Chapter 293: First Season Rewards
Of course, at this point some players would inevitably bring up arguments like "In esports, being bad is the original sin" or "Noobs should work hard to improve, and one day they too can surpass the pros."
This line of reasoning isn't wrong, but it should only be used for self-motivation, not to demand things from others.
If you get beaten, you practice your skills and beat them back—that's fine. But if your girlfriend plays poorly and gets crushed, and you say "In esports, being bad is the original sin," see if you two don't break up.
Platinum players are players.
Bronze players are players too.
For most players with slow reflexes, mechanics and reaction time are innate. No matter how hard they practice, it won't change.
For a game designer, both types of players are equally important because they are essential components of the entire game's ecosystem.
Simplifying game mechanics allows more casual players to join and stay, giving the game a larger player base than others. This is the core competitive advantage of the game.
As for high-end players?
As long as the player base grows, high-end players will naturally emerge. The two aren't mutually exclusive; high-end players all crawled out of the casual player pool.
So what happens when the casual player pool dries up?
For example, if a large number of Bronze-tier players in *League of Legends* quit, Bronze players would have to wait longer for ranked matches or face many Silver-tier opponents. Their chances of winning would drop, they'd keep getting stomped, and eventually, they'd quit.
This accelerates player attrition. When Bronze players dwindle, it starts affecting Silver, then Gold...
The drying up of the casual pool triggers a chain reaction, collapsing the game's competitive ecosystem from the bottom up. This kind of player loss accelerates over time—it's a nightmare for competitive games.
In Chen Mo's previous life, part of *Overwatch*'s decline in popularity was due to this.
The pay-to-play model and high PC requirements had already filtered out many hesitant players, so the player base was far smaller than *League of Legends*. Combined with issues in the game's mechanics and ranking system that encouraged smurfing, these factors led to a massive exodus of players and a drop in popularity.
Of course, smurfing also existed in Dota and *League of Legends*, but Dota had a loyal fanbase and a stable player population, while *League of Legends* had a deep enough casual pool that smurfing barely made a ripple.
But what if the player base isn't big enough?
Then even the best game would likely die out.
...
After a lot of effort, Wen Lingwei and Chang Xiuya finally completed the new player tutorial.
Upon finishing, a special interface popped up as a system notification, along with a beautifully designed treasure chest.
"Congratulations on completing the new player tutorial! You've received a small gift from Valoran. Click to open."
Jia Peng was a bit surprised: "Huh? We get a reward just for finishing the tutorial?"
Jia Peng clicked the chest. A flash of gold light, and several rewards appeared on the screen.
New Skin: [Death Knight] Garen
Currency: 4500 Riot Points, 10,000 Blue Essence.
Ward Skin: Cute Snowman Ward.
But that wasn't all. As soon as Jia Peng confirmed and collected these rewards, another interface appeared.
"As a player of *League of Legends*' First Season, we've prepared a small gift for you. Note: This reward will become exclusive after the First Season ends and cannot be obtained through normal means."
Jia Peng clicked the mouse and found another skin!
New Skin: [Dragon Slayer] Vayne
Jia Peng couldn't stay calm. Damn, so many goodies?
Obviously, while Jia Peng didn't fully understand the value of these items, he could read. He recognized the purple [Epic] icon on both skins.
And 4500 Riot Points—that was currency you could only get by spending real money in the game.
Jia Peng quickly went into his [Collection] to check his newly acquired rewards.
Unlike the *League of Legends* from his previous life, Chen Mo had added hero models to the in-game shop and player collection interface. Players could see not only the splash art of a skin but also its actual 3D model.
This wasn't hard to implement—even a mobile game like *Honor of Kings* had already done it.
Of course, some models in the previous life's *League of Legends* were pretty ugly, but the models Chen Mo created for his version were of very high quality. Even zooming in close, there were no issues.
[Death Knight] Garen's style was completely different from the default skin. He wore dark armor, his eyes gleamed with a cold, eerie light, and the greatsword in his hand had been transformed into a replica of Frostmourne.
In Chen Mo's previous life, this skin was a bit of a nod to Warcraft's popularity, but since they didn't own the IP, they couldn't make it too similar to Arthas. Here, that wasn't a problem—Chen Mo owned the entire Warcraft IP and could use it freely.
This Garen skin was made to look extremely similar to Arthas, and Jia Peng was thrilled just looking at it.
[Dragon Slayer] Vayne was also a nod to Warcraft's popularity. The name originally came from a Hunter armor set in *World of Warcraft*. Of course, *World of Warcraft* didn't exist in this world, but since it was a successful skin, Chen Mo brought it over anyway.
As for the ward skin, it was just a little snowman—a small bonus, nothing special.
Jia Peng then checked the shop interface. 4500 Riot Points was equivalent to about 45 yuan, while the value of 10,000 Blue Essence was still hard to estimate.
He browsed the shop and found that the Riot Points could buy a mid-tier skin, while the Blue Essence was only enough for some low-tier ward skins and summoner icons.
Jia Peng tried to comfort himself: "Well... these skins don't affect combat stats anyway. Buying them or not doesn't matter."
...
Chen Mo had carefully considered the entire reward system.
In the previous life's *League of Legends*, players earned Blue Essence by playing games, and its main use was to buy champions and runes.
While this had many problems, it also had benefits. Many players enjoyed the process of saving up Blue Essence to buy champions and runes. It was a gradual way to unlock game content and made players value their accounts (and the wealth on them).
It was similar to how some card games kept players engaged by giving them good cards.
For the sake of fairness, Chen Mo had removed the paywall for champions and runes, but he still wanted to use other methods to achieve this reward effect.
Both Riot Points and Blue Essence were retained. Players could still earn Blue Essence by playing games, getting their first win of the day, and completing quests. However, the specific uses of Blue Essence had changed.
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