The new Mastery Rework was a disappointment
Less than five months after the latest update was introduced, LoL players are growing increasingly frustrated with the game’s new Mastery system and its “grindy” rewards for cosmetics.
The major overhaul to the Mastery system has been met with widespread disappointment among the League community. Many players admit they’ve lost interest, saying they haven’t played since the changes went live. The general feeling is that League’s developers have made the game more tedious and less enjoyable—and players aren’t happy about it.
One of the biggest points of frustration revolves around the chest rewards. Previously, players only needed to achieve an S-rank in a single match on Summoner’s Rift to earn a free Mastery chest. Now, however, players are required to play the same champion at least five times and perform well in order to receive similar rewards. This change has led many players to believe that the chest rewards have been “significantly nerfed.”
In a recent Reddit thread on this topic, one player expressed their disappointment by saying, it’s crazy how they used to get a random free skin at least once a month, and now they couldn’t even remember the last time they got one.
Other players agreed, saying that the new Mastery update has actually made them want to play less, especially since they feel the only way to earn anything worthwhile is through a “gacha” system.
Despite the backlash, there hasn’t been a significant decline in the number of people playing League of Legends, although that could change if more players join the protest. Riot Games has already had to respond to overwhelming player criticism several times this season, so it’s possible they could address these concerns in the future.
However, it’s unlikely that Riot will reverse the 2024 Mastery update in any meaningful way. While there hasn’t been an official statement about the goals of the update, it’s likely that Riot’s internal objectives were to encourage players to log in more often and to meet short-term engagement metrics—goals that the update appears to have achieved.