A Response to "Champion Update and the Flawed Fencer"

HayRoss··4 votes·1,389 views

I just read through the article, and there was this one thing that I REALLY did not think that we as a community got through to you Riot (Not pointing fingers here, either we weren't clearly conveying what we wanted, or you weren't listening, or maybe both, I don't know). You talked about how during Fiora's visual update, you had a vision of "her haughtiness and her better than thou attitude" and how you didn't feel like you accomplished this when you released her, and wanted to try again. You tried making everything about her sharp, as you stated, and you were surprised on how unanimous the community detested the new ideas. And then here's where the problem shows up

You believed this to be because the community had a different vision of Fiora than you

Now it in part could be corresponded to this, but that is not what we hated, not even close. We just thought it was flat out ugly, and little more. Let me give you an example

I main Garen, I think he's pretty cool, and (for this example) let's say his model and splash art is too outdated, and needs a tune up, so you go out and try to find what Garen players think of Garen. Personally, I think of Garen as this man who fears nothing. He'll go in for a 1v5, he'll dive straight past 4 enemy team members to smite the villain, wading right into the fight, he will never fall, and will chop through every enemy into the name of Demacia!

Armed with this information, Rito Games goes out and tries to the best to re imagine what Garen players think of Garen, and ends up making this:

http://s18.postimg.org/hutpn3dbt/gayrone.png

He fits the criteria for what he was imagined to be, he don't fear nothing, and he will not falter, but it's just... ugly. There's no other way to say it.

In your attempts to make what makes Fiora Fiora, you made her a caricature, her face looking like that one lady from 101 Dalmations, her spine approximatly having as many vertebrae as Zac, and just in general, looking more like a joke than anything.

At least those were MY thoughts after reading the article

6 Comments

kitcat3002 votes

I don't think that it was ugly is a proper way to say it. When it came down to, ugly or not, in the end people didn't feel like it represented Fiora.

Look at this thread for example.

Despite it being perceived as ugly, everyone felt that her face worked perfectly for Leblanc. And yet, I have never personally heard Leblanc referred to as ugly before.

Fiora's old face can't definitively be called ugly, that is a matter of opinion. What can be agreed on is that it just wasn't a look that fit her.

HayRoss1 votes

Old face? I was talking about the new one

The Whamboozler1 votes

It was both. Her new face is both ugly AND unfitting for her. Her new in-game model is worse than her old. Her new VO is somehow worse than her old. Her run animation is goofy as hell. She lost her really cool iconic cape. Old Fiora was a cool champion with a bad ult. New Fiora is a cartoon character. She's an exaggerated stereotype. She's a step down from her old self in almost every way.

Also, her new ult doesn't even fit a duelist or a fencer... Do you know who it fits? Freaking AATROX. You know, that guy who leaps into battle murdering people in a way that inspires so much bloodlust in his own team that it turns around a losing fight and pushes his allies to victory? Fiora should have had an execute of some sort... or perhaps a personal buff that stacked as she racked up kills. She's supposed to be all about PERSONAL glory with a blade... yet she has a decidedly support-style AoE heal.

No... everything about the Fiora rework was a wash and it ruined one of my favorite champions. Her old ult needed to go, but her new one is flat out unfitting and her new visuals and art are WORSE than they were before. I liked old Fiora's aesthetic enough to buy every one of her skins. Her new look is so terrible that I tried to refund them all via support ticket, only for Riot to flip me the bird. Then they put out this back-patting post talking about how "you just didn't understand our vision for her gais".

Yeah, I'm bitter.

EROTIC RAID BOSS1 votes

Tbh the only problem with her new design was the face on the splash art. You look at her concept art and game model and her face looks really great even with the altered hair style, honestly better than the one they went back to.

I just think the splash really failed to represent her new face well. The hair is waving in the wind so it doesn't look sharp or pointed and the angle made the forehead area look oddly wide. And the facial features didn't translate well in the splash either they looked caricaturish or something

The rest of the splash looks very good and the concept art shown in that article really does look great and sells you her new direction IMO http://na.leagueoflegends.com/sites/default/files/styles/wide_medium/public/upload/fiora-header-hd.jpg?itok=5raFTLjp That looks amazing

HayRoss1 votes

I agree with most of this, the concept was fantastic, yet the face just butchered it all by existing

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