Pyke Vs Mordekaiser, a Lesson in Favoritism

Touch Of Malice·Jul 17, 2019·8 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 CadenceJul 17, 20196 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.

Touch Of MaliceJul 17, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=4 Step Cadence,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=4KTzMAu3,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2019-07-17T18:53:38.406+0000)

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.

Okay, the login screen stuff is passable. But tell me why Mordekaiser didn't get the same treatment as, say, Kayle or Morgana? They both have new effects on ALL of their skins, even the low price ones, while Mordekaiser has them on less than half of his.

SuicidePlankJul 17, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Touch Of Malice,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=4KTzMAu3,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2019-07-17T18:58:24.429+0000)

Okay, the login screen stuff is passable. But tell me why Mordekaiser didn't get the same treatment as, say, Kayle or Morgana? They both have new effects on ALL of their skins, even the low price ones, while Mordekaiser has them on less than half of his.

And Kayle Mains/Players had to cry for VFX too.

Chembaron YamadaJul 17, 20191 votes

Most likely not because of favouritism, but because they were running out of time.

At least for me, it seems like Mordekaiser just took way longer than they expected for his update and that is why this stuff didn't turn out as finished as you would expect.

Qiyana released the very next patch after Mordekaiser. I don't think that is a coincidence. I think Qiyana was actually finished way before Mordekaiser and at some point, the teams working on Mordekaiser got told "we have a schedule, there is other stuff to work on, just release what you have now and move on".

Unfortunate, it really is. But Riot is a business, they have deadlines to match.

FSRERJul 18, 20191 votes

Yes, they were on a very strict deadline to release a very complicated and inspired champion named Yuumi with amazing gameplay and a intruiging lore. How dare us blame them!

KazekibaJul 17, 20191 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.

4 Step CadenceJul 17, 20191 votes

But Akali and Irelia already got post-rework skins before this, with Akali getting K/DA and Irelia getting Divine Sword. Nunu & Willump got Papercraft, Swain got Dragon Master, ect. The reworks released this year(Kayle & Morgana, Morde, and Pantheon) probably won't see skins until next year.

HotarµJul 17, 20191 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.

CaptainAntiHerozJul 17, 20191 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

Lordk0zJul 17, 20191 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 ObliteratesJul 20, 20191 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).