[2019] Why is 1350rp standard now?

Hey folks. My name is Bellissimoh and I’m the Product Lead for Personalization on League.

“People don’t want 720s.” Over the last several years we’ve seen really poor engagement for this category of skins. Not only do we not see people engage with them but also in surveys players cite them as being lower quality, being unhappy with them when they purchase them, and wish their champion had gotten a 1350 or 1820 instead. Don’t get me wrong, while there are players do like 720s, they’re just not of a large enough audience size for us to focus on. (As an example, many of our lower play rate champs have larger audiences than the folks who show up for 720s)

Another thing that we look for as far as measuring player satisfaction and engagement on skins is how many times people use a skin in-game when they own it. 720s also really under index here.

So in summary, people don’t really buy them, when they do they generally aren’t happy, and don’t use them nearly as much as Epic or Legendary tier skins.

We’ve made a very intentional decision to make less of these as a result of all the above factors. We have to be diligent about how we spend our time, and our hope is to focus on making stuff that you love, you’re happy buying, and that you’re satisfied with when you use it in-game.

This is valid feedback. It’s also why we try and regularly deliver lower price purchase opportunities like Your Shop.

Definitely taking note of this sentiment as time goes by. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Great questions.

To the first question. No significant or noticeable difference. (Which is why for any low play rate champ skins we make, they will be of at least Epic quality)

For the second question, whenever there is a skin that is high satisfaction for the players of that champion, the biggest influence it has on our decisions is working to understand what about it players liked to inform future skins for that champ, but also taking note of the thematic space it takes up in order to ensure we differentiate moving forward.

Also while people cite things like you mention, not everyone is happy or pleased with every skin. There may be a player or set of players that love Cosmic Reaver Kassadin, but there also Kassadin players who don’t like that skin as well. Hence the difficult job of trying to find thematics and executions of thematics that hit as many players as possible.

Mentioned above but this is where things like Your Shop or skin sales come into play. Also many people do engage with loot in order to get skins at a price that is on average lower than purchasing one directly at the trade off of agency and choice of which skin.

Thanks for the feedback Spideraxe30. We’re constantly keeping an eye on whether or not players feel like they’re getting their money’s worth so it’s meaningful to hear that from you.

You make a very solid point here. While we look at data and statistics in order to understand what players are engaging with, that data doesn’t tell us the why. This is why we combine quantitative methods like looking at raw numbers and qualitative information from talking to players in playtest labs as well as surveying players across different regions globally.

To answer your overarching question directly, yes we ask why, and we’re very careful about taking data at face value.