Anyone else have trouble with arcade skins?
I don't get to play against a lot of arcade skins so playing against one today kinda shook me. I mostly play mid a role where I don't see too many, I do know there is Veigar which is a rarity and the new Ahri skin which is more common. While they do sound like a cool concept, some of them can be quite bothersome. In this topic I'm going to talk about just Ahri in particular since I haven't played against or with the other new skins. It's similiar to the issue that some people have with project skins, like ashe arrow not being easily recognizable. Hence why so many people play it, it gives an advantage over the other skins.
So today is my first day playing against and seeing the new arcade Ahri skin in the rift. Loading into the game I think "well this will be cool, new Ahri skin and it's some cool arcade concept how can you hate?." After all it is Ahri, leagues most popular champion and it's no secret that riot loves her. She is a cash cow.
Walking into lane as Viktor I feel pretty confident as I play a lot of Viktor and I have a decent amount of experience with Ahri. I'm familiar with the matchup, so I feel like I can do a decent job and then it starts. Bleep, bleep, bleep. All I can hear is this annoying bleeping sound which is her auto attack and it sounds 3 times louder than any other auto attack sfx. At first I thought I will get over it but it was very distracting and it made me lose focus a little bit farming minions. Now all of a sudden another bleep, but this one is her Q. I didn't even realize it at first because the sound reminded me of the auto attack, which by then it was already to late. As the laning phase progressed I realized I was having a hard time with not only the SFX but also the visuals of the spells too. The spells don't stick out well compared to her other skin counter parts. To me her Q looked like a bigger version of the auto attack, a bigger square that makes the same bleeping sound. Now maybe I'm just not use to it and need to play against it more, maybe I just suck (probably) or maybe because the animation doesn't match anything else in the game. You got this cartoony, flashy, odd colored visualization which you are just not use to seeing. And that can mean a lot for us as we depend on these visualizations and sfx to know what to do. They help us react and play around certain things accordingly. When those type of things change drastically they can affect or change the way you play, which I feel creates a small advantage not based on the champion but the skin.
The margin of people this might affect could be very small, so maybe it's just not worth mentioning any of this. But I did feel like I struggled a lot so I'd give it a mention. I'm also not trying to take away from my opponent either, honestly I thought he/she played better than me, but the skin didn't make it any easier.
Does anyone else have the same trouble?
TLDR certain bizarre animations and bad sfx can create an unfair advantage.