After reevaluating the plan, we’ve changed up our approach, so everything below is out of date. Read about the changes here.
On November 20, 2023, we’ll be phasing out the usage of “Summoner Names” and moving all players exclusively to Riot IDs to create a more unified experience across all our games. We understand there may be some mixed emotions regarding these changes—whether you’ve been here for 14 years or 14 minutes, in-game names are an important part of how you experience a game. Our goal is to make this change as seamless as possible and help you feel as connected to your Riot ID as you do your Summoner Name.
Why is this happening?
The lore of Runeterra, League of Legends, and Summoner’s Rift has changed over the years. In the beginning, players were Summoners who brought the original roster of Champions to the Rift. Eventually, this became limiting to the world and the characters within it, so in 2014, the focus shifted to the Champions themselves, rather than all-powerful Summoners.
The word Summoner still shows up in a few places like the odd voice line, the occasional reference, and, most notably, the name of the Rift. But, when it comes to players, Summoner Name doesn’t sync with the lore and hasn’t for a while. This update is designed to better match the current world of League of Legends, create more fluidity between all of our titles, and streamline the way names work from a technical perspective.
Do I need to do anything?
Nope. You don’t have to take any action for this update. If you’ve played a Riot Game before, you have a Riot ID. If you aren’t sure what your Riot ID is, there’s a few ways to check:
Log into your account via account.riotgames.com and your Riot ID should be listed at the top. This is also where you can change your Riot ID as well.
To check your Riot ID through League of Legends, log into the game and hover over your profile picture at the top right. You’ll then see your Riot ID.
Going Forward with Riot ID
As part of this change, we’re also updating how often you may change your Riot ID for free. Once we swap over to Riot ID, every player will receive a free name change every 365 days. If players want to change their names more often than that, there will be a fee attached, similar to the current Summoner Name system.
There are a few reasons we decided on this system and we want to explain them here:
As the primary name of a player, how you choose to identify yourself in the game should have a bit of weight to it. In addition, it can be hard to track a larger friends list with constant name changes, and no one likes to lose track of that Skye main with crisp comms and clutch heals.
With Riot ID becoming the standard across all of our titles, the ability to change your name for free every 30 days just isn’t something we can do from a technical and business perspective. The 365-day cooldown is aimed at striking a balance that both encompasses the majority of name changes by players while also providing an option for players who want to change their names more often than that.
How Can I Change My Name?
As part of this change, we will have a free name change available for all players immediately after the shift happens on November 20th. If players want to purchase an additional name change you will be able to do so on the accounts page and it will cost the equivalent of approximately $10 USD in in-game currency.
On November 20, the only in-game currencies that will be supported are Riot Points and Legends of Runeterra Coins. The tech teams on our other titles are working on pathing that will also allow for name changes to be purchased using VALORANT Points, Wild Rift Cores, and TFT Coins in the future. As we know this isn’t ideal for players, we will also have a couple more free name changes in the coming months to ease the transition to Riot ID.
Our social channels will have updates for when these free name change resets will happen and when these other currencies will come online.
For more information, you can visit our Player Support articles for Summoner Names and Riot IDs.
*Note at 4:30pm Pacific on October 16, we changed the images in the article above to better show what this would look like in action
Riot Pyro & Riot cjhamster
Riot Pyro is the Senior Product Manager for the Player Identity Experience team at Riot Games since May 2022. Fun fact: Riot Pyro loves putting Buffalo Sauce on just about anything.
Riot cjhamster is the Technical Program Manager working on the League Client. He’s been working at Riot since December 2022, and has yet to convince the design team to buff Kayn.