Who do you want to/think will have the next Victorious skin? (2019)

Alright, it's that time of year again. Last year, I made a post with the goal of narrowing down who would have the next Victorious Skin. I was able to get it down to a set of 39, which did include Orianna. You can find the post here: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/general-discussion/Z5Q9sYXh-who-do-you-want-tothink-will-have-the-next-victorious-skin

Since it will follow the same rules, I'll be copy-pasting some stuff from last time. Like last time, if you don't want to read through all the crap I had to research to get to my final choices for this poll, just click the link at the bottom of the post.

We start looking at options for the Victorious Skin in the Spring. Making any skin takes time, but the Victorious Skin is also teased one month before it’s released. With this in mind, we need to plan ahead for the Victorious skin, especially in comparison to a normal skin.

To begin, we take a look at champions that had a big competitive impact so far that year—this is largely based on Ranked and Pro play. Once we have some ideas for potential champions, we narrow down that list by eliminating champions who:

1. Already have a Victorious, Championship, or Conqueror skin. We wouldn’t do Conqueror and Victorious Karma in the same year, or Victorious Elise 2.0.
2. Play the same role as a recent Victorious Skin. Since we had a top laner last season, we tried to avoid picking a top laner again this year.
3. Have another skin coming out soon. We try to spread out skin content across our whole champion pool rather than drop a bunch of skins for one champ at the same time.
4. Have a very small number of skins. Since the Victorious Skin can’t be attained by everyone, we don’t want that to feel like the only skin your favorite champ gets.
5. Have a big balance change incoming. This is definitely the hardest criteria to figure out because balance can be fluid and we’re trying to predict the state of the game six months or so in advance.

Let's dissect each of these criteria to figure out who we can rule out.

1. Those who currently have Victorious skins are Jarvan IV, Janna, Elise, Morgana, Sivir, Maokai, Graves, and Orianna. Those who currently have Championship skins are Riven, Thresh, Shyvana, Kalista, Zed, Ashe, Kha'Zix, and Ryze. Those who currently have Conqueror skins are Ahri, Nidalee, Karma, Varus, and Alistar (for those of you who don't know, Challenger Ahri and Challenger Nidalee were chosen to be included in the Conqueror line).

2. Last year's pick was Orianna: a midlaner. That said I think that the following is a good list of conventional midlaners that have not already been mentioned (conventional in this case meaning their main role is mid or it's at least 50:50 with another role): Akali, Anivia, Annie, Aurelion Sol, Azir, Cassiopeia, Corki, Diana, Ekko, Fizz, Karthus, Kassadin, Katarina, LeBlanc, Lissandra, Lux, Malzahar, Neeko, Qiyana, Syndra, Talon, Twisted Fate, Veigar, Viktor, Xerath, Yasuo, Ziggs, and Zoe.

3. For this one, let's look over the list of skins that have been released since Victorious Orianna (excluding the IG skins since they were chosen by the pro players and thus out of Riot's direct control, as well as release skins): Praetorian Fiddlesticks, Praetorian Graves, Program LeBlanc, Program Nami, Coven Camille, Coven Lissandra, Solar Eclipse Leona, Lunar Eclipse Leona, Pajama Guardian Lux, Pajama Guardian Lulu, Pajama Guardian Ezreal, Pajama Guardian Miss Fortune, Pajama Guardian Soraka, Hextech Renekton, Frozen Prince Mundo, Snow Man Yi, Ice King Twitch, Winter Wonder Soraka, Blood Moon Aatrox, Blood Moon Pyke, Blood Moon Sivir, Firecracker Sejuani, Coin Emporer Tahm Kench, Firecracker Vayne, Heartpiercer Fiora, Heartbreaker Vi, Papercraft Anivia, Papercraft Nunu and Willump, Arclight Brand, Corgi Corki, Fuzz Fizz, Pretty Kitty Rengar, Meowrick, Dunkmaster Ivern, Hextech Jarvan IV, Galaxy Slayer Zed, Battle Academia Ezreal, Battle Academia Lux, Battle Academia Jayce, Battle Academia Katarina, Battle Professor Graves, Little Demon Tristana, Dark Cosmic Jhin, Dark Cosmic Shaco, Dark Cosmic Karma, Arcade Caitlyn, Arcade Kai'Sa, Arcade Yasuo, Demacia Vice Garen, Demacia Vice Lucian, PROJECT: Pyke, PROJECT: Irelia, PROJECT: Jynx, PROJECT: Akali, PROJECT: Warwick, Hextech Rammus, Dragon Oracle Udyr, Elderwood Ahri, Elderwood Nocturne, Elderwood Veigar, Infernal Galio, Infernal Varus, Infernal Shen, Star Guardian Neeko, Star Guardian Xayah, Star Guardian Rakan, Star Guardian Zoe, Hextech Amumu, Majestic Empress Morgana, Splendid Staff Nami, Valiant Sword Riven, and Championship Ryze. In addition, there are also the skins that have been announced: High Noon Ashe, High Noon Darius, and High Noon Hecarim. With all of that information, we can add the following champions to the list: Fiddlesticks, Nami, Camille, Leona, Lulu, Ezreal, Miss Fortune, Soraka, Renekton, Dr. Mundo, Master Yi, Twitch, Aatrox, Pyke, Sejuani, Tahm Kench, Vayne, Fiora, Vi, Nunu and Willump, Brand, Rengar, Yorick, Ivern, Jayce, Tristana, Jhin, Shaco, Caitlyn, Kai'Sa, Garen, Lucian, Irelia, Jynx, Warwick, Rammus, Udyr, Nocturne, Galio, Shen, Xayah, Rakan, Amumu, Riven, Darius, and Hecarim.

4. For this section, I will be listing those I have not mentioned and have three or fewer skins: Ornn, Qiyana, Sylas, Yuumi, Kayn, Kindred, Rek'Sai, Illaoi, Kled, Vel'Koz, Zac, and Bard.

5. The champions who received updates this year and those that have been announced will be included here (except, of course, those I've already mentioned): Kayle, Mordekaiser, Pantheon, and Volibear.

With all of that, our list comes down to:

We could go into which have "had a big competitive impact so far that year", but I honestly just don't want to go down that rabbit hole (considering how much I've already done).

If you want to dispute my methods, feel free, but don't expect me to go back and change anything (I'm already reconsidering my life choices due to how much free time I had to make this).

I've linked a straw poll for you to vote, but please feel free to put your vote in the comment section below, even if it's for someone not on the poll.

https://strawpoll.com/rxrdzsax