League of Legends players have expressed strong dissatisfaction with the recently revealed champion mastery emotes, likening them to low-quality cosmetics seen in mobile games.
In a game where design choices have always been a sensitive topic among players, Riot Games’ unveiling of these “improved” mastery emotes has only exacerbated tensions within the community.
Intended to reward players who invest significant time mastering a particular champion, the new emotes were meant to symbolize players’ prowess in piloting their chosen characters. However, the initial reception from players has been overwhelmingly negative, with many criticizing the quality of the cosmetics, describing them as reminiscent of those found in mobile games.
The decision to revamp mastery stems from Riot’s introduction of a new system. Previously capped at level 7, the revamped system allows players to continuously earn points and further level up their champion’s mastery. While this addition has been welcomed by those who invest heavily in the game, the dissatisfaction with the new emote designs remains palpable.
“I don’t get why they feel the need to completely change it. Old mastery icon is iconic and nothing new they come up with is going to be better, they should just add more colours and slightly expand it.”
“This looks like what you get if you train an AI solely on mobile games and ask it for an icon like this. Or what you get if you have a business degree guy design it by correlating spreadsheets of engagement data gathered from mobile games.”
Despite the backlash, Riot faces challenges in reverting to the old mastery design and expanding upon it, particularly given the advanced stage of development the new emotes appear to be in.
However, it’s worth noting that the current design is still a work in progress, indicating that Riot is open to incorporating player feedback into the final product.