The new mastery system does make it prove that you have skill. It's only half bad considering you still have to rely on random numbers to poop out a good shard, but still requiring that you perform well with said champ repeatedly is a good idea imo
I agree that it rewards you for consistently playing a champion efficiently. It would be nice if you could use either essence to upgrade tokens though. Making it only blue essence is a drawback and it's one that should be reconsidered. However it being a part of the crafting system is not an issue.
