New Players Should Get One Free Champion

Mandaari·Feb 19, 2016·266 votes·7,423 views

Every single time I play with a friend that's new at the game they all say the same thing. "I'm saving up for ____." 9 times out of 10 it's a 6300 champion. It takes them forever to save up for that champion, and in the meantime they have to play free week champions. They end up getting used to a free week champion just long enough for the rotation to change. Really it would go a long way just to give new player a single free champion. It'd probably help with new player retention, too, which is a win for Riot in the long run.

176 Comments

KDragonLFeb 19, 201650 votes

They should get one at lvl 10,20 and 30.

Ego Sum RedemitFeb 19, 201612 votes

This is actually a really great idea

NielarkenFeb 19, 20167 votes

Not only that but they should get a refund at lvl 10, 20, 30 so they dont blow all of them on that 1 champion they unlocked because it was all they could unlock.

TrathomFeb 20, 20164 votes

That would actually be a great system!

D3m37r1Feb 19, 201640 votes

Or better yet just give new players 6300 ip at the beginning. That way they can do whatever they want with it.

MandaariFeb 19, 201688 votes

*Spends it all on tier 1 runes*

stealthfox94Feb 19, 201658 votes

They should just get ride of tier 1 and tier 2 runes anyway.

MandaariFeb 19, 201612 votes

Yeah, they should. I don't know of anyone that disagrees with that.

SSJTribeFeb 19, 20164 votes

I kinda do, they really reduced the price on them, like 15 to 30 ip at the most. So now you can still get runes, and not feel as disadvantaged when you had to save up for a champion, and THEN a full tier three rune page.

MandaariFeb 19, 201618 votes

Or just make tier 3 runes cheaper and available early on. They're a little too important to withhold until level 20 and still cost so much.

Billy VoHagenFeb 19, 20165 votes

Making them avaliable at all points in the game would be bad for new players, however. Learning the game and working with masteries is bad enough, throwing runes in would be way worse.

MandaariFeb 19, 201613 votes

The whole rune system and mastery system makes no sense. None of it makes sense in the context of a MOBA. The purpose of runes were supposed to be customization and a sense of progression. There's not a lot of customization in runes, they're basically mandatory, and there's virtually no feeling of "I did it!" in unlocking a new rune. It's more of a "woo, I'm slightly closer to the standard power of my characters."

Billy VoHagenFeb 19, 20161 votes

Why do they make no sense?

MandaariFeb 19, 20167 votes

Runes are objective power. Someone with access to runes is objectively stronger than someone who doesn't have access to runes. Additionally the game is balanced around having runes and masteries. There's a lot of variability in summoner level for low levels, which means someone has an advantage that has nothing to do with their ingame skill. As a very extreme example: I once had a level 18 smurf matched up against 5 level 30s, two of which were in diamond. My enemy laner had roughly a BF sword's worth of stats on me from runes alone, let alone another 12 levels' worth of masteries.

Related: You might agree with a post I made a few weeks ago.

Billy VoHagenFeb 19, 20163 votes

What you're basically saying is someone who has played longer over someone who has not played as long. The person who has played longer will have more runes. And that completely makes sense and is fair.

If I practice water polo for an hour each day, and swim 2 hours a day, and someone else just practices water polo for half an hour each day, it makes sense that I would have an advantage in a game over them, no?

MandaariFeb 19, 201615 votes

Bad analogy. If you practice water polo more than someone else you aren't given fins. If you play chess more than someone should your pawn have more moves available to it? If you play basketball more should you be given a smaller basket?

Playing more means you (hopefully) are more skilled. That's it. You both should start the game on equal footing.

Eevee In A JarFeb 19, 20164 votes

How about making buying runes nonexistent and make it all free? I mean you can't buy it from RP so it doesn't REALLY benefit Riot financially.

HatanYatesSouFeb 20, 20163 votes

Or they could make tier 1 runes upgrade-able to tier 2 for a fair ad reasonable ip fee, and then t2 to t3. That way, investing in them is eventually worth it!

KeevalroyFeb 19, 201618 votes

Often times, a champion someone sees from a stream or a friend's games sparks an interest in the game. Before I joined, I saw Rainman playing Teemo and thought "this is the champion I want to play" but I'd have to save 1350 for him. Granted that isn't a lot, but I had to spam the free champions to get the champion I really wanted.

Now think about those people who see a 6300 champion and think "this is my champion." By the time they get maybe half way through the grind, they might lose interest in the game since it seems unobtainable. Why not introduce a free champion when you complete the tutorial so these new inspired players can jump right into the game with the champion that sparked an interest in League?

ThatH1N1Feb 19, 201613 votes

Riot needs to do something about the new player experience PERIOD. The whole thing stinks.

ElindisFeb 19, 20165 votes

New player experiece is pretty good tho. They are matched against other new players, NOT SMURFS. Let's say you have a friend, he plays for the first time. First 5 levels (coop) work as a placement matches. When he finally gets level 5 he's given MMR that compliments his skill against bots. This MMR doesn't change by playing against bots, only against/with real players. It changes VERY rapidly until level 10, based on game performance, so even if smurf tried to cheat the system and play terribly against bots, he would get boosted up very quickly.

This means new players won't see much smurfs, and if they do, these smurfs are just terrible (i mean bronze 5 terrible). But there's one slight problem. If you try to play with your friend together, his MMR (say 0-300) and yours (1500+) are calculated together and you face enemies with your skill level. If you manage to win and carry that friend, one game is enough to give him like +500 MMR, just because he's low level and he won against superior players. This means he will be seeing very skilled people and smurfs often.

You can check this normal MMR on pages like Op.GG and such, i couldn't believe what happened to my noob friend's MMR after i played with him... Oh, and this matchmaking works very well... i was sitting at ~2400 MMR with my smurf since level 20, and i've been regulary playing with/against people with plat/dia/master borders (Meaning they're level 30 and very skilled). Also even in normal blind pick, queue times take up to 20 minutes for this smurf of mine. My "noobish" friend falled down to like 500 MMR and he can find games pretty much instantly, with queue times not longer than 30 seconds.

Edit: one last thing, MMR gains/loses MIGHT be affected by your mastery grade after a game. I've noticed im gaining like 30-40% more MMR when i go S-/S/S+. But that's not confirmed, just a thing i noticed. What IS confirmed is you can GAIN MMR is you LOSE but did very well (S grades) and lose MMR when you win but you got totally carried (Think C and lower)

A LiberalFeb 19, 20167 votes

New player experiece is pretty good tho. They are matched against other new players, NOT SMURFS.

Did we have different leveling experiences? Because I recall getting shit on by zed smurfs my entire leveling experience.

agbudarFeb 19, 201611 votes

how about making all the 450 IP champs free? it covers all the roles and makes sense

Rew711Feb 19, 201611 votes

Wait, you mean make the "Starter Pack" (that doesn't contain all the 450 IP Champions) unneeded? How will Riot make their money?

The community knows that these guys are flat broke, because why on Earth would they even feel the need to explain why Riot needs money for the things they do.

We're talking about a company that can't even afford a second server for a country, one for the east and the other for the west. We're talking about a company that finds it hard to believe that advertising that there are three champs they can get for free by following them on Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter and get them easy skins.

Even with this limited amount of money, they always come though. They took the time and resources to make Dominion for us, and allow us the privilege of free RP for playing a tournament we have to win in order to get said amount. They even made a separate map of ARAM, with completely new turrets and everything.

Its also unfair to call them cheap, not when they have to take time to get ready for the LC$ and other events. They finally have a shop open for awesome shirts, knick-knacks, posters, and more. And when you want to be fancy, you can spend some money on a better (or rare) look for you favorite champion (before the meta picks a new one for you).

Luckily we get to play a free game, and have the option to buy champions out of Influence Points. And look how colorful the whole cast is. We have weirdos, freaks, heroes, a king, a demon, and even a talking fish. All you have to do is play for years to earn and unlock them, or play them whenever they might be free. Oh, and if you want to buy a champion on sale, you can buy them for a cheaper amount of real world cash money. Half off.

And when you finally decide to get Runes, you are tricked into buying lots of Runes you'll never use again after you get better ones from the next teir up. And be sparing with how you use them, because you only have 2 free sheets at first. Spend a extra 6,300 IP for other 18 when you feel like it.

Don't worry that Season 1, 2, and some of season 3 have everything and say it doesn't mean anything, because they're right. Its seriously okay to not have the full champion line-up, nor is it necessary to have any Rune to use for Ranked. If you are a completionist, make sure that your computer is top notch because this game takes a lot out of computers. Battle away for possibly moths at a time. Try and somehow win around 12 matches a day to earn around 1,000 IP a day. Then by about 800 days later, unless Riot has a double or quadruple IP week or something, you'll have the whole champion pool. Then, you can start on your Runes, which will take about another 400 days or so, getting only teir three and the Runes pages. Don't worry, though. Its a free game. You don't need a full champion roster.

jQueryFeb 19, 20169 votes

A lvl 1 to 3 challenge:

#Farm of Influence

U get an bonus 1 IP point FOR every last hit on minion/monster , 2 IP for Siege minion / big monster And 3 IP for Super minion. The bonus is given in Normals Co vs Ai and ARAM.

Plus if you are lvl 2 and u get 300 CS in a 30min game, we know your a smurf, ur MMR is going sky high.

Karma DeifiedFeb 19, 20162 votes

Smurf comments aside, that idea sounds great. I've been playing with a group lately, and they have decent mechanical skill, probably around low Gold level but their CS is tutorial level. Some basic priorities could be taught to newcomers through challenges like that.

TouchpadExpertFeb 19, 20164 votes

I remember feeling this way starting out. Luckily for me the champion I wanted badly was only 3150 ( Lux ) so the wait wasn't that long. But for someone like my brother who was ogling over a 6300 champion he played during free week ( Darius ) the wait was downright unbearable. I do wish that Riot did do something like this to help out the newer players in their blossoming adventures into the toxic dungeon that is league of legends.

Billy VoHagenFeb 19, 20166 votes

That wait was downright darius.

My Waifu VanillaFeb 19, 20163 votes

They get enough RP for a 4800 IP champion at level 8 or so iirc.

SukishooFeb 19, 20162 votes

Level 3 actually is the only time you get RP and it's 400RP. A 4800IP champion costs 880RP.

MandaariFeb 19, 20162 votes

He means that once you've played enough games to get to level 8 you'll have earned 4800 IP.

Edit: Having just hit level 8 on a smurf you get slightly over 2700 IP if you don't spend a dime of it.

SukishooFeb 19, 20165 votes

No, he said "RP"... so

UrPalAlFeb 19, 20163 votes

They should give new players 1 free champ at level 5 or 10. That way they can play there tougher champs (which are usually more expensive) after learning the basics with like Annie and Amumu and stuff.

Braum MechanicsFeb 19, 20162 votes

I could be wrong but I remember getting a choice to play Ashe, Ryze or Garen in the tutorial. At the end of the tutorial and the not match not only did I get my choice of champion from the three but also 400 IP to buy another one of the cheap champs instantly.

Besides alot of the 6300 IP champs are super complicated. I really don't think they should be given to anyone who is learning the game.

Serika ZeroFeb 19, 20162 votes

super complicated Diana 6300....... pick one. The only thing 6300 price means is the fact they were released in the past 3 years or so

dunkeroniFeb 19, 201610 votes

You have to understand that 'complicated' is relative, especially to players who don't understand the basic mechanics yet: Diana (6300 IP)

Fires a skillshot that arcs counterclockwise contrary to what every other skillshot in the game does. Her shield is not only a shield but also has three damaging balls that if used by the end of the shield then the initial shield is added onto whatever shied value is still remaining. Her passive does bonus damage on basic attacks, best implemented while interweaving basic attacks into her regular attack combo. She can cause and AOE knockup that can interupt enemy chanels, charges, movements, and attacks. Her ult is a dash that deals large amounts of damage, but most importantly it it gets no cooldown timer if the enemy targetted by the ult was prevously hit by her Q skillshot during the initiation of the fight.

Annie (450 IP)

Q Shoots fire. W Cone of fire. E helps you defend. R spawns a giant bear. Passive stuns people every 4 skills.

Karma DeifiedFeb 19, 20165 votes

Well said, can I request your analysis of Darius vs. Garen

dunkeroniFeb 19, 201616 votes

Of course.

Darius

Spin to win, then press R

Garen

Spin to win, then press R

Serika ZeroFeb 19, 20162 votes

play without smart cast, press ability OMG NOW YOU KNOW HOW IT WORKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

you are totally biased about the entire diana description, and annie description as well. yes, e has a lot of uses. As her annie's E, which you missed the part that's a mini thorn mail, and that gives a passive stack and gives you MR. Just like you said "annie's e can help you defend", you could have said the same thing about Diana's W.

like that I can make shit easy to: LeeSin Press Q Press R Press Q gg you won game For "Flashy plays", pres W before R ;) Your E is used just for show. And you passive means you must auto attack someone, big deal.

Sivir Your W is an auto attack reset which must be used exactly after one of your auto attacks and it bounces off several targets. All hits can crit, but if the first one crits, all of them crit. You E blocks a spell and EVERYTHING for a small frame, making it very strong vs everything including stuns, roots, skill shots, retards, feeders, flamers, taric players, and most importantly, zed ultimate And her R = you must run, but you must run fast, and run near team mates because that's important and you will make them run fast too, but if arrive to late, they will run fast for very short time, so you must run fast and run with them from the start. Your passive also makes you run fast so you are fast runner.

You can make someone as simple as Garen sound as complicated as Azir if you want to. Its just a matter of how you chose to express your opinion about the champion. Now that we got over that. Diana is one of the champions that costs 6300 and its very simple. Hit Q, press W + R. and spam auto attacks and again R at one point for stylish finish. There's other 6300 simple ones. Price doesn't make a champion hard, it just means it was released recently. Illaoi would be an example of simple ones as well (except she's underpowered).

Karma DeifiedFeb 19, 20166 votes

We could simplify Diana and elaborate on Annie.

Diana

Passive Deals magic damage in an AoE every 3 auto-attacks

Q Fires an arcing skillshot that deals magic damage, marks and reveals enemies.

W Grants a shield and 3 orbiting projectiles that deal magic damage. If all three projectiles are consumed, the original shield value is added to the remaining shield value.

E An AoE mini knockup that deals no damage and slows briefly.

R A targeted dash that deals magic damage. The cooldown is refreshed if it's used on a target marked by Q and the mark is consumed.

Annie

Passive After 4 ability uses, the next damaging ability stuns.

Q Deals magic damage to a target, mana is refunded if it kills and cooldown is halved.

W Deals magic damage in a cone.

E Grants bonus armor and magic resistance, deals return magic damage when auto-attacked.

R Summons a large bear, dealing damage in an AoE. The bear's movements can be controlled and has a damage aura and gains the bonus armor and magic resistances along with bonus movement when E is used.

Diana still leaves more questions to ask from a newbie.

Penta PenguinFeb 20, 20162 votes

If Ryze is still a tutorial champion that sounds really awful and should be changed fast

Lucky MonikerFeb 20, 20162 votes

then people would create a new account every time a new champ comes out just to get it free.

MandaariFeb 20, 20161 votes

Again, what people would buy a new account with no runes or masteries just so that they can play a champ they can probably afford already on their main account?

Lucky MonikerFeb 20, 20161 votes

people whp cant afford it on their main and just wanna try the new champ. doesnt mean they are gonna main it, just an easy way to try it

MandaariFeb 20, 20164 votes

New champions go into the next free week rotation after they've been released. It's not worth the frustration of playing without runes and masteries just to see what the champion does when they can just wait a week. Even if they did, what's the concern of them trying a new champion? They can't even play PvP to ruin newbs days until level 5.

SettDownShutUpFeb 19, 20161 votes

This feels incredibly abusable, and would cause players to make new accounts with different email addresses until they got the champ they wanted. It should probably be from a limited number of champions, maybe the 450 IP champs?

charcharmunroFeb 19, 20167 votes

Nobody ever said it was a random choice.

Rundus1Feb 20, 20161 votes

I like the idea but I gotta weigh in on the side of disagreeing with you. That would just help smurfs slaughter them while they play Syndra or Illaoi instead of the free champs or pre-6 champs. I'd say the saving grace is the refunds that new accounts get. Saving up may take awhile, but they get to learn a few basics, maybe save up for a 4800 or 3150 champ, and if they don't like them they can refund and get another when they have enough. The only problem is that most new people don't know just how limited 3 refunds is, which is why I would suggest giving people 1 refund that refreshes after use over three or four days until they hit level 10 or buy something with RP, at which point they get the standard three. This would allow for a lot of trial and error to get started. It could be abused too, but I think it's overall help the new player experience a lot more than it would hinder it.

MandaariFeb 20, 20166 votes

Any smurf worth their salt can slaughter a new player with any champion they want. I could play someone with zero abilities and win against new players. Using that as a reason not to give new players access to one champion seems overkill.