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Should Riot do a Create-a-Champion Contest?

Malzahard Mode·3/2/2015, 11:14:08 PM·28 votes·1,963 views

Over the years I have seen many players (myself included) come up with some amazing concepts for champions to fit into the world of League of Legends. Some of these champions have been created based on existing lore, others have been created from the endless imagination of the communities members. Many of these have all been posted on the Forum boards before to be seen by players and RIOT employees alike. Some have even been made post of the day and have been loved by hundreds of players. However due to legal reasons, RIOT cannot simply take these ideas and make them into reality.

UNLESS they make a submission based contest. In order to make the contest, they would (in the most basic explanation possible) have the creator wave and right to claim ownership, royalties, theft, fraud, etc. of the materials they enter into the contest format and be aware that there will be no guarantee of any form compensation of intrinsic value for their work. Any individual aspects from created content could be used in combination with any other user-submitted or RIOT created content in any all future works.

If they did make this contest a reality, RIOT could pick, one two, or even ten champion concepts, and put them all into the pipeline for creation. If RIOT wanted to, they could give winners of the contest a special summoner icon, or even have the champion unlocked on their account once created for no charge as a reward for winning, but that is entirely up to the RIOT team.

So what do you say, if RIOT gave you all the chance to submit your idea of a champion with a chance of it being it made into a playable one, knowing the only guaranteed reward is the knowledge that you have permanently contributed something to League of Legends, would you?

36 Comments

Sir ArmaMalum3/2/2015, 11:28:57 PM4 votes

Personally I would love this, but there are a few additional problems with this that player created content produces simply by nature.

Timeline. Riot already has several champions in various stages of development over the next year or even two years that can't be adjusted easily. As an example: Ao-Shin where?? Adding a player-created concept will most likely be tacked onto the end. Meaning that a player created champion will, at best, be released a year after the concept is taken.
Expectations. When a concept is advertised it puts its best foot forward, as it should. There are concepts here that are simply jaw-dropping, and being up on a global or even national stage would up the anty even more. Imagine the level of amazing-ness we would get if there was a real goal involved on top of the respectable passion conceptors have. This is a great thing, don't get me wrong, but Riot's team would have to live up to that expectation that was already set, while at the same time keeping the champion balanced and address visual aspect problems like clipping and smooth animations that don't appear on a normal concept.
Community opinion. The definition of "balanced" and "good" is so skewed between the community fragments I doubt we would get a single concept to be unanimously liked.

Now granted these issues can be solved by having a "perfect" concept complete with model, animations, voice overs and the like. But at that point why not use that on a portfolio and apply to work for Riot? :P

Again, I'm not saying it's a bad idea at all, I would love to see it happen, but I also want to make sure the problems that have held something like this back are known. There are more, but those are the first that I think of.

ZGM Dazzling3/3/2015, 8:16:38 PM3 votes

please please please get this to the top of the "HOT" posts.

Squeekems3/2/2015, 11:19:03 PM3 votes

I think Riot should do an annual champion concept contest. Have all the submissions go through their judgement and then have their top picks for the winner be voted on by the community. I am thinking of the way American Idol works.

ugIy boy3/2/2015, 11:19:09 PM3 votes

yessss dude this would be amazing. I think just 1 champion though.

SociopathFriend3/3/2015, 10:38:42 PM2 votes

I'd think the least they could do with something like this is at least give the creator the champion and associated starting skin for free- just because you're already using your League account on the forums.

Solaxo3/3/2015, 9:00:42 AM2 votes

They don't even listen to our balance suggestions or even bug reports, and you want them to do a contest? Lol

SociopathFriend3/3/2015, 12:11:34 PM2 votes

The only "catch" is that if they do this, their own champion creation team would be denied work. Remember, they're earning a paycheck just like everyone else.

That said, totes agree, some of the concepts out here are phenomenal.

Skunt3/3/2015, 11:10:00 PM2 votes

We should replace CertainlyOP concepts with fan concepts.

warpenguin5553/4/2015, 5:20:07 PM2 votes

Yes, of course.

They would obviously might not be able to keep the entire kit/ scalings the same but i could see it happening with the winner receiving their champion for free and testing on the PBE for it

Nucleophilic atk3/4/2015, 5:22:44 PM1 votes

OMG yes! I could finally create my champion: Taylor Swift.

Linna Excel3/2/2015, 11:27:03 PM1 votes

I'd love something like this.

You can send in one design per person (smurfs are disqualified, only your first submission among all accounts is qualified). Any finalists or semi finalists (8-10) that pass a certain bar will get put in a pool of champs that could be made (original designers get credit/input). Winner definitely is made.

Nagirah3/3/2015, 7:26:19 AM1 votes

Considering how much work designing a working champion is... as much as I love the idea, I don't think riot would be ready to give fans this much power. A design a skin contest would be much better considering how much easier they're to make and don't affect game balance. Just my opinion.

1st HanarSpectre3/3/2015, 8:46:00 AM1 votes

Do you want to end up with garbage like Cthuluphant, because that's how you end up with garbage like Cthuluphant. Remember when C-A-D guy got his referal and tried to submit a fucking shark on wheel as a hero?

Seth Lightheart3/2/2015, 11:16:17 PM1 votes

That would be awesome.

The only possible issue is who owns the content. Even if you 'sign it away' you can still take them to court.

I do love the idea though.