LoL players are laughing to keep from crying over new cosmetics

A new League of Legends skin, Quantum Galaxy Zed, has been announced by Riot Games and is set to drop later this month. However, players are skeptical of the skin’s quality and potential price, and have been expressing their dissatisfaction again at Riot’s new monetization policies in League.

Riot announced the skin on social media on Feb. 4, and the post immediately drew a ton of negative attention from League players disgruntled and angry at Riot’s approach to monetization in season 2025. One player on Reddit reacted sharply, saying they would bet the skin is going to be another “giga expensive” cosmetic in line with some other recent releases. Another said how “GTA 6 will cost less than this skin,” and warned players to “keep that in mind” before placing a purchase. The comments on the Instagram post fared no better, though over there players primarily complained about the removal of Hextech Chests from League, with one even stating that Wild Rift (the mobile League game) still has them.

To add insult to injury, the Galaxy Slayer Zed skin already exists in League of Legends and has for almost six years. The Quantum Galaxy Slayer Zed that Riot is aiming to introduce as of Feb. 20 is a new and allegedly improved version of the previous skin, only this time it will be obtainable not via the shop, mythic or otherwise, but through the borderline gacha system known as The Sanctum.

In The Sanctum, you pay to roll in the hopes of receiving a valuable reward, with 80 rolls required to obtain the S-tier prize, which is where this skin will be. One roll costs 400 RP, meaning that a guaranteed S-tier skin would run you somewhere around $250 USD if you aren’t lucky enough to score the skin on a 0.5 percent chance.

This is just a part of the new monetization policy of Riot, who has implemented various changes to its game’s economics, doing away with Hextech Chests, abundant free skins and shards, and tons of Blue and Orange Essences in favor of gacha systems and grindy, semi-rewarding battle passes. For the record, you need to buy those for any sort of proper reward, too.