related, bringing attention to the removal of the Chests, as well as a demand for the return of Chests. Custom skins, arts, edits, and many Chest-related memes were created. Comments about Chests flooded every single official LoL video. It was unavoidable, and it was all everyone could hear and talk about.
Even popular LoL content creators started talking about the whole situation, in large part agreeing with the community that the removal of Chests was bad for the playerbase.
4. Riot Games’ Response
Finally, Riot Games decided to respond to the community’s outcry with a dev update. Sadly, they essentially decided to double down on the removal of Hextech Chests –
Over time, though, free chests unintentionally became the primary way to unlock skins and an increasing number of players ended up with substantial skin collections for free.
This meant that purchasing skins directly didn’t make sense anymore to a lot of players, because they were happy just waiting to get something eventually. That did lead to a great player experience, but it was not sustainable for League in the long term.
Fans had none of it, taking their justification that it was “not sustainable” as false when the system had been in place for close to 10 years, more than half the lifetime of LoL’s entire existence. After all, if it was that unsustainable, then it would have been removed a year or two into implementation, not after nearly a decade.
Aside from that, the community also pointed towards LoL’s revenue reports, showing that the company had earned about $1.7 billion per year for the past three years, and claiming that it was a source of proof that the removal of Chests were more for greed and not for the benefit of the game.
5. Greed or Sustainability?
After Riot Games issued its first response about Chests, fans were not satisfied. If anything, they were more angered by the excuse of sustainability provided by Riot Games. The fans were now even more united than ever, and started to discuss how the removal of Chests was motivated by greed, claiming that the ‘sustainability’ excuse was just corporate speech to squeeze the fans for more.
The playerbase began pointing fingers at various examples that seemed to showcase Riot Games’ increasing greed, such as new skins that were locked behind a ‘gacha’ mechanic. For example, Dark Cosmic Erasure Jhin, introduced in 2023, requires close to $200 in order for fans to guarantee getting it.
Since the release of Dark Cosmic Erasure Jhin, there have been several others like it. One of the most recent examples has been the introduction of a new skin tier, Exalted, which was marketed as a new, high-quality cosmetic by the devs. To quote: ‘Exalted skins are what happen when we let our teams cook, pushing our design and tech capabilities to make the best possible skin for each champion’s unique fantasy within a specific theme.’
One of the first Exalted skins to release, Arcane Fractured Jinx, also required over $200 for fans to guarantee getting it. Players were not only angered by the fact that a lore-related skin would be locked behind a gacha mechanic, but were also not pleased by the quality of the skin compared to its price and the way it was initially marketed. Fans brought up the previously highest tiered skin class, Ultimate, which only cost about $20-$30, a fraction of what an Exalted skin would cost.
Ultimate skins are skins that push the boundaries of what were thought to be the limits in LoL. The first of these was Pulsefire Ezreal, who changes forms as the game progresses, an extremely unique mechanic at the time of release. The fan-favourite among these Ultimate skins is definitely Elementalist Lux, which features not 1, 2 or 3 forms, but a whopping 10 forms, with each form providing unique effects ingame.
The players were reasonably not satisfied with this new monetisation model that provides skins that are only equivalent to a Ultimate skin at best, for multiple times the cost of getting one.
6. The Breaking Point
The memes marched on and reached new heights with the teaser and reveal of a new Exalted skin: Sahn-Uzal Mordekaiser.
For some context, Mordekaiser is one of LoL’s oldest and most iconic champions, and although he has been redesigned a number of times, he has always been known as the game’s resident BAMF in big armour. In 2019, his in-universe lore was updated to reveal that he was once a human warlord named Sahn-Uzal, who continued his war-mongering ways even in death by building an army in the afterlife.
Fans, especially those that became interested in the LoL lore due to the success of projects like Arcane, have always been curious to know what Sahn-Uzal looked like. However, the release of the Sahn-Uzal Mordekaiser skin fell completely flat as it turned out the BAMF in big armour… would not be in any armour for 90% of the game. Not only did it disappoint most casual players, but even lore fans were let down as it was also yet again trapped behind the now wildly unpopular gacha monetisation method.
The playerbase became even more convinced that there was no stopping Riot Games’ greed. With compounding factors like the percieved bad quality of the skins, the introduction of an exploitative monetisation model, the removal of player rewards, and a devastating layoff from late 2024 that removed many of the artists who contributed to some of Riot’s best skins, the fandom felt like it had finally hit its breaking point.
At around the same time, an LoL leak account on X claimed that Honor capsules and orbs would also be removed. These are rewards given to players for being ‘Honorable’ in game, with players being able to accumulate and level up their Honor when ‘Honored’ by their opponents or allies. This sparked another uproar where players felt like all forms of free rewards are being removed, with now what little incentive to be well-behaving players in-game being removed as well.
The escalation of the finger-pointing ultimately targeted the newly appointed CEO of Riot Games, Dylan Jadeja, who was previously Riot’s CFO and COO. The timing of some of these ‘greedy business practices’ seemed to coincide around the same time as when the new CEO officially took charge. This convinced the playerbase that the new CEO was to be blamed for all of the recent negative changes to League.
7. The Return of the Kings
Just as all hope seemed lost, Riot Games released another dev update – one of the first times a dev update was released so close to another one. This new dev update addressed the one thing on all League players’ minds, the Hextech Chests.
Thankfully, the dev update was good news for all, as the developers admitted the company had ‘missed the mark’ multiple times throughout the video, and aimed to bring back the Hextech Chests through the free battlepasses, as well as reducing the cost to unlock a Champion using in-game currency to improve new players’ experience.
They (Hextech Chests) were an important part of making your time in League feel rewarding. We didn’t fully grasp how much this mattered to you, and that led us to make changes that missed the mark. As a result, Chests are coming back.
Not only that, but they are now aiming to delay the release of Sahn-Uzal Mordekaiser after the very loud outcry for its lack of quality.
It is very rare for a company as big as Riot Games to listen to their community. It is also even more rare for the entire community to band together and be united to make our voices heard by the large company. Through a relentless force of will, preserverence, and a whole lot of memes, the LoL community somehow got Riot Games to fulfill some of its demands.
Credit where credit is due, Riot Games did listen in the end, and that should be praised. Hopefully, they will strive to bring the game’s quality back, and treat the playerbase better in the future.
We’ve always built League along with you all, the community. So thank you for sticking with us and hearing us out. We look forward to continuing to work with you to make sure League is the best game it can be. So once again, thank you so much and we’ll see you on the Rift. Thank you all.
Comments 1