The Prestige Aatrox and Vayne skins don’t feel like a prestigious reward

With the announcement of the Prestige version of Firecracker Vayne and the upcoming release of Blood Moon Aaatrox and the Prestige version of the skin, conversation among League of Legends players has focused on these golden skins.

Originally introduced for the 2018 Worlds event, a Prestige version of the K/DA Kai’Sa skin was announced, with a new model who did look substantially different than her original form. Then came Prestige K/DA Akali for the Snowdown Showdown event shortly after Worlds. The golden Blood Moon Aatrox popped up on the Public Beta Environment in December and is awaiting release on live servers. Now, we have another Prestige skin, presumably for the Lunar Revel event that takes place at the end of January.

Riot Games via Surrender@20

To get Akali and Kai’Sa’s skins, players had to buy a pass for 1650 RP and 1450 RP respectively, that would let them earn tokens. You’d get a handful of tokens after every game you play and more if you won, though these skins needed over 1,000 tokens to be unlocked — which means you had to play a lot of games of League of Legends to get them. You could also take the cash money method and buy bundles that included tons of tokens, though these bundles priced at nearly $50 each.

This is a completely optional part of the game that you don’t have to pay for or participate in. Why are people upset?

It’s a long grind

The point of the Prestige skin is that it’s an event reward for those who toughed it out and grinded for it. I play a dozen and a half mobile games where you have to plop down and focus on nothing else but the tapping grind for a week. There’s nothing wrong with rewarding devoted players with exclusive goods. But, with these League events spanning over weeks, it means that you have to get comfy and get ready to play consistently for a long time. Be prepared to become extremely devoted to League.

The new skins don’t look like a fancy reward

The new skins for Aatrox and Vayne don’t seem to bring much to the table, outside of, “Ooh! Another skin!” for people who main those champions. While Kai’Sa and Akali had pretty unique models and were generally well-received, the newer two skins seem lackluster in comparison.

Riot Games via Surrender@20

One user on reddit voiced that the Prestige skins should look like more than just a recolor of the original skins, maybe with different VFX, a completely unique splash art and a recall. The post notes that the Aatrox and Vayne skins look like chroma skins of the originals, with nothing particularly new outside of the recolored model and effects. While the K/DA Prestige skins had differences that made them feel like special skins, these seem to be lacking.

Blood Moon Aatrox’s Prestige version is unlocked through buying lootbox bundles and earning Prestige Points. Around $100 worth of lootboxes need to be purchased in order to get the points for him. Firecracker Vayne will be the Prestige skin for the Lunar Revel event and will need a pass, the same way K/DA Akali and Kai’Sa did. They simply don’t look good enough to warrant the time or money.

At the end of the day, nobody is forcing anyone to participate in these events and grind out around four wins a day to unlock a golden skin. For the Aatrox or Vayne fan (ahem), the situation is unfortunate, though hopefully Riot is listening to the player concerns.

Update (Jan. 10): The Prestige versions of Blood Moon Aatrox and Firecracker Vayne’s method of unlock has been confirmed. The story has been edited to include this information.