TLDR: Summoner Names are going away on November 20, but we've made some big updates to the plan: removing the cost for Riot ID changes and unlocking a free change every 90 days.

It’s been about a month since we announced the plan to move all accounts to Riot IDs and we’ve made some big adjustments to our approach. 

Why we’re moving forward with Riot IDs

Before jumping into the adjustments, we want to acknowledge that there are players who like being the only player with their Summoner Name on their server who were hoping to see us walk this back. We understand the frustration, but we think the time’s right to make the change:

  • The process of picking a unique Summoner Name is a terrible new player experience. It takes new League and TFT players an average of 5 minutes and 8 rejected attempts to pick a unique name, and thousands of players give up before finding a name they like. Just making it to the tutorial shouldn't be this hard.

  • It’s very common for players to use numbers and symbols to imitate the name they actually want. We feel it’s better to have more than one Aatrox on a server versus multiple variations of 447r0x. 

  • This also helps clean up tech debt from carrying two different naming systems and frees up engineers to do other things.

Separately, some players across VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and Wild Rift have gotten used to changing their Riot ID every 30 days. Candidly, it was never our intention with Riot IDs that they’d be changed so often; we want them to be a lasting way to identify yourself to your friends and for players to recognize you in game. That said, we understand 365 days can be too long to wait for a change and we’re reducing it to 90 days (more on that below).

We also heard from players who enjoy having a different name in League/TFT than they do in VAL/LoR/WR. We get it, but we hope over time you’ll embrace having one identity across the whole ecosystem. So let the Rift know that you’re “Her Phoenix #4eva” or flex your off-meta pride with “ChoSupport #FEAST” in a game of Spike Rush. 

How we’ve changed plans

After reviewing feedback from players around the world and a lot of internal discussion, we’ve settled on a few adjustments:

  • Cost for Riot ID Changes: We want there to be something that makes you think twice about changing your name. Historically, for Summoner Names, Blue Essence or RP did this. For Riot IDs, it was time. Under our new plan, we think we found the right balance with time alone. If it turns out this approach isn’t hitting the right goals, we’re keeping the door open to modifications in the future, including adding paid or earned options for faster Rioter ID changes.

  • Frequency of Name Changes: You should have a connection to your name, but we never want you to feel stuck with a name you don’t like. 365 days is a long wait and based on last year’s data, three months should be a good sweet spot. Going forward, you'll have the opportunity to change your Riot ID for free once every 90 days, starting with this update.

  • Name Uniqueness: We heard concerns about players with the same name in the same game. Based on data from games where we already use Riot ID, it’s a rare scenario, but just in case, we've updated the game scoreboards to always display the hashtag when multiple players with the same name are in the same game. In our first announcement, we also should have been clearer that you’ll be able to see the hashtag portion of a name at any time by hovering that player on the scoreboard and that the hashtag is customizable, not randomized like how some other games assign names.

  • Impersonation Concerns: Some content creators and professional players told us that they’re concerned about impersonation under the Riot ID system. We think we have a good solution in the works and we’ll share more about that when details are final.

What’s next

This change will start rolling out on Monday, November 20, with exact timing depending on your region. You can read more about the specifics in an updated FAQ here.