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Popular Champions Getting Skins: They aren't Riot's favorites.

ModWulf Helhammer··120 votes·33,053 views

Lunar Empress Lux, Pajama Party Guardians, Battle Academia Lux and Ezreal,... well I guess just about all the recent Lux and Ezreal skins.

Yeah, all those. I know the common argument out of frustration is that these champs are "Riot's favorites," and that's why they always get so many skins.

Except they aren't.

Think about it. If Riot actually had favorites, then they would make the skin for whatever it was. They wouldn't care if that skin made money or not (which is the common counter to said favoritism argument), because they are doing it out of favoritism.

No, the reason that champs like Lux, Ezreal, and Ahri receive skins more often is not because of Riot's favoritism, but rather the player base's.

Yes, the primary reason Riot makes skins is to make money. No one denies that. Riot is a company that needs to turn a profit in order to actually function. So they make skins that they know are going to sell. What skins are those going to be? Well the ones for the champions that the players most want to play. Ezreal has been in the top 3 picked ADCs for the past 14 patches. Ahri has been in the top 10 picked mids for 11 out of the past 14 (and still in the top 20 for those other 3).

Sure, there may be some cause and effect going on where "champ is popular because they have skins, popular champ gets more skins, repeat ad infinitum", but that's not going to account for much. People like playing these champions. That's why Riot chooses them, because they want the most members of the community to want what is for sale.

If all of a sudden champs like Aurelion Sol, Skarner, and Singed started having play rates like Ahri, Ezreal, Lux, and others, then those champs would be who Riot makes skins for.

So yes, I understand the frustration for not getting a skin for your main (My main champs are Quinn and Xerath. Trust me, I know how you feel). But can we please stop this argument of "Riot plays favorites"? The only ones playing favorites here are the ones playing the game.

137 Comments

The Iceborn51 votes

Exactly. The players play favorites, riot just follows up according to that. Ezreals pick rate is a perfect example of that however Xerath not getting a skin in 4 years is dreadful.

Dewritoes3 votes

Good point. However, i don't see xerath getting a 1350RP skin, as his current ones are already basically chromas. Although i would love a Dark Star Xerath type of skin. Too bad we already had a cosmic skin just now.

knobblez6 votes

I don't even play Xerath and I want him to get a skin.

OtterlyLost28 votes

I can't help but wonder if other champions would be more popular if they had more effort put into giving them skins. But you mentioned that already so meh.

The point is, I really don't care if they're most popular with the playerbase. The point is that I want other champions to start getting skins. If they made actually really good skins and put them in really good events for champions who were "less popular", who is to say that these champions wouldn't suddenly be more popular. Especially if these skins expanded on their lore or put them into a more interesting light.

I digress. I'm aware that these are popular champions with the playerbase but I still don't care. I'm tired of seeing their faces on every important or interesting skin based event.

Jeddy0174 votes

The point is, I really don't care if they're most popular with the playerbase. The point is that I want other champions to start getting skins. If they made actually really good skins and put them in really good events for champions who were "less popular", who is to say that these champions wouldn't suddenly be more popular. Especially if these skins expanded on their lore or put them into a more interesting light.

Yeah, there's a chance they become more popular. There's a chance that some players would become more interested in those "less popular" champs if they got a good skin. And that would push Riot to create more quality content for those less popular champs. Let's say Riot creates the next Star Guardian set with Quinn as the one who gets the legendary skin with some cool animated cinematic & big Star Guardian event that Quinn is the main character of. More people would pick up Quinn to play Star Guardian Quinn. They find out they like Quinn & would buy some of her other skins along the way. Riot sees Quinn is a profitable champs to make skins for, so they hammer down on Quinn content. Thus she becomes another Popular champ for Riot to milk & people to bitch about getting too many skins.

But there is a chance it won't be nothing more than a temporary surge in popularity. Most people might try Quinn & find her playstyle unappealing or way too different from the champs they regularly play. If they don't find her fun to play, they won't bother buying a skin for her. Leaving only Quinn mains, the 2 or 3 new Quinn players & those crazy skin collectors, who buy every skin in the game, to buy her Star Guardian. No massive surge in Quinn popularity & she just goes back to being a niche champ once her time in the limelight is done. For Riot, that's not really a profitable move. It could be, but it's too much of a risk. Are a lot of people really going to start playing Quinn after all these years just because she got a Star Guardian skin? Are they going to invest money in a champ they're not even sure they would like to play?

Less popular aren't just unpopular because of skins, but also because they have niche playstyles. Most popular champs like Ezreal have playstyles that have wide appeal, thus giving them large playerbases. Releasing skins or not won't change the appeal of a champs kit or thematic. It's not as simple as "Release more skins for less popular champs & they will suddenly become more popular."

The23rdGamer3 votes

I can't help but wonder if other champions would be more popular if they had more effort put into giving them skins.

When champions receive skins they usually spike in popularity for a patch or two, yes, but generally speaking they fade back into whatever popularity pool they were already in before (of course this is not accounting for buffs that may happen around the time of the new skins as well).

Think back to when Rumble and Aurelion Sol got their skins... you saw them for like a few extra days but now you don't see them all that often anymore since they just aren't popular with the community.

Elipo9 votes

They gave heinerdinger an amazing skin and I've never seen it in game, not evwn once. I also only seen him being palyed in aram and rarely. I've seen him in SR like twice this year.

Ephixus1 votes

{quoted}

They gave heinerdinger an amazing skin and I've never seen it in game, not evwn once. I also only seen him being palyed in aram and rarely. I've seen him in SR like twice this year.

Because heimer is either broken or sitting in trash tier after nerfs.

Oleandervine3 votes

So that refutes his point how? If Heimerdinger were popular, he'd be played with some steadiness regardless of his current meta status. But he's not really played at all, and the only time I've seen Dragon Trainer is when I asked a friend who bought it to play it in a game with me.

Salvor Hardın21 votes

I told it to a Rioter and I say it again, as the number of champions increases, they are going to need to increase the number of skins they take out. Yes, it's all a matter, training and hiring new work teams and so on, but sooner or later they will have to do it.

Lt Hannya6 votes

If you ever go to Riot HQ, its already huge, with many, many people on their art teams.

And no, they don't "train new teams". It's a matter of hiring people who already know how to produce concept art, and polished splash screens, who can animate the said splash screens, who already know how to produce VFX, who can create 3D characters with good topo and textures, and people who already know how to animate.

Those specialized skills are in low supply at a high end professional capacity, and in high demand for many studios. Which is why there are so many artists who have crossover with Blizzard at Riot. Many people are also unwilling to live in SoCal, too. Because of the heavy traffic and cost of living.

And you don't hire amateurs, and train them to a high quality in-house. It takes too long, and it's too expensive to pay for useless hires for so long. Especially when so many are willing to pay to go to schools like FZD, Gnomon, Calarts etc.

Please do research before spouting nonsense.

Bah Biscuit7 votes

Uhhh... not everyone who do the art even go to HQ to work. I know who did the splash arts for the Battle Academia Katarina and Transcended Kayle and she doesn't live in SoCal.

RiotKindlejack6 votes

Atey is a 'he' and he does now!

Bah Biscuit1 votes

Ah well, news to me! I 'know' them from their art account on Tumblr (https://snatti.tumblr.com is this familiar?). I always assumed snatti, or Atey as I suppose you know him by, was a 'she' based of his profile pic. Guess I'm wrong on all accounts!

RiotKindlejack5 votes

He just joined our in-house team recently and we are so happy to have him. He's incredible!

Raven Redeemed3 votes

What make you think the rate of skin releases is static? I’m pretty sure they do release quite a few more skins now with what seems like an average of three skins per patch whereas it was more like one skin per patch (more like two skins every other patch) a few years ago. That’s not even counting the boat load of chromas coming out these days.

Of course I don’t have any hard evidence of that (I’m not going to count them all).

Jaspers16 votes

Understood but do they have to do it all at once? For ever money maker, make a less money maker? Save that secondary money maker for the next set.

Think of it this way, do an Ezreal here, but have Taliyah, Ekko and co as well, then next time do Lux with Heimer, Vik, time after than do Ahri, Talon etc. Star Guardian set 2 were made up of 2 popular ap mid laners, 2 popular adcs and a fan favourite support. All popular champs which means next set will be 'reserves' in terms of popularity, meaning it'll sell less overall making Riot think the skin line isn't popular anymore.

Nevrankroaton5 votes

The reasoning here is that Riot had bad sales with the new papercraft skinline, one that you all applauded but nobody bought because, surprise surprise, the champs aren't super popular. So since this skinline was very important for them (link to a big event, supposed to come back like project or SG), they put popular champion to make it sell. Like they did with star guardians, like they did with odyssey (Jinx/Yasuo/Kayne), etc.

Snarfuractu14 votes

How do you know those champions aren't riots favorites? XD

EDIT: just a joke guys chill

Hethalean10 votes

How else will they focus their frustrations about not getting a skin they wanted this patch if not to blame and demonize Riot in some way? Ignore the fact that Riot only makes like 70 skins a year and there are 140 champions. 35 of those skins they probably have to make sure MAKE them the money they need, and the other 35 are probably fill in for champions that haven't gotten a skin in a while but might not break even...

tl;dr; Gotta be mad at Riot cuz handling your own frustration yourself is unacceptable. lol

MalignMetal6 votes

Im sure Unpopular champions would become more Popular during the release of a high quality skin

ModAcademy Kayn13 votes

And then shrink down to their normal levels. Compare the same to any average popularity champion, and you have the same result, but with more peoples, and as such, more money.

MalignMetal2 votes

You agree with me but just choose to show greed as a virtue. Sad.

ModAcademy Kayn8 votes

Okay, act like some moral guide, feel free. I'm just saying the logic you use applies to anyone, not just unpopular champions. You'll see a spike in any champion's playrate when a skin comes out, but it's not going to make them any more popular in the long term.

MalignMetal4 votes

In the long term the unpopular champions are not given any Spotlight because the same 30 Champions (probably less) take up all the air time.

The super popular keep the unpopular down as much as the lack of Marketing. Their is a glaring disparity.

Riot can continue as they like i just want for the Complete removal of the list titled. " X champions haven't had a skin in Years"

ModAcademy Kayn8 votes

Yorick getting more spotlight isn't going to stop him from not being that appealing to a large demographic of players. Claiming the only reason the unpopular champs are kept down is because of marketing is a base-level glance at the reasons why people are attracted to champions. Look how many variations of Yasuo's archetype can be found through media. Look at how many versions of Yorick's archtype you can find.

There's a stark difference, and marketing isn't the reason why.

Souji6 votes

People forget they also make more skins for champs that are easier to make skins for. Zyra for example is harder to make skins for because of the nature of her kit/particles. While someone like Ezreal or Lux fit in just about every thematic and are much easier to make skins for. Same goes for Rek'Sai. She's a monster champ she's hard to come up with stuff for. they make skins based off ideas they have too.

Oleandervine5 votes

People keep bringing up the Pajama Guardian skins but you all are missing the critical part of those skins - They were EXPERIMENTS. They were Riot's attempt to test a new product type. The skin line and the selected champions were specifically chosen to test the validity of variant skins and whether or not this was a product line they wanted to explore and expand upon. They were solid variables they knew were popular, and thus were easiest to gauge public interest in the product.

Therefore, the Pajama Guardians were an anomaly, and abnormal skin release, and not intended to count as skins released for those champions in the standard production schedule for skins. So for people clamoring for a witch hunt against Ezreal and Lux because of their Pajama Guardian skins, that's not a particularly reasonable attack or argument against those champions. They're just like the World Champions Skins - they should be ignored when looking at the last legitimate skin a champion got, because both instances operate outside of the standard cycle.

If you need further proof that the Pajama skins are outside of the regular schedule - remember Soraka got Winter Wonderland literally a month later. If those skins WERE part of the standard cycle, that would have never happened AT ALL.

Sukishoo3 votes

If you need further proof that the Pajama skins are outside of the regular schedule - remember Soraka got Winter Wonderland literally a month later. If those skins WERE part of the standard cycle, that would have never happened AT ALL.

Exactly. It's why Lux and Ezreal are able to be part of another skinline now because the PJ skins weren't part of the normal schedule. They took less time to create due to the fact they reused the Star Guardian assets (recalls, vxfs, sfx, ect) and had a different outfit and a shared splash.

StonePlatypus4 votes

The Ez and Lux skins make money.

Riot's favorite thing is money.

Thus they make their favorite skins.

Sõna4 votes

This post genuinely clapped those disliker guy's cheek so loudly.

I wholeheartedly support this post because it makes senses in business perspective. As League of legends' only income are by selling Skins and events.

For those who didn't actually work on department like graphic design, put yourself in their shoes and think. Being in Art department is sure tough, because when tops asked to create for the most profitable skins for their company, the staffs/members have to be forced to work by their(Manager) instructions, otherwise they can't feed the whole company. Yes, having different champions skins is indeed the best, but when that skin only sells below expectation, who gonna be responsible for it? Playerbase? Or Design team? Stand at Riot game 's perspective, it is Design team's fault for not making more money.

Give some sympathy and provide your idea with your drawing, like the rabbit tahn kench fan skin idea were so great. Otherwise stop bombarding Riot's design team, it's their Top, Tencent who wanted that, not Riot.

Sebastit7d3 votes

The problem is how polarized opinions are, they never see the gray in these situations, it's either a "bUt iTs a bUsInEsS" and then there's the "bUt iT's uNfAiR fOr tHe lEsS pOpUlAr cHaMp'S pLaYeRbAsE" both of them are right, but a good company makes compromises and finds a balance. Take for example the most recent example of a champion that didn't get a skin until wayyy later, Ivern. After all this time what skin did he get? that garbage Dunkmaster skin that to this day i have yet to find a person that genuinely likes the skin. Hell, a friend of mine that loves the champ bought the skin because he was so excited about him finally getting a skin, he played it for like a week then refunded it and bought skins from the discount shop with the RP he got from it. When it's CLEAR they don't want to put the effort to make it a ethical thing, that's when people start hating. Would it have been harder for them to make a cooler skin for him like Coven Ivern? That would have been such a crazy good idea that would have made his playerbase happy after all the wait since he already had a funny skin with his Candy King skin.

I LOVE Lux and the Ezreal skin looks amazing, probably his best skin to date IMO. But what if instead of giving Ezreal his 13TH skin, why not make it for Ekko ? he fits the bill when it comes to a cool anime main character, he doesn't have a legendary skin, Ezreal has an ULTIMATE skin. And it would be nice to see it happen.

Oleandervine1 votes

Well first of all, a good majority of Ezreal's skins are old and are 750 or below (and his count is bloated by the 2 World's skins, which are not part of Riot's production cycle since they're rewards), and secondly, Ekko doesn't qualify for a new skin yet because he just got one in Octorber. It usually has to be at least a year before they release a new skin for a champion. Additionally, Ekko already has an Academy skin, so this would overlap that skin incredibly hard, and would essentially make his Academy skin worthless to everyone since it would be seen as the shit version of a Battle Academia skin he'd get.

CasterGilgamesh3 votes

im still waiting for another quinn skin i have all her skins but i need more [zombie-nunu-bummed] btw i agree with you riot is a company and they want money i would do the same thing if i was them

hewhodoesnotcare3 votes

You know what grinds my gear that riot refuses to let custom skins be a thing

MrWasjig3 votes

This still doesn't take the onus off of Riot. There are champions who are absolutely starved for skins, either they have very few, or haven't had one in literally years, and yet they're repeatedly ignored. So it might not be favouritism, but it's still down to Riot.

A Midget Walrus3 votes

Even if they might sell better, wouldn't it be better for overall player satisfaction and long-term retention to not see the same 5 champs getting skins all of the time? To me at least its kind of frustrating when i have a champ i play that only has 2 skin options, where i'd like to pick up a skin but don't like either of my options, and then i go back to the homepage and i see "AHRI SKIN #11 RELEASED: E-GIRL AHRI- PRESTIGE EDITION"

Also blaming the community is a total cop-out. Sure there are more Ezreal and Lux players than a champ like Xerath, but that doesn't excuse the massive disparity of skins released.

ShadzMadz3 votes

Its hard to be an ahri/lux main on the boards or anywhere else in the game without being flamed to show appreciation to riot, Believe me when I say I'm quite happy with the skins. But remember the people that are happy with the skins are probably out in the game enjoying their new skin. As an amateur game designer i can tell you right now I'd MUCH rather make a skin for ahri then cassiopeia some champs are just, difficult to work with I'm sure.

Terozu2 votes

Lux isn't actually that popular in general though.

Though Ezreal is very often the most played character in the game.

Sukishoo10 votes

Sorry, what?

Has a 15% overall pickrate; 6.6% mid and 8.6% for support https://lolalytics.com/ranked/worldwide/platinum/plus/champion/Lux/ that is very high.

Akali is SO HOT6 votes

She's also much more popular in China than she is in the west

PirateGod3D2Y2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Wilk Łucznik,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=s7fGzxqr,comment-id=,timestamp=2019-05-02T16:33:30.020+0000)

Lunar Empress Lux, Pajama Party Guardians, Battle Academia Lux and Ezreal,... well I guess just about all the recent Lux and Ezreal skins.

Yeah, all those. I know the common argument out of frustration is that these champs are "Riot's favorites," and that's why they always get so many skins.

Except they aren't.

Think about it. If Riot actually had favorites, then they would make the skin for whatever it was. They wouldn't care if that skin made money or not (which is the common counter to said favoritism argument), because they are doing it out of favoritism.

No, the reason that champs like Lux, Ezreal, and Ahri receive skins more often is not because of Riot's favoritism, but rather the player base's.

Yes, the primary reason Riot makes skins is to make money. No one denies that. Riot is a company that needs to turn a profit in order to actually function. So they make skins that they know are going to sell. What skins are those going to be? Well the ones for the champions that the players most want to play. Ezreal has been in the top 3 picked ADCs for the past 14 patches. Ahri has been in the top 10 picked mids for 11 out of the past 14 (and still in the top 20 for those other 3).

Sure, there may be some cause and effect going on where "champ is popular because they have skins, popular champ gets more skins, repeat ad infinitum", but that's not going to account for much. People like playing these champions. That's why Riot chooses them, because they want the most members of the community to want what is for sale.

If all of a sudden champs like Aurelion Sol, Skarner, and Singed started having play rates like Ahri, Ezreal, Lux, and others, then those champs would be who Riot makes skins for.

So yes, I understand the frustration for not getting a skin for your main (My main champs are Quinn and Xerath. Trust me, I know how you feel). But can we please stop this argument of "Riot plays favorites"? The only ones playing favorites here are the ones playing the game.

At the same time you cannot deny that making a skin for a champ would directly increase the champion’s playrate. Its only natural that if they keep making skins for these champs, people would play them more. If they keep pushing out skins for these champs, you’re obviously going to see a decrease in playrates for other champs.

jekroo2742 votes

These are long term popular champions, giving a skin to a champion will only increase it's popularity with a short term spike

Halluc1nate1 votes

Urgot hasn't gotten a skin in 6years if u don't count rework

ModWulf Helhammer6 votes

High Noon?

DarkSoul19941 votes

The biggest issue with Riot's skin team is that they're way too fucking rigid in their plans. You have champs like Rek'sai who haven't received a skin in years finally become meta again and Riot doesn't take advantage of this by releasing a skin for them while there's still a decent amount of people who care enough about the champion to make it profitable.

Riot end up resorting to releasing skins for champions like Ezreal/MF/Ahri/Lux/Vayne who people will play regardless of how useless they are at the time.

GreenLore1 votes

Good skins can take months to create and there is no reason to assume that just because a certain champ has become meta again,that said champion will still be part of the meta once the skin is finished.

jekroo2741 votes

Champion Popularity =/= Champion Viability

How popular a champion is can be determined by Meta, but it's not necessarily the only reason why a champion might be popular.

GreenLore3 votes

The person I was responding to talked about how Riot should make skins for champs who have become meta again after being out of the meta for a long time. And the problem with this is that if a champion isn't played a lot of times and then rises in the meta again, it is most likely because of a buff they received(unless they got an entire rework, in which case it remains to be seen if the popularity stays or not) and it is impossible to say if this popularity will persist or not at the moment when they become meta again.

jekroo2741 votes

Yeah I was talking to them too

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