Reaper Soraka's skin release was ill-timed Riot
Before I get started I should clarify something: Reaper Soraka was released as a Legacy skin a day after the Harrowing ended, meaning it won't be on sale again for a long time, likely next Harrowing. It's also a 1350 skin, meaning that it will only ever be discounted ONCE for 975 during the first week of its release. There is also huge precedent that Legacy skins are exclusively event skins. Even non-holiday ones like the Championship skins or the winning team of the World Championship skins are still brought back as part of those events.
Now onto the point:
Reaper Soraka was clearly released as a late Harrowing skin. Given its theme and how well it fits Halloween and its proximity to the Harrowing event, that's the only thing that makes sense. With that in mind, releasing her as a Legacy skin after the event is over is not cool.
The vast majority of us have limited money to spend on League. We're willing and happy to spend it on cool skins and Riot, you give us lots of content we want to buy. Many of us buy mostly or exclusively when content is discounted, but you provide us those discounts to take advantage of so it's moot. When events like the Harrowing role around, we figure our budgets out and we buy skins. To release content as part of an event -- content that not only won't be available again for a year but will never be discounted ever again either -- feels like a trick and a betrayal. I have no doubt that you didn't intend that, but that's what it feels like because that's how it effectively panned out.
The fact is I waited and saved my RP until literally the final day of the Harrowing, just to be absolutely sure that you wouldn't release Reaper Soraka as a Harrowing skin (and thus confirming that I'd be able to get her for less later). But waiting until the event was over was somehow not enough because you decided to release her the day after, when I'd already spent my budgeted money. My only options then were to spend more money now, or later on, or to burn a refund credit. As it happens I bought it anyway, because no matter how irritating and unfair it was, this is still the first customer service complaint I've ever had against Riot in the two years I've bought from them. =P
With that said -- and I don't mean to be the guy acting arrogant and like he should have his way because of money -- but I don't think it's unreasonable to say that, when I've payed around $200 to Riot over two years, that it's reasonable for me to expect a predictable release schedule. I wouldn't be complaining if I could have had one of the skins I'd bought replaced with Reaper Soraka, the skin I'd wanted in the first place, but I did in fact ask for just that in a support ticket and was denied (and lied to with a claim that it was never supposed to be a Harrowing skin; I flat-out don't, and have no reason to, believe that).
So I'll just say this: Riot, next time you hold off on an event's skin release like this, please handle it better. At the very least give us some kind of warning that it's going to be released, but other options could be to slightly extend the event to cover its release or even not make it a Legacy skin at all. Just please don't do this again. While I know you didn't have ill-intentions, it does still feel like a betrayal for those of us who can't keep throwing money at the game all the time and it decreases how much we can rely on you to have predictable and budget-able content release schedules.
For what it's worth...
Even though I don't think it's true, Riot did absolutely say that it was never intended to be a Harrowing skin in the first place when I contacted them about it. But it's still a problem if it is true, because then I question why this is a Legacy skin at all if it's not tied to an event.
