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Pyke Vs Mordekaiser, a Lesson in Favoritism

Touch Of Malice·7/17/2019, 6:45:20 PM·8 votes·5,516 views

TL;DR Riot really needs to tone down the favoritism for their popular champs, as it hurts those who don't play them

So Pyke is getting a legendary skin. It looks great! Whatever your opinions on the skin are, there's no arguing that the skin is legendary tier with a new VO, effects, etc. When going through the new stuff for Pyke, I noticed his dance was very similar to a champions that was reworked a few patches ago. And that champion is the big metal boi Mordekaiser.

The new Pyke skin summons a guitar and speaker, and he plays a PROJECT theme. Mordekaiser has a similar dance, where he summons a guitar, but plays a VERY watered down version of his theme song, especially when compared to Pyke. And on top of this, Mordekaiser only summons speakers in one skin. The Lord of Metal only summoning a speaker in one skin, and that skin only plays the same exact guitar riff for about 5 seconds, while Pyke plays a more fleshed out theme. That doesn't sound right.

Now this little difference in the dance is not why I'm posting this. But it leads to a problem that is obvious for anyone that doesn't play the top play rate champions. Mordekaiser, on rework release, had multiple skins in need of revamping. While Kayle and Morgana got most of theirs fully realized, Mordekaiser didn't even have changed VFX on more than half of them. After massive backlash and with the help of Riot Neal(praise be unto him) we finally got SOME VFX for Lord Morde(a 975 skin which should have effects to begin with) and King of Clubs. I feel like this is going to be a common theme of coming reworks for unpopular champions such as Pantheon, Volibear and Fiddle.

Now before you say, "well Pyke sells well and Riot only cares about money." Understand that I agree with you. They can make skins for their popular champions more than their unpopular ones because that makes them money, it's a business. But it's absolutely unacceptable that resources be pulled from one project and put more into another purely for the sake of popularity. This feels like a kick in the groin to players loyal to the unpopular champion they play. Mordekaiser didn't even get a login screen, but the legendary Jhin skin did. Why? Because Jhin is much more popular than Mordekaiser. To anyone that plays Udyr, Skarner, or Kassadin out there, I feel especially bad for you guys because it's clear that any skin that they make for those champs will never be as good as ones made for the likes of Ezreal or Lux, and sure as hell won't come as frequently(1000 day club boys).

Riot, your skins for the current PROJECT line look great (outside of Akali and maybe Jinx but that's my opinion), but PLEASE stop the trend of putting more work into a popular champion than an unpopular one. They can have more skins, but the skins shouldn't also be leagues above a one and done skin for an unpopular champion, or in this case, an entire reworks worth of skins.

13 Comments

4 Step Cadence7/17/2019, 6:53:38 PM6 votes

The new/reworked champions aren't getting login screens because of "favoritism". They're not getting them because Riot isn't doing login screens at all anymore because they're changing the client, and it completely removes the need for them.

As for the skins, he didn't get any for a while because he needed to get reworked. And he'll probably get one within the next few months or next year, seeing as how all the reworked champions lately have gotten skins within a year of their rework getting released.

Kazekiba7/17/2019, 7:00:57 PM1 votes

Pyke's Legendary doesnt even have new ability animations, its not much better than a 975 RP besides the voice line. And yes, they rehashed Pentakill mordekaiser's dance to make Project Pyke stand out and sell even more.

seeing as how all the reworked champions lately have gotten skins within a year of their rework getting released.

@4 Step Cadence Jinx is the only one of this Project line to not be a new champion or a VGU released in the last 2 years, even.

Hotarµ7/17/2019, 7:10:04 PM1 votes

TL;DR Riot really needs to tone down the favoritism for their popular champs, as it hurts those who don't play them

League of Legends is a completely free to play game. Riot needs to make money somehow.

In short, why make a skin that 1,000 people will buy when you can make one that is guaranteed to sell more in terms of volume and consistency?

The new Pyke skin summons a guitar and speaker, and he plays a PROJECT theme. Mordekaiser has a similar dance, where he summons a guitar, but plays a VERY watered down version of his theme song, especially when compared to Pyke. And on top of this, Mordekaiser only summons speakers in one skin. The Lord of Metal only summoning a speaker in one skin, and that skin only plays the same exact guitar riff for about 5 seconds, while Pyke plays a more fleshed out theme. That doesn't sound right.

Because you have to pay for Pyke's legendary skin.

Even in Mordekaiser's paid skins, you're still paying less than what you'd have to pay for Pyke's skin. More money = more effects and effort put into the skin.

It sucks but that's just how it is.

Mordekaiser didn't even have changed VFX on more than half of them.

I agree, I think that's dumb. All champions should have new VFX and/or animations to all of their skins. A model isn't enough to warrant a 10 dollar price tag.

CaptainAntiHeroz7/17/2019, 7:32:09 PM1 votes

I feel like akali and irelia kinda look like the Bullet angel kaisa skin but irelia looks cool.... jinx though..... i wish they just listened to the community

Lordk0z7/17/2019, 10:08:12 PM1 votes

The real question is why did they tone down Morde's theme at all? It'd be literally cheaper to just use the theme as-is.

Tin Obliterates7/20/2019, 8:08:41 AM1 votes

Morde's rework came out only recently, give it some time and he'll eventually get a new skin (Aatrox got his a few months after his rework's release for example).

Also I'm not really that mad about Project Pyke's dance. It was kind of a bummer at first but the more I saw it it eventually just got more and more annoying and too distracting/flashy, Morde's dance just being a simple guitar and a guitar version of his theme ended up being much more appealing to me in the end (Though we really need a Pentakill song on his Pentakill skin Riot pls, maybe make the whole animation loop too and not just the shred).

Modl Ryden l7/20/2019, 6:24:08 PM1 votes

To go off of reworked champs, many of their 'recolor' skins end up getting a total remodel.

Like Infernal, Lord, and Dragon Knight Mordekaiser.