Riot ID name-changing rules are to be further adjusted for better user experience.
League of Legends and other Riot IPs, Valorant, TFT, Legends of Runeterra, etc., used to have different display names. By that, I mean each game had different names that showed while playing the game. Ever since Riot unified their own single-game launcher, they have been trying to integrate certain user experience stuff into a single system.
One of the first things they did was to introduce Riot ID. Riot ID is a different name from your username, though. This is the display name or ‘ign’ (in-game name) in Riot IPs. Valorant has had this Riot ID naming system since its release. However, League of Legends was released more than a decade ago. At that time, they probably did not consider new Riot IPs.
But now, they do have multiple online games. Although different in genre, they are all in the same launcher. Therefore, it makes sense for Riot to want to have the players be known by a single name across all of their IPs. Riot ID is their way of achieving that purpose. So, instead of having a Summoner name (exclusive to League of Legends), Riot wants players to go by a single name shared across all the games.
Earlier, they had announced their plans to move away from Summoner’s Name to Riot ID. Then, they brought the change to TFT in PBE patch 13.21. And now they are planning to do it for LoL and other IPs on the Riot Games Launcher. Thus replacing the summoner’s name system completely. So, no matter which Riot IP you play, your display name in the game will be the same.
However, there are some issues with this new system. Summoner names could easily be changed as many times as you want using 13900 Blue Essence or equivalent RP. But Riot ID is not a part of a single game but rather the whole launcher. Therefore, you can’t use the exchange mechanics. So, you had to wait for a year before you could change your name again. However, it would make people feel ‘stuck’ with a regrettable name for so long.
In this article, I will be discussing how Riot plans to handle and balance this whole change.
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Adjustments for Riot ID Changes
As you may already know, changing Riot ID is much different from changing Summoner names. Initially, players needed to wait for an entire year, as mentioned before. However, Riot thinks it’d be frustrating for players to wait that long, especially coming from the Summoner Name changing rules. Therefore, they decided to reduce the timeframe to 3 months. And this adjustment will also apply to all of the Riot IPs.
This resolves the issue of feeling ‘stuck’ with an impulsive name change and also gives a semi-permanent feeling associated with the name before moving on to a newer one. Because Riot wants you to feel that your name change has a more visible effect. The previous ‘Blue Essence-to-Summoner Name change’ was almost free. So, there was no ‘consequence’ involved for all practical purposes.
About the cost of changing names
So, the ability to change Riot ID once every 3 months will be free of any cost. But Riot also wants to keep other options open in case of urgency. Therefore, they have plans on introducing either a pay-to-change feature or creating a system that allows the players to ‘earn’ it. I personally think that people who have higher honor levels should be given privileges in this regard. But let’s see what Riot does.
Overall, I think the majority of the player base will find this adjustment a huge improvement over the initial system that offered little to no flexibility. But the question still remains regarding the necessity of this change in the first place.
