Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Why Maokai?

The Ecdysiast·10/1/2016, 11:41:57 PM·3 votes·710 views

Here's why I think they've decided to pick champions that either have little appeal or few good options for skins.

They lost money picking Morgana. She has two equally good paid options for skins, but they gave the Victorious Morgana skin special particles, making it match the quality of a 975 skin. So they gave people a "good" skin for free, but that means those players who liked Morgana and received the skin would feel less inclined to purchase another.

Then there was Sivir. Her Victorious skin has the quality of 750 skin. And every one of her other skins is either the same quality or worse. (Aside from the limited Snowdown and no longer available PAC skins) So there's less money to lose from giving away a skin for her.

So then, again we ask, "Why Maokai?" Well, if you're like me and the Meokai joke wasn't funny to you, or even if it was funny but you weren't literally rolling on the floor laughing because of it, there's no way we're going to shell out the full price of 1350RP just for a tree who throws cats. Then what are your other options? Two 750, one 520, and a 975 that isn't worth that much. All of the skins either cater to a specific audience, or a specific joke. And they all make no change to the fact he's tree. Tree on Fire. Christmas Tree. Tree with a Carved Mask as a Face, and Tree with a Goalpost. All pretty bad options. All not worth the money, unless you just want a skin for every champion and Totemic happens to go on sale. So they don't stand to lose as many potential purchases on picking him as they would for, say, Azir, Jayce, or Rek'sai--who all have pricier, nice options. (And then there's Elise, who they already chose and is still very relevant. Sucks for anyone who likes her now)

He's also not popular among the community. Perhaps he's a great pick in the highest rank of competitive play, but that doesn't translate to dollars out of the pockets of the majority. There's very little love for Maokai among the players, so he's a prime candidate for a free skin. (akin to when they almost gave everyone a Mundo skin)

P.S. If he had a Mecha skin, there's no way they'd've picked him. Maybe next year it'll be Victorious Zilean.

3 Comments

DwarvenGiant10/2/2016, 10:35:48 AM1 votes

Simple: His only really good skin is a joke skin for 1350 RP.

Sorry, but no. That's very subjective, because every Maokai skin is technically "good"- They're all modern and most feature at least one form of new particles. I'd argue that, if you're referring to high-quality skins with bells and whistles, then he does have at least two more high-quality skins of that kind, which are Haunted and Festive Maokai.

Edit: Actually, it's not even as much as those skins are "high-quality" more than other Maokai skins, but rather that they have much more bells and whistles than, say, Totemic or Goalkeeper Maokai.