Over the nine years since 2016, when the Hextech Crafting system and the Hextech Chests were introduced to League of Legends, the whole player base has enjoyed the many goodies found inside. The highest priority among LoL fans have been the champion skins, unlocked through permanents and skin shards, which allow players to equip new looks for their favorite champions in-game. The Hextech Chests that contain these skins have always been easy to collect through normal gameplay, giving players plenty of 'free' skins just by playing.

This year's new Season 15, though, made a huge and controversial change to that longstanding system. With the new Battle Pass rewards system, players noticed near-immediately that the steady stream of Hextech Chests had been cut off entirely. The new system simply did not gift players free chests and skins through regular play, but offered a much less rewarding alternative path. To replicate the old system, players could now only purchase the chests for RP, Riot's system of currency correlating to real world money.

Keep LoL financially sustainable

After months of fan outcry over this change, Riot has finally addressed the free Hextech Chest removal in a statement of finality. In their latest Dev Update, lead Riot Games developers announced that free Hextech Chests would not be making a return. Acknowledging the change would be "unpopular," the developers confirmed that in order to keep League of Legends financially sustainable for the future, the many free skins Hextech Chests provided would have to come to an end. Riot also re-emphasized their focus on the shift to the new Battle Pass system.