First up, it has been revealed that Smolder and Kante’s Blue Essence Emporium Chibi icons got added to the PBE as a loot asset. This confirms that the Essence Emporium is very soon. Many were concerned it might be canceled again since there has been little information until now. However, it seems that Riot is still working on the Emporium, and it should be going live very soon.

If these icons were added to the PBE now, it should be live within the next patch, maybe the one after, but if I had to guess, it’ll probably go live halfway between the next patch, so in 2 or 3 weeks from now. This sort of lines up with an earlier prediction which said May or June, which is when the emporium normally goes live in the middle of the year, so it looks like we will be getting it in June.

Mastery Update and Server Patches

This week’s patch has started updating for some servers. One of the things I noticed is the SR weekly chest icon has disappeared, so you can no longer earn chests this way. If the patch hasn’t updated for you yet and you still have a weekly chest left, then I recommend trying to grind it before the patch updates as you’ll lose that forever.

The big Mastery update is live for some servers and will go live for everyone over the next 24 hours. Those new, arguably unattractive, icons have been added to each champion and your Mastery points have converted over. At the top are the 10 champions for each person’s Mastery set, and it should be a little bit different for each person now.

The good news about this update is, if you really want to, you can speedrun some free chests now. You can earn a chest for up to six champions now if you play at least five games and achieve the Milestone grade one scores, which is one B-minus grade or higher and four C-minus grades or higher. Each chest should roughly take about five games, although it might take a couple more depending on what your grades are.

Gameplay and Player Impact

Riot’s frequent updates and the introduction of new assets such as the Chibi icons in the Essence Emporium continue to impact gameplay and Player strategies. These updates not only introduce new ways to engage with the game but also often alter the balance and competitive environment, requiring players to adapt quickly. The recent Mastery updates and changes to how chests can be earned are particularly notable, as they directly affect how players can gain new champions and other game assets. The shift in requirements for earning these rewards reflects a broader trend of evolving game dynamics and player engagement strategies.

Adjustments to Mastery Requirements

When it was first announced, some of the requirements had D-minus grades and up, whereas now it says C-minus and up. However, there’s a buff to the first requirement for the first four Milestones. For example, Milestone 1 used to say 1 B grade, now it says 1 B-minus grade and up. Milestone 2 is now an A-minus grade and up, Milestone 3 is S-minus grade and higher, and Milestone 4 is S-minus grade.

However, Milestones 5 and beyond have been nerfed; you now need seven S-minus grades or higher where it used to be 3 S grades. There are some minor changes to these; hopefully, it doesn’t make it that much harder or longer to grind. To get six free chests now, you have to play at least five games on six different Champions, which totals about 30 games. You can easily grind this over the next few days.

Rank Split and Mastery Points Changes

In addition to this, with the Rank split resetting whenever it goes live for your region, you’ll be able to get a rank reward straight away if you play a couple of rank games, which should be a hextech chest. That’s about seven chests that you can start grinding for right away. Now, in the FAQ article, there have also been a couple of other changes. You can earn more Mastery points the more people in your pre-made; a full pre-made of five people can get you 10% extra Mastery points. This is a good change, and obviously, if you wanted to farm Mastery points quicker, then the best way to do it would be to play in a pre-made of five people.

Masterwork Chest and Mastery Milestones

Something else mentioned in this article was the superior Mastery chest. As it turns out, this chest is just the same as a Masterwork chest and contains the same stuff. However, it won’t count towards the Masterwork tracker, so this is a bit of a nerf. It won’t count towards that repeating 25 Masterwork chest tracker, and it’s just the regular Masterwork. The way it was presented in the article before, it sounded like it would be better than a Masterwork, but it’s just the same.

To get this Masterwork chest, you need to hit 12 Milestones using the Champions that are in the set of 10 Champions at the top. You can either do this on a few Champions but hitting more Milestones on them, which might be harder due to the harder grades needed for the higher Milestones, or you could try and hit Milestone one on each of the 10 Champions and then Milestone two on two of the Champions to get a total of 12 Milestones. Because each Milestone will take at least five games, then to get

Masterwork Chest and Mastery Levels

To acquire this Masterwork chest, you need to play at least 60 games, and it could be more games if you don’t get the grade required on the first try. Riot has revealed the Mastery points required for each Mastery level. For example, Mastery level 2 only requires 1,800 Mastery points, but Mastery level 10 and above requires 11,000 Mastery points and two marks of Mastery. You’ll also unlock the champion title permanently at this level.

Another thing to note is that you can still progress Mastery on champions you don’t own. For instance, if you play a lot of ARAMs, you’ll still get Mastery points on those champions even if you don’t own them. Speaking of ARAM, they still haven’t addressed how difficult it will be to get these Mastery chests and Milestones done in ARAM games because you can’t choose your champion; you’ll just progress them randomly.

For example, if you wanted to earn those six chests straight away, you’re going to have to play the Summoner’s Rift game modes, or if you don’t mind waiting, then just play games normally and try to remember if you’ve played champions before and play the same ones again as much as possible. It would be good if Riot did add a way to see which progress you’re making during ARAM champion select, which might help some people keep track of it.

Upcoming Events and New Champion Teasers

Moving on to some other news, JX Gameplays has tweeted out this new emote which has the name Aurora. This could be hinting at the new champion which might end up being called Aurora, and apparently, it’s tagged as part of an event called Spirit of Hearth Home. I’m not exactly sure what this means, but it looks like there could be a launch event or something to do with a new champion soon, maybe within the next month.

It looks like there are three new icons for this event in total, and the description says this icon was awarded as part of the event. So it’s possible these end up being free rewards for this event that seems to be happening at some point.

Spotlights tweeted out all the new icons and emotes that got added to the PBE today. So there’s that new mini-event, the champy icons, it looks like Nasus is getting an icon, and there’s also some pride emotes. These should be free or cost one Blue Essence, and you should be able to get some free Pride loot at the start of June by completing some missions. Also shown was the icon and emote for the new champion, which might end up being called Aurora.

Gameplay Updates and Balance Changes

Next up, Spider Ax has tweeted out that Ornn’s passive is getting a mini rework. Every legendary item will be able to be upgraded, but it’s still only one item per champion, and the item chosen will be the one in your first slot. Moving on to some updates that were in today’s patch notes, there are some ARAM balance changes, and this week they’re focusing on buffing a lot of the assassins. For example, Qiyana will now deal 115% damage. She was already a problem in the hands of people who knew how to play her, and she’ll be even worse now. Sidani is getting a bit of a nerf to his damage taken.

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