Riot Games have received a lot of criticism for their female character models in their popular MOBA game League of Legends. With over 160 champions to play in LoL, there are bound to be similarities in their character designs. But does that mean champions' skins should look almost identical?
Coming to a LoL-Store near you: the new skin line for Patch 13.16 has just been revealed! Say goodbye to Soul Fighter and hello to Immortal Journey. The new patch update will be released on August 16th, 2023. This update will introduce the new Immortal Journey skins for Soraka, Zeri, Zed, Shyvana, Sona, Sona again (don't question it) and Kayle. But wait a minute - doesn't Kayle's skin seem a little familiar?
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Did Riot Games Copy and Paste LoL Skins?
According to Reddit user u/Boudynasr Riot Games may have copy and pasted Ashe's Lunar Empress skin onto Kayle, slapped some wings onto the character model and called it a day.
Ashe's skin sold so well it got reused for Kayle by u/Boudynasr in leagueoflegends
It's a bit strange to think this would happen accidentally, especially since Ashe's Lunar Empress skin just came out at the beginning of this year. Do you really forget skins that quickly, Riot?
Take a look at Kayle's new skin in action for yourselves:
I mean, if you were to remove the bow and the wings, could you tell the difference? I sure couldn't.
And neither can the r/leagueoflegends community - in the last 17 hours since this was posted, the comments have been brutally criticizing Riot for their lazy skin designs.
Not only are Redditors ripping apart the actual designs, but also the naming scheme for the skins:
Wtf all of them are immortal journey ___ ???Skin team also suffering
This new skin faux-pas may bring up the "Same Face Syndrome" discussion in the LoL community once again. With over 160 unique champs in League of Legends, around 60 of those are female.
A lot of players complain that many of the female champions look too similar. Champs like Seraphine, Lux, Ashe and Kayle are created in an anime-style and that can quickly make them look identical with different skins. Since many skins look quite alike, some champs can be hard to tell apart from one another.
Thus, the term "Same Face Syndrome".
One Reddit user complains, that:
Ok honest to god when I saw the icon I thought it was fiora because she had a sword and in kayle’s splash she has white hair. I thought firoa’s splash just wasn’t out yet. I’m not a skin same face mongerer but like this is a bit much…
Another user says that the problem isn't Same Face Syndrome, but rather:
same face syndrome isn't the problem in a relatively low poly count game, it's the fact that the dress, hair, and skin tone all match
For fans of both Ashe and Kayle, that loved Ashe's Lunar Empress skin, this similarity in design could be great news. For those players that want new and different skin lines and designs, this incident is probably pretty disappointing. What do you think? Is Kayle's new skin just lazy design, or rather an accident that was bound to happen?