The Blue Essence System NEEDS a hotfix, preferably before this game goes belly up

Given that this topic has been flooding the boards since the launch of the preseason, I truly do hope that the development team fixes their mistake with how utterly disgusting the new BE system is.

At first, the BE system didn't seem like a bad idea. We would be rewarded champion shards upon leveling up, which we could have rerolled in the past for random champion permanents. Even upon hitting level 31, when you receive that chest with five random shards, everything seems "ok". But then as you keep playing, you eventually reach level 32... a level that takes even longer to achieve, and are met with a SINGLE champion shard?!

Putting aside buying champions, let me point out that this means I would need to level up approximately THREE times (32,33,34) just to upgrade the mastery level for a champion... that's right, everyone right now is only really complaining about buying champions right now, but BE still is being used to upgrade champion mastery as well.

But to the more pressing matter, and the topic that most people are annoyed/concerned about, is the fact that the BE system has essentially been released as a trap that would theoretically force players to buy RP to then buy new champions. I've already seen a sizable number of urf ww and a handful of BE exclusive emotes and icons. I personally was even planning to buy a few of these various things to show off the fact that I have played this game for way, WAY too many hours.... and then I realized something... I wasn't earning any currency anymore.

With the new system, a new champion requires 7800 BE on release (assuming the price stays the same as before) which is the equivalent of 7-8 average levels. Now at the moment, it doesn't seem like the difference between rewards per games played is that big of a difference... but with levels getting exponentially harder, it means that players are now technically receiving less and less currency per game. This means that new players won't be able to afford the champions they want to play, and veterans will eventually run out of stockpiled BE and be 'forced' to buy champions with some other method... aka, RP.

And I will admit, theoretically speaking, this model could work. 'We have a large player base that enjoy our game, and they really enjoy new content and champions to play... so lets make it to where it is harder to unlock new characters, that way we can earn money.' Now in theory, players would keep playing, and would buy the champions... but this is theory, not reality. League has been one of the few free to play games that I have stuck with for more than a few weeks.... and I have been playing ALOT longer than a few weeks. I've even spent real money on this game simply to buy skins I thought looked cool. But now, you are incentivizing me to play less? Each day we receive one mission that grants a boost of xp, and because the xp given per game really isn't that high, there is already a large group of players not playing more than one game a day, simply because they don't feel like they are earning anything for playing. And this is where the theoretical model begins to fail. If players don't feel any incentive to play, then logically they quit playing. And with less people playing the game, less people buy the champions and the skins. And eventually, this game will die. Not from dwindling popularity or old age like most games... but simply from bad change.

Now unlike a lot of people who just come onto the boards to moan and gripe, I'll try to be at least a bit productive... but I won't lie, the main reason I'm here is to moan and gripe, but only because League is honestly one of my favorite games and I would hate to see it die over something stupid like a bad currency system.

The easiest way to remedy this situation is to give back the reward of currency for playing a game, win or loose. It doesn't even have to be as much as we were given with IP, since the leveling system is in place, levels could offset some of the balance issues in the early stages of the new system, while the rewarded BE per game could balance the later levels. Furthermore, a few random missions here and there that rewarded additional BE would be nice... like play a game in each of the five roles once per day? This could incentives players to also simply play roles they aren't comfortable with, and more importantly, play more than one game a day. Rather than double IP/BE weekends, giving the players double XP weekends would help us to level up and earn the 'great' rewards.

And if you REALLY wanted to incentives players to spend more money in the game, with the lowered BE drop per game, and bringing back the Essence Emporium on a regular basis (once or twice a year at max) players would have more incentive to buy BE boosts to cut down on the amount of games they have to play to buy the cool rewards... that could be priced higher, if it wasn't for the fact that the rewards all cost a currency that is now incredibly difficult to obtain. And before anyone argues, "Well you can still buy XP boosts." No one wants to buy those, in fact, the ability to buy level boosting items is typically the sign of a bad MMO. But in terms of this game specifically, even right now, XP boosts aren't worth the money. You are essentially paying real world money, to buy a boost, that barely rewards you with anything at all.

Which brings me to the next remedy I would like to recommend. Changing the level rewards. No one wants to play multiple games to be rewarded with a random champion shard for leveling up. It's just not a good design. Instead, give us rewards that actually make us want to level up. It can even be something as simple as a random champion shard and a blue essence orb for all of the average level up rewards. And maybe for every five or ten levels we get a big BE orb or some key fragments. And then for the major milestones, like level 30, 50, 75, 100, what ever, give us something REALLY cool. Like imagine a skin that is rewarded exclusively for reaching level 50... suddenly the incentive to level up is much higher, and so the incentive to buy XP boosts is also higher. THAT is how League should be 'trapping' its players into spending money. The way it has been since it came out, providing a fun free to play game, that offers micro transactions to players who want to show off their in game 'swag'.