League of Legends’ new Ahri skin does look absolutely amazing, but when I saw the price I, like many other players, went ‘yeah, that’s a no.’ While the base Risen skin comes in at $46, most of us had our eyes on the stunning Immortalized Legend skin, which blends the vibrant blacks and reds of Arcana with the moodiness of Coven and brilliance of Challenger. The base price for the inaugural Hall of Legends skin, however, is $200, with the premium edition that features Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok’s signature costing a whopping $430.
As you can imagine, the backlash from the League of Legends community was pretty much immediate. My entire X (formerly Twitter) timeline is ablaze with angry comments, reminders that Faker himself doesn’t actually use skins in-game, and, of course, some good ol’ fashioned memes.
But ‘this could pay my rent’ aside, I quickly saw several comments calling for players to permaban Ahri, meaning that those who buy the skin won’t be able to play it if she’s constantly on the bench. In turn, this would tank the Nine-Tailed Fox’s win rate, and, in theory, give Riot the nudge that the MOBA‘s community clearly thinks it needs.
In an X post that has accrued more than 15k likes, ‘Hotazy’ urges players to “come together as a community and have Ahri permanently banned so the people who spent $400 on a skin can’t play her.” Another post from ‘Faye’ jokingly says “if I can’t have it, no one can,” showing an image of Ahri being banned in-game.
But it doesn’t end there. On r/AhriMains a post entitled “The best way to rebel is to boycott Ahri herself” has pulled 1.7k upvotes (it’s a much smaller Reddit than r/LoL). “I think it’s atrocious that Riot is pricing a skin bundle that costs half my paycheck for an entire month,” writes u/ShotoGun. “I say let’s protest in a way that forces Riot to the negotiating table.
“All we need to do is ban Ahri every single game. The whales will never get to enjoy the skin if they cannot play the champion, and then Riot will be forced to lower prices. Similar strategies worked for Ryze. Let’s work to get Ahri’s ban rate to 100%.”
All of this comes after Riot’s apparent push towards creating “a range of products for everyone, starting at the low end of free or a few dollars, scaling to more premium content for more.” With the ongoing run of Mythic chromas costing $200, and the disappointing Redeemed Star Guardian Xayah and Rakan skins adding fuel to the fire, Riot’s microtransactions continue to be scrutinized.
If you, like me, now really want a new look for Ahri but won’t be dropping hundreds on it, keep an eye on which League of Legends skins are currently on sale in the weekly store. Alternatively, if you do like the finer things in life, the current League of Legends Mythic shop rotation is pretty damn good.
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