If you just downloaded League of Legends for the first time, you’ve probably scrolled through the in-game store and seen hundreds of skins, champion bundles, and battle passes available for real money purchase. It’s normal to wonder if you have to open your wallet to stand a chance against other players, especially if you’re being matched against people who seem to have every champion unlocked already. As someone who’s played the game for 8 years, climbed to Diamond 3, and spent less than $20 total on cosmetic skins, I can answer is League of Legends pay to win clearly, with no hidden caveats or sales pitches.
What Makes People Think League of Legends is Pay to Win?
A lot of the confusion around this question comes from old LoL systems that don’t exist anymore, plus common misconceptions new players pick up from social media. If you’ve only spent 10 hours in the game so far, it’s totally normal to ask is League of Legends pay to win when you see the in-game store packed with items for sale. Back before 2017, players had to buy rune pages with real money if they wanted more than 2 preset loadouts, and runes themselves cost in-game currency that was hard to earn for new players. That old system did give paying players a small edge, but Riot completely scrapped it 6 years ago to make the game fairer for free players.
Another common myth is that you have to buy champions with real money to access the strongest picks. It’s true that new players only get 10 free champions when they first sign up, and full price champions cost 6300 blue essence to unlock – a currency you earn from playing games. But you don’t need every champion to win, and you can unlock meta picks for free pretty quickly if you prioritize your blue essence spending. I unlocked my main champion Jinx within my first 2 weeks of playing without spending a cent, and I’ve used her for 90% of my ranked climbs ever since.
Some new players also assume that pro players spend hundreds of dollars on their accounts to get all champions, but that’s not true either. Pro players get special tournament accounts from Riot that have every champion and skin unlocked for free, so they never have to spend their own money on the game. Regular players who have all champions unlocked usually just have been playing for years, not spent thousands of dollars on RP.
Purchases That Actually Give You Zero Competitive Edge
This is one of the biggest myths we can bust when talking about is League of Legends pay to win: no amount of skin purchases will ever make you win more games. Every single cosmetic item in the game has zero impact on stats, ability damage, attack speed, or any other gameplay mechanic. I bought a Star Guardian Ahri skin for $15 a few years ago, and it didn’t make my skill shots land any more often – if anything, the bright ability effects were more distracting for me than the default skin.
All purchases that don’t affect gameplay fall into these categories:
- All skins, chromas, and skin bundles, regardless of rarity or price point, from $5 epic skins to $200 ultimate edition bundles
- Summoner icons, emotes, profile banners, and ward skins that only change how your account looks to other players
- Battle pass premium tracks, which only grant extra cosmetic rewards and free currency you can earn through normal play
- Account name changes, region transfers, and other quality of life account adjustments that don’t impact in-game performance
Battle passes are a common point of confusion for new players, so it’s worth breaking them down further. The premium battle pass costs around $10, but all the non-cosmetic rewards you get from it – blue essence, champion shards, orange essence for skins – are all available in the free track too. The only extra stuff you get from the premium track is skins, emotes, and icons. You also have to grind the same number of games to unlock premium track rewards as you do for free ones, so there’s no pay-to-skip option for battle pass progression.
I’ve played against teams full of players with $200 ultimate skins and beaten them while using default skins on all my champions. Skins are just for fun, they don’t make someone a better player. If you’re buying a skin, it should only be because you think it looks cool, not because you think it will help you climb ranks.
The Only Purchases That Could Be Seen As Pay For Convenience
While there are no purchases that give you a competitive edge, there are a few things you can buy that save you time grinding. These are pay-for-convenience features, not pay-to-win, because they don’t give you an advantage you can’t earn for free with a little extra playtime. Champion purchases with RP are the most common example – you can buy any champion in the game for between $5 and $10, but you can also earn every single champion for free with blue essence if you play consistently.
Buying a champion early doesn’t make you better at them, either. I’ve seen new players spend $10 on Zed, a high-skill assassin, and feed 10 kills in their first game because they didn’t take the time to learn his abilities. It’s always better to test a champion out in the free weekly rotation before you spend either blue essence or real money on them.
XP boosts are another pay-for-convenience feature that new players sometimes confuse for pay-to-win. XP boosts double the amount of account XP you earn from games, so you can hit level 30 (the level required to play ranked) faster. But once you hit level 30, XP boosts do absolutely nothing. And even if you get to level 30 a week earlier than a free player, you’ll still be stuck in low ranks if you don’t have the game sense to win games. According to Riot’s 2023 player data, 68% of active LoL players have never spent a cent on the game, and 22% of Grandmaster rank players are completely free-to-play.
You can also buy chests and keys for loot, but again, you can earn both for free by getting S ranks in games or completing missions. Loot only gives you skins, champion shards, and essence, all stuff you can earn without spending money. There’s no way to buy rank boosts, stat increases, or exclusive in-game advantages for real money, period.
How to Climb Ranks Without Spending Any Money on LoL
I’ve climbed to Diamond 3 without spending any money on champions, runes, or battle passes, so I know first-hand that it’s completely possible to reach high ranks as a free-to-play player. The first tip I give new free-to-play players is to stop wasting blue essence on random champions you’ll never play. Prioritize earning blue essence through daily first win missions – that mission gives you 400 extra blue essence every 20 hours, so logging in for just one win a day will let you unlock a new 6300 blue essence champion every 2 weeks.
Don’t disenchant champion shards unless you absolutely hate the champion, either. You can unlock a champion from a shard for 60% less blue essence than buying it full price, so holding onto shards for meta champions will save you hundreds of blue essence over time. If you get a shard for a champion you don’t want, disenchant it and save the essence for picks you actually want to main.
You don’t need extra rune pages to climb, either. Riot gives you 2 free rune pages when you hit level 10, and you can edit them for free at any time, even in champion select. I only use 4 rune pages total for all 5 roles, and I’ve never had a problem. Don’t waste blue essence on extra rune pages unless you have hundreds of thousands of essence saved up and nothing else to spend it on.
The biggest tip I can give is to master 2 to 3 champions in your main role first, instead of bouncing between different picks every game. You’ll learn their ability cooldowns, power spikes, and matchups much faster if you stick to a small champion pool. I climbed from Iron 4 to Platinum playing only Jinx and Thresh, both of which I unlocked for free with blue essence. Focus on learning core skills like wave management, map awareness, and team fight positioning – those are the skills that will help you climb, not how many champions you have unlocked.
So, is League of Legends pay to win? The short answer is no, not at all. Every single competitive advantage in the game is earned through practice and game sense, not through spending money. The only things you can buy with real money are cosmetic items and convenience features that don’t give you any edge over free players. If you’re worried about having to spend money to keep up with other players, you don’t – you can climb all the way to Challenger without spending a single cent, as long as you’re willing to put in the time to learn the game. I still play every weekend with a group of friends who have never spent money on LoL, and we regularly beat teams full of players with hundreds of dollars worth of skins. Spending money in LoL only makes your champion look cooler, it doesn’t make you a better player.