How we choose weekly free champions
 

From time to time we get questions on how we chose weekly free champions. We rotate the Champions to keep the game fresh for those that haven't unlocked all the Champions.

Here is how we choose which ones are free:

Champion Rotation Goals
1) Give new players some simple Champions to play
2) Provide a balance of types of Champions for new players
-- This allows new players to make balanced teams
3) Allow players to preview all Champions eventually

Given these goals we look at player feedback, and decide which Champions should be free next week that allow us to meet these goals.

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Frequently Asked Questions:
Q Will new Champions always be free the first week?
A No, we will debut Champions that need to be unlocked, but eventually they will be free (see goal 3).

Q Will some Champions be free more often than others?
A Yes, because some Champions are simpler to play that others, and our first goal with the free Champion rotation is to allow new players simple Champions to try for their first games.

Q I don't think Alistar is a Tank
A Okay - not a question, but yes, thanks to our item system, Champions can be built different ways. That means many Champions can be played as different types (for example, as a Tank or Melee DPS). To keep things simple, we list only one type for each Champion in our statistics, but many of them can be played differently than the type we list.

Q Do the Champions rotate on the same day every week?
A No. We often synch the Champion rotation with the new content and patches we are releasing. Because we won't release the patches until they are done, this means they sometimes don't fall on the same day each week. This leads us to rotate our Champions on different days of the week to try and get even amounts of time between Champion rotations. This is also why we don't announce the exact date of the rotation.

I'll link to this post from the Champion rotation announcements to answer the questions that keep coming up. If there are more frequently asked questions, I'll post the answers here.

Thanks for all the requests for free Champions!

- RiotChris

Thanks for the info :)

So there's no pattern to it? It's all completely random?

I resent Riot every day a little more.

What pattern would you like to see? We're always open to constructive feedback.

We listen to player feedback on Champions to make free, and we introduce new Champions on a regular basis. Those two factors make it hard to have a set rotation that repeats every 8 weeks or so (which is I assume what you're implying about a pattern).

- RiotChris

this is the only thing that i personally see as the only problem...

imo i think New/Upcoming Champs should always be free the week they are released
for the simple reason of balance...

i mean think about it, lets say udyr wasn't free the week he was released that means only a few who either had extra IP and or bought him with RP would have played him, and thus

only a small portion of the community would have been able to give feed back on him...

cause i mean lets face it only reason udyr was even brought up was because he was free the week he was released and a ton of players played him and gave the feedback on him,


just my 2 cents on the subject =p

Then again I have had feeder poppies (and when udyr came out feeder/bad udyr's) that have completely thrown away almost all of my games today so....

thats just my 2 cents on the subject.

Personally I'm looking forward to the week of April 1st, when they run 10 yordles.

I personaly think that the weekly free champion rotation should regularly be rotated as the name implies, weekly. And as posted above, new champs should be rotated in the week they're released. I'm thinking rotate schedule should start Thursday night/Friday morning. That way the new rotation starts on the high traffic time , at least I'd think, of Friday - Sunday. That way you get the champ feedback fresh for the next work week. Also, since patch/content drops can be Tuesday or Wednesday and you can use that for marketing purposes: " Purchase the new champ with IP or RP and access them before they're rotated in!". Theres my 2 cents :p

If you want to hate something for not having a pattern, hate the lottery :P

i don't want to be a ***** or anything but lol would be cool if we can just choose 3 champs to keep forever and work our way up and there wouldn't have to be work into the champ switching each week.

***** is p r i ck so w/e

Thanks for the info!

Though I would suggest saying what champions will be in the next rotation when the next week draws near.

I suggest Riot stops taking suggestions. I like it when the Champions are chosen quite randomly, you NEVER know who you will be yelling at to stop feeding next week!

On another note, Poppy looks pretty cool.

is this a cool idea? Yes.
Would people abuse the hell out of this? Hell yes.
Is it REALLY easy to get enough IP to get 3 champions?... yep.

I was expecting it to be a little more complex than "we do whatever players tell us to with no regard toward balance, except when we release a new champion - then we do whatever we want with no regard to balance." Like the last few weeks... And wasn't heimderdinger supposed to be coming back? I KNOW I saw him on a list.

I don't know if you've been paying attention, but heimer was just free this last week or so? Thus the many many posts about his rocket exploits.

So far I believe every new champion has been rotated in the week of their release; I will be surprised to see if/when this fails to occur, unless more than 10 champions are released (in some kind of Great Week of Awesome.) Making the new champion free entices people to want them in the future (if they like how the character plays), and perhaps more importantly (except from a marketing standpoint), encourages enough play of the character to ensure a great deal of statistical data for quick balancing following their introduction. I hope that barring unusual circumstances, new characters are always free for a week (I could see keeping them in for their first 2 weeks making sense even.)

Beyond that, I think balance (across roles/types of champions rotated in a given week), variety, and relative uniformity (no champion should go for an exceptionally long time w/o being available relative to others) are all that really matters. While it's true that the free champions of a given week are most likely to be played by those new to the champions, and thus in some cases, more likely to feed, there is no where else for players to learn those champions, so I think the only thing to do here is trust to the matchmaking system to work out reasonable teams more or less, and trust to individuals to make balanced choices of characters within the lobby.

So many tanks this week, but only one last week (Alister). why?

I'd like to see a bit more of Sion, hes not very difficult and is pretty versatile.

Free champion rotations have been relatively good. However it does suck when the more stealthy ones get put on free multiple weeks in a row. Twitch being free makes me cringed!

I really like this idea, as it lets players test out heroes before they buy them!

Also, it;s great how you guys always have a nice mixture of tank/mage/dps etc. Good work!

Hope Jax and Twitch are free next time around ^^

Two vital issues with that.

I'd choose Twitch, Yi, and rammus. DPS, Stealth, Tank. And if i decided i didnt like it and wanted other heroes, i'd make another account and that one would just rot.

Now lets say we all like my combo. Infact, five people get pinned together with similar heroes. What happens when you have yi, rammus, and twitch, but they've all been selected? Are they supposed to assign you a new hero? I wouldnt much think so.

And no, selecting 5 heroes at the beginning wouldnt work either.

Fact is, im suprised they dont stick us with 5 **** heroes permenently, and make you pay to try new ones. Be glad they implemented this system.

i would like to see jax free, he's the only champion i havent tryed yet and he looks like alot of fun, i must of missed him or didnt play him when he was on free rotation thanks

that tends to be the only time you get a bad twitch.

I love how the free champions give you an effective preview of champions you would want to purchase eventually.

Though at the moment, the roster is incredibly large and while I appreciate all of the character variety (no characters feel, look and play the same), personally I would love to see some new maps and possibly game modes.

The two versions of Summoner's Field are neat. I absolutely adore Twisted Treeline but it doesn't seem to show up when I solo queue. One thing I love about Twisted Treeline is also the orientation view of both teams. Blue is always a little easier to play on Summoner's Field because of a slight view advantage. Twisted Treeline puts teams on equal footing in that regards and the way the forest surrounds each lane allows for nice team play and ambushes.

tl;dr: Any chance of seeing new maps this year?

Yes there is. People trying out Champions they've never played before can play some Practice matches to see whether or not they would actually want to play them in a real game.

What if the community could vote on a line-up out of a few selections each week posted by someone at Riot? There could be weekly votings on the main page or forums. That way you guys can still control what champions are in the line-up (variety) and the community can pick what they like (vote by majority). The only problem is that someone would have to take the time investment to do this weekly.

One other good point is that we could add suggestions to the line-ups so you can hear something that wasn't considered.

@Siveal

In each Champion Lineup For This Week thread, they ask for suggestions, and people post suggestions for the next several pages :P Is that what you were asking for?

Hahaha. You don't have to be super pro to turn Twitch into a killing machine but this post is just wrong in my experience.

nice can i have corky

Is it possible to create a simple programm or something that chooses the champions random?

If every week the setup would be like this (or something like this):
Mage: 2
Tank: 2
Melee dps: 3
Support: 1
Ranged dps: 2

It could check for new champions first, which will be free that week and choose random from all the champions that are left.

Because I don't think it will be nice to have a pattern in which champions that will be available that week, I think that gets boring, and this way you'll have a balanced line-up every week without getting boring.

Just a thought..

-Graedow

Question: When draft mode is implemented will you increase the number of champs in a rotation?

Because (if Im correct) people just starting would be very limited to their champ selection...because its 10 champs, 5 v5 with no duplicates on either side meaning some newer people would have very few options. Just curious. Cheers.

I read a post when somebody said you will probably have to unlock 20 champions+ (free rotation also count) and choose 20 of them (so you aren't penalised for unlocking champs you don't like) for -ar mode. I don't remember if it was a dev/council/emissary post or just a good idea but it'll probably be something like that for drafts.

I think that new champions being free the first week can go either way,

If you give them the first week free you give every one a demo period with the champ, it may make for more overall sales (IP Included)


If you dont It rewards your paying customers more, for having that exclusive before anyone else does. So it ultimately comes down to PR vs. Profit

I can see why not all new champs would be free.

i personally think recommended characters should be put on only. With exceptions to new releases, who are on for 2 weeks for balancing. This prevents problems like having to fight twitch every single game. If enough people have a problem put a character up for a week for balancing.

*edit* fail I'd swapped topics without realizing this is in the wrong post sorry all

I disagree with the recommend champions on rotation only, however I agree with the new champion releases on the rotation for balance reasons. I would also like to see champions with major changes (e.g. Udyr nerf, Poppy nerf, etc.) on the rotation as well to see how they balance on live servers, since not everyone has access to the test realms.

+1. Do it Riot!

Or change all the default skins of everyone to Yordles. Something awesome please ;)

I would like to see the random select choose from all heroes not just the ones that are unlocked or free that week. Once random is chosen it locks your choice so you can redo masteries and choose your rune page. So you could in effect have an unlimited number of free champs every week.

How many people actually use the random champ select anyway? This may put it into use a little. Especially with newer accounts that don't have any champs unlocked.

ok, will karthus or anivia be free soon?
cause it seems like they cost the most and are uaually played alot when there free but are hardly ever free