LoL skin themes. How did the High Noon, Sugar Rush, Star Guardian and Debonair series fare? Reboot of old series of skins

LoL skin themes. How did the High Noon, Sugar Rush, Star Guardian and Debonair series fare? Reboot of old series of skins.

Riot shares how to rate released skin themes. It also summarizes how four skin series have performed: High Noon, Sugar Rush, Star Guardian and Debonair.

Four criteria for judging the theme of a skin series

Skin and expectations

So – did the skin work in relation to the expectations of the players?

This is assessed relatively for each skin. Skarner players (and even more so those willing to buy a skin for him) are much less than Lux players. It’s obvious that Skarner’s skin will have less sales – but that doesn’t mean that players might not like it.

Purchasing skins directly translates into revenue for Riot Games. The more players like a given skin, the more of them will buy it.

Skin-themed player surveys

Some players receive surveys in the game client or via email where Riot often asks about potential skins. They are distributed to players regardless of whether they could buy it or not.

anime? Edgy? sexy? Heroic? Funny? Or maybe fantastic, dark, robotic, disgusting?

These are just a few of the options that appear in skin surveys. You can see an example survey below.

One of the polls. This player was supposed to express his opinion on a possible skin for Master Yi – he probably plays it a lot.

How much work will it require?

Will the release of this skin require more work from Riot than usual?

Characters such as Kha’Zix and Udyr struggle with this problem. The heroes have several changing forms – each of them requires additional work.

Work is time, and time is money.

Dragon Oracle Udyr and his forms. Each of them is significantly different from each other – not only in colors. Udyr has four different animations for his four forms – resulting in differences in the in-game model to display better.

How many champions fit this theme?

While a particular skin series may be loved by players and perform well, at some point it may make more sense to focus on other themes.

Some examples from the game

High Noon

• The original series didn’t do particularly well.
• In 2018, it was decided to reboot the series (demonic, angelic and divine themes).
• Despite the limited resources (trailers, etc.), the revamped series performed very well, which significantly improved the condition of the High Noon skins.

sugar rush

• Riot tried to bite this topic several times. Each time the series did not fare well.
• Sugar Rush 2019 (Evelynn, Ziggs, Zilean, Braum) were in the bottom 10% of expectations for 2019. “Nobody expected it, nobody likes it.”
• Riot intends to deal with other skin topics before deciding on the return of Sugar Rush, which should be rebuilt once again.

Star Guardian

• Excitement for the next release of Star Guardian skins is as high as it was at the beginning of their release.
• According to Riot Meddler, many players suggest that Star Guardians are their favorites over other champion skins they play.
• Although Riot wants to introduce some differences between subsequent series, the theme of the skins will remain the same. The company considers the series to be a great example of a theme with relatively enduring resonance.

Debonair

• The series received mixed reception. Some skins hit the players’ tastes, others – missed them.
• Riot plans to reboot the Debonair series in 2021 or later. One of the problems of the series noticed by the company is that … the skins are too thin.
• “Well-dressed characters are a good starting point, but we need more to deliver a good skin,” writes Riot Meddler. Debonair compares the situation of the skins to the High Noon series – adding additional themes to it significantly improved its reception. He believes that a similar procedure awaits the Debonair series.

Older series of skins

Riot announces the possible return of older series of skins in 2021.

No details have been revealed. However, we can expect that these will not be the same skins, and their themes will be updated to today’s standards … and the audience. Over the past 10 years, the League gaming community has undergone incredible transformations.