[2020] State of Skins and Events

Originally posted by AigisAegis

Oh wow, that's really exciting! Even more skins for underloved champions.

The truth is that when we set out to make a skin for a low play rate champion, our core objective isn’t to support the business, it’s to support a core audience of dedicated players who love that champion.

That's a really good outlook from Riot, and I appreciate that a lot. I love that in addition to trying to make skins that sell super well, they're explicitly looking at how best to deliver content to champions' fans. That's very encouraging - it speaks to us not only getting more skins for less popular champions, but also better skins for them.

It feels more and more like Riot is making good on the idea that Lux and Ezreal skins help to fund skins for less popular champions.

Edit: Also I just want to say that the fact that we get these consistent deep insights into Riot's development process is one of my favourite things about being a fan of League. Riot doesn't need to give us these deep dives into how they evaluate skin success or how they approach legendary skin development, and the fact that they do so is really cool to me

Originally posted by trevorlolo

the fact that they dont even acknowledge Kalista really hurts me

Originally posted by 2ecStatic

Looks like she’s getting the Ultimate

Originally posted by AigisAegis

I don't like Riot as a company, but I really like Riot as a developer, and posts like this are a big part of why. Riot is very consistent about being open with their development process, not just in how it works but in how they look at and evaluate it. It's a really fascinatingly in-depth look at how they design the game.

Originally posted by Ace_OPB

Aurelion sol's splash art looks so goddamn badass. Lee sin and zac also looks pretty impressive.

Originally posted by AigisAegis

Of course. When I look at Riot as a company, I can only really think of the abuse scandals that have been around it for a while now. I can only think of women being made to feel unsafe and a toxic work culture and so on. When I look at Riot as a developer, though, I see a lot of really passionate and skilled people who care a lot about what they do and are trying their best to make a great game.

Obviously that's a little simplistic, as the two aren't distinct entities like that. But it comes down to me really, really respecting the people who work at Riot and the things they create, while remaining intensely skeptical of Riot as a corporate entity that hires employees.

As a rule, I'm skeptical of corporations. They put people in a position to control other people's livelihoods, and that's worrisome. But that doesn't mean I can't respect and admire the work done by people within a corporation.

I hope that makes sense.

Originally posted by AigisAegis

If nothing else, the fact that you're willing to come to Reddit and have conversations like this is really encouraging. You're doing a really good job, and despite the Reddit negativity that always exists, I think a lot of us appreciate you coming into threads like this. It's the sort of thing that makes me say that I really, really respect the people who make Riot tick.

Originally posted by L_Rayquaza

Just wondering, are you allowed to share if the Yorick skin is from a more serious or silly line?

Originally posted by FattyDrake

I'm really glad you acknowledged that some skins might do really well because of mains wanting to collect them, not because they're good skins, and I hope the team watches out for such traps in the future.

Please never again make a "joke skin" that's also a prestige, for any champ. Fuzz is pretty despised overall on the mains discord, and it wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't also going to be the only prestige skin he'll ever get. I wouldn't want other mains, especially those who don't get skins often, to have to go through that. (Like, imagine if the current Viktor skin was the prestige version, a lot of the mains would be even more put out.)

Originally posted by EntropicReaver

late to the discussion but does your team have ways of using the number of times played with skin or hextech crafting at all in their analysis of skins? like, someone who purposefully crafts a skin shard or rerolls into that skin and continues to use it/certain skin shards being crafted vs rerolled? or just store data, buying skins directly with rp?

does riot acknowledge at all that there are lots of players that only "interact" with skin content through crafting and are more prone to getting random skins through rerolls?

Originally posted by SatanWolf

I'm really glad that Riot is finally moving in the right direction for unpopular champs + monster champs. Things like the new Asol and skarner skins really align with what the mains of those champions want imo: things that are just straight up cool/beastly, nothing gimmicky. Keep it up!

Originally posted by Hanyodude

Extremely well done article, u/Bellissimoh i hope to see you write more of these. It’s not often a Riot article really explains analytical data.

Originally posted by Marcus777555666

What is Riot opinion on Astronaut Bard and overall skin line.Do you think they were successful this year?As a Bard main,the majority of opinions was that Astronaut skins this year were the best skins we had in a while.Just wanted to know what Riot thinks about that.

Originally posted by Marelle

which skins are the ones all the way at the top of the graph, from left to right? if you can talk about that

Originally posted by MrFilthyNeckbeard

I honestly appreciate all the transparency and the way you guys lay out the reasoning for why you do (or don’t do) things. Not just skins specifically, but in general. Of course you can never make everyone happy but people are much more receptive if they know WHY things happen.

Also I love the behind the scenes stats and data.

Originally posted by hastalavistabob

Btw, not sure if youd like feedback on J4s Poolparty skin here but as a guy with 5 of his skins and him being my go to jungler, I just think Pool Party didnt add anything that made him worth the purchase

I mean, he looks nice and the effects are alright but the theme doesnt fit that well and compared to SSG J4, the skin doesnt feel like an upgrade over it

Originally posted by GhostDraw

seeing the list you guys wrapped up alleviates a lot of my worries when it comes to underloved champions. Are you all keeping track on the worst remaining offenders such as quinn, kalista and shyvana? I feel like asking this might sound a bit thankless, but I honestly think you guys made an insane work this year to make justice to a historically less appreciated playerbase and I'm just eager to see the day on which "x champ has no skin in 2+ years" are a thing of the past.

While I'm at it, it would be interesting if you guys took a careful look at themes seen as champion dump boxes such as infernal, that are usually left for underappreciated champions. It would be nice if there was more of a fantasy regarding the infernal universe in order to make those skins look more appealing and effortful, because even if you release good skins on those themes, if they don't get lore, don't get major tier skins (such as legendaries) or at least some artwork, anything more than just the skins themselves, they will probably end up perceivedly lame even when they're well made (loved karthus and vel'koz, particularly, specially because I've made inktobers of those two as infernals back in 2018 and 17, respectively. they were much better than what I've imagined back then)

Originally posted by Zoli_Ben

Hey Bellissimoh!

Thanks for all the hard work you put in this year! Very much appreciate it in the name of all communities in LoL! (Especially Urgots)

I am sorry if you are not allowed to say, but how up is Pajama Urgot & did Pengu Tristana and Furyhorn Veigar do good enough? I'd definitely dig more of these cosplay skins. :)