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Mastering Champions ~ Just a thought

Serrow·8/20/2014, 7:12:37 AM·32 votes·7,368 views

So I was playing a little Smite earlier, and I saw something that I thought was really cool. If you've ever played Smite, you'll know that by playing a "god" a certain amount, you'll gain mastery levels on it, which translates into a cool skin you can buy, and the ability to advertise that you are very good with that particular god, and you have spent a large amount of time mastering them.

I feel like League should have a similar system. Like don't get me wrong, skins are cool, but imagine having a wicked cool skin for you MAIN champion? Or your top pool, having a special mastery skin to show off your mechanical proficiency with that particular champion.

I own all the champs, I have a large pool of them that I play inside of, and I've got a skin for literally every one of them. I will toss on a skin from time to time, but where is the fun in having a skin that anyone can pick up when they buy the champion.

Also, when you are loading into game, it gives you a particular boarder listing your mastery level with that "god", your kills/assists, and wins with them.

I just think it's the COOLEST thing in the world, and would LOVE to see it implemented into league somehow.

CONCEPT:

Think of Elise's Victorious skin. When you hit the maximum mastery level with a champion, you gain the ability to buy a skin that shows off your skill with that champion. Rather than just "oh you are gold in yoloqueue this season, here's a skin", because lets face it, not everyone enjoys playing yoloqueue. I was a bit upset personally with the Elise Victorious skin, because I'm an avid Elise player myself, and loved the skin, but I had to be a gold level player to get it.

It doesn't have to be mastery levels, and it doesn't have to be a golden skin that only ranked players can have.. It can be something that they can sell for 975RP or ~6800IP. Money for Rito + beautiful skins for us to show off our mastery of a champion.

Let me know what you think! Feedback is the best!

Edit:

I LOVE the feedback this has gotten! After reading through the comments, I picked out a few that really stand out to me, and I think should be part of the main post.

KCHAOSREI: This is an interesting topic. about 3/4 of the community will not get the victory skin. Therefore they will all be behind this idea.

A question i have is what defines mastery? 1000 games? 20 kills in a game? Not missing any CS? How would riot even track such thing minus games played?

Mastery is not about learning one champ. And this skin idea is leading people in the wrong direction. No matter what a b1 player thinks, they are not a master of any champion. If they could abuse that one champ they would rise to challenger and everyone would say he is god on X champ. So are any players below D5 masters? probably not.

Mastery is about the overall picture. Map awareness, team work, objectives and wards(guess what adcs can put a few out also.) To promote mastery of just one aspect of the game is laying to the player base.

R: How I personally would see mastery, is by playing a certain number of games with that champion. Like I personally picked up Rengar as one of my main champions, and I have mastered his core concepts and build paths within a few games.

Basically win or lose, you get a certain number of points directed towards unlocking your skin. These points are based on multiple factors, and vary by champion.

For example, when you are playing someone like Thresh, you're not going to have a HUGE KDA, and a bunch of damage done to champions. More than likely, you'll have quite a lot of assists, and a fair number of wards placed.

Or if you play Lucian, you're probably going to have a massive amount of damage to champions, and your CS will be pretty high as well.

These can all mix in to the number of points you get. Every match gives a fixed amount (like with IP), but a win grants +(x) amount. Same would go with points. You'll get a certain number of points towards your mastery skin each match you play, and those points will vary depending on that champions strengths.

There could also be multiple tiers to said mastery skins.. The highest tier skin would be like achieving your initial skin unlock about x10 over, showing that you are a truly dedicated player of that champion.

Syvenon: I don't know if this is just because I'm an older player (started at the end of season 1), but I just don't like the idea of having a "main" champion. I guess joining a game with over 120 champions it can be daunting to try and figure them all out, but I think it's worth it to have a really diverse champion pool.

I'm not saying you need to be able to play every single champion proficiently, but you should be able to play 3 or 4 champions really well in 2 or 3 different roles. I think that making a mastery skin it will either end up being really easy to get and meaning nothing, or cause players to play only one champion for an absolutely absurd amount of time to get the skin. I think it's pretty unhelpful to a team to say "I'm playing Kat" before you even know who you're facing or if there's someone else who wants to play mid.

R: This isn't going to be just a 1 champion only skin. I personally have a very diverse champion pool, but it's honestly made up of about 10 champions that I can list off the top of my head. I have my main lanes, I have my main champion(s). I understand where you're coming from, and I see a lot of stuff about instalockers wanting to get their skins, but this doesn't have to be a ranked only feature.. We have teambuilder.. I just feel like it would be a great addition to the game to have a way of expressing our favorite champions, or the ones that make up the brunt of our champion pool.

I also see a few things I would like to touch on. I read something about "Bronze players will grind out the skins and ruin the concept of having them".

Well let's look at it like this. I have a friend, he is Bronze 5, and cannot climb out. He doesn't really have much of a champion pool, his mechanics aren't that great, and so on.

However, give him a Zed, and a few kills, and he'll carry games up into mid silver. Just because someone is a bronze player, doesn't mean they are going to be horrible. I mean, I've played with Diamond players that can't play Lucian to save their lives, and Silver players that know the absolute maximum limits of their champions.

I played against a LeBlanc, he shocked me with how well he knew his champion. He knew his limits down to the T, and he was barely high silver. His game mechanics could use a little work, but he was one of the best LeBlanc players I've ever gone against.

That's what separates a maxed tier mastery skin player, from your average player that plays LeBlanc from time to time.

Keep the content coming guys! We do have Bacon here too, so throw me your best ideas! Thanks everyone! :)

67 Comments

RiotRiot Baconhawk8/20/2014, 9:27:19 PM19 votes

Interesting. Would like to hear more of your guys' thoughts!

AkaiNeko48/20/2014, 8:16:49 AM5 votes

The problem here that you're probably not considering is that Riot Games is, first and foremost, a business.

League of Legends is free to play. It's also Riot's only product right now. Much of the money they make comes from people spending money to buy skins. Asking them to do this is basically saying, "Hey, rito, you know that major source of revenue of yours? Could you put a ridiculous amount of resources into making a massive line of that for every single character, and then give it to us for free?"

So, though it is a neat idea, it's not really likely as-is.

Earl Eulrich8/20/2014, 12:22:54 PM4 votes

I don´t think that´s a good idea...it all comes down to "grinding mastery", which is just practically not possible. I´ve seen people with 400+games on Lee fail big time while some players have mastered him a lot better after only 5 games. It´s just nothing you can apply such a mechanic to, so all it would lead to is another unnecessary timesink-mechanic.

Sunfield8/20/2014, 10:41:56 AM4 votes

Yeah thats probably one of the coolest features in Smite. Skins show even the number of wins and kills on the loading screen. Soon enough they will get Diamond skins, which symbolize the highest level of mastery and a sick amount of matches played with the champion.

Riot would have to find their own theme for mastery skins tho

Jingerbeardman8/20/2014, 11:41:13 PM3 votes

This is a pretty sweet Idea! I am just not sure it would be so easy to pull off in the games current state. A feature like this that provided a unique skin would require that all of the champions have this implemented at the same time and that is one major undertaking. That does not mean it is impossible! heck I think it would be pretty sweet if it were just a recolor of their base skin.

What definitely can be done is a load screen boarder and I feel this is something that should totally be looked into! I don't think listing your stats is such a good idea though. The boarder is enough. Would show a certain level of pride as well as proficiency to your teammates. It could boost morale knowing, this person really knows their champ! I would keep it only visible to allies in the load screen so opponents would not feel discouraged.

I also would push for the unlocking of an icon of the champion you main. It would be another way to show your pride and love of a champion you enjoy.

Rueian8/20/2014, 9:36:03 PM3 votes

I dont even care about the skin part, I just want the mastering mechanic to be implemented for ranked play. This would deter players from picking up brand new champions in ranked(release or FOTM), and would also populate normal queue for more levels of play.

Something easier to implement is Mastery Icon's, maybe using the Icons of the Champions (from champion select) they have mastered.

Something i'd like to see is, if you implemented mastery, giving your teammates the ability to see what champions you have mastered, to help wordless communication during champion select.

Syvenon8/21/2014, 4:12:21 AM3 votes

I don't know if this is just because I'm an older player (started at the end of season 1), but I just don't like the idea of having a "main" champion. I guess joining a game with over 120 champions it can be daunting to try and figure them all out, but I think it's worth it to have a really diverse champion pool.

I'm not saying you need to be able to play every single champion proficiently, but you should be able to play 3 or 4 champions really well in 2 or 3 different roles. I think that making a mastery skin it will either end up being really easy to get and meaning nothing, or cause players to play only one champion for an absolutely absurd amount of time to get the skin. I think it's pretty unhelpful to a team to say "I'm playing Kat" before you even know who you're facing or if there's someone else who wants to play mid.

MaknBacnPancakes8/20/2014, 11:43:39 PM2 votes

I like the idea of milestone skins.. Riot gets to pick the criteria, and it is on us to get the skins if we want.

Let's make some examples: (very simplistic, very weak examples)

Bronze tier skin: win 50 games with X (basic re coloring skin) Silver tier skin: win 150 games with X (another re coloring skin) Gold tier skin: win 500 games with X ( a truly great skin) Executioner skin: get X amount of kills with your ULT

Every champion gets 3-6 different skins, so regardless of how many skins each chip has yet, each champ is equal on 3-6 milestone skins a piece.

I never understood the arguement that people get upset because X Champ has 2 skins but Y champ has 10.. My thought has always been.. GOOD FOR Y CHAMP!!! If it were up to me, I would have the artists popping out skins all day, every day.. IMO, you can never have enough skins.

I don't hate the fact my favorite champs arnt on the new skin list.. I'm just salty that I can't get ahold of two skins that have been around longer than I have 😃

As far as the login screen.. Boarders are always pretty.. Could care less about KDR and stats being shown though.

Siachi8/20/2014, 9:50:30 PM2 votes

I like the idea, but skins may take too much work, you'd have to take into account that EVERY champions would need a skin, not to mention it has to be a skin that's of a decently high quality so it feels like a reward for becoming 'masterful' in that champion, because if it was just a recolor, it wouldn't really feel like too much of a reward.

What I think may be a better option is to get a special summoner icon, or maybe a special ward skin that shows off your 'mastered' champion; these wouldn't really takes as much work to do as a skin (There needs to be more champion-based ward skins anyway, at least for the support champs), and still sort of show off the same idea of "I am REALLY GOOD with this champ, guys!"

Dom1nati0n8/21/2014, 12:44:14 AM2 votes

People that play ranked take it seriously if they're scaling up into gold+. It's not just "yoloQ" players who earned that skin. You have a really good idea.

But look at Riot's marketing tactics. I just read an article the other day, another big head of a company stated very simply, "Do not attempt this marketing scheme, it will not work." And he's right. It will not work, because of the low % of people who actually pay to play this game. This company makes money off of it's player base being huge. And they don't charge a lot, and what they do charge for is aesthetically pleasing content. Handing out aesthetically pleasing content that is not costing anyone anything, could be harmful to an already very slim amount of people throwing their money at riot for skins.

It's a beautiful concept. But As I saw in another post, It'd be far more worth it to push "skins for charity". so that we can all buy some really neato support skins, like Nurse Taric, to support people who could really use monetary support. Like hospitals for kids, People making games accessible for the disabled, ect. Figure out a way to incorporate these two ideas and you might just get hired at Riot. haha. :P Good idea man, could use the resources better though.

Phoneixflare8/21/2014, 3:41:04 AM2 votes

instead of costing IP to buy said skin, why not require a certain amount of wins/kills/etc like an achievement system that has a set amount of goals per champion and that maybe it varies(supports=a goal for assists, assassins=more kills, jungler=dragons taken, general 'how much damage dealt in one game' kind of thing) and that by completing these 'goals' you unlock things... Then beyond that, maybe you could even have a regular player achievement system that has small rewards for doing things. This would give me a reason to play more. I

I like the whole first win of the day vibe. But imagine more of those where you can get more bonus IP per day or a bonus skin or a snazzy summoner profile theme...things like that! I think that'd be better than just a 'play this champ a lot and get a free skin' Make it something to really earn and make it layered in several ways. Then make the skins worthwhile as well and I feel like you'll get an even better result.

MotherChurch10/23/2014, 9:06:26 PM2 votes

I like the mastery idea. Unlock after 100 ranked wins or something.

Pricing should be a combination of RP and IP

say.....

500 RP and 5000 IP

Gavran8/21/2014, 7:05:28 AM1 votes

I'm already discriminated against for preferring a many-champions, choose the right one for the job playstyle vs a become really good with one champion playstyle. Let's please not give players more tools to judge each other. The only way I'd be okay with this is if the barrier to entry was so high it'd be a rare thing to see and could never become expected.

Serrow10/23/2014, 9:25:32 AM1 votes

Bump ~ I'm going to be updating a few things here and there.

MrSlowDie10/23/2014, 10:24:23 AM1 votes

I am thinking of, if you play enough games with X champion you can choose one of your already owned skins to be upgraded,

example : I played janna for 100 games and own all of her skins, janna upgraded skin will be she riding a cloud when using homeguard, If I choose forecast janna I'll have forecast janna with upgraded homeguard scene, if I choose fnatic janna i'll have fnatic janna with upgraded homeguard scene

Serrow3/25/2015, 5:15:40 AM1 votes

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/features/champion-mastery-hits-pbe

WOOT!!

Eiko Carol8/20/2014, 9:42:34 PM1 votes

I like the concept that Smite has with the mastery skins, the only issue i have with it is you can literally grind normal que's and get the mastery points for the skin. If i recall correctly you need at least 10 mastery points in smite for the legendary skin for that specfic god. Now that will take a good amount of time, but i honestly feel that if this was a thing it should only be in ranked because I could literally sit there and que blind pick auto lock my champion get some mastery points rinse and repeat, And then you can acquire the mastery skin.

I think instead of mastery skins showing the amount of games kills, assists and wins you have with the specific character in loading screen is a good idea.

The mastery skin not so much. And also if you think about it that would be stealing another company's idea and that's not good.