League of LegendsThe latest skin has proven controversial in the community. The Immortalized Legend Ahri skin was designed to honor Faker as the first professional player to enter the revolt League of Legends eSports Hall of Fame, called the Hall of LegendsTo celebrate the occasion, the skin has an optional tier that costs around $500 to unlock. While many fans immediately objected to the price online, their displeasure has now made itself felt in-game, as Ahri’s ban rate has suddenly skyrocketed following the release of her new skin.
The skin was released with patch 14.12, which hit the servers on Wednesday. Since then, Ahri has gone from being banned in about 8% of ranked games to being banned in over 15% of ranked games, according to Lolyalytics. While the increase in bans is true worldwide, it is most pronounced in North America, rising from around 10% to over 23%. This suggests that players in North America either hate this skin a little more than the rest of the world, or that players in the region’s rankings are more concerned with sending a message than climbing the rankings – a theory that is certainly supported by the results from Worlds in this region.
This kind of ban change is usually reserved for champions who receive significant in-game buffs or have tremendously high win rates, but neither of those things apply to Ahri. In this case, it really seems to be all about the skin – which doesn’t provide any practical in-game bonuses unless you count Wealth and Pride as psychological buffs.
Without meaningful improvements, this admittedly funny trend of lockdowns will likely correct itself in the near future, which means that soon enough leagueThe biggest donors will be able to show off their shiny new skin.
