League of Legends: Yone, Lee Sin, Jinx, Renata and others among T1’s picks for Worlds 2023 skins
Riot Games honours the world champions with a skin set each year. And since 2016, players have helped with the concept and design of their champion's skin.
The 2023 League of Legends (LoL) World Championship has concluded with T1 raising this year's Summoner's Cup after defeating Weibo Gaming in a 3-0 sweep on Sunday (19 November).
Riot Games honours the world champions with a skin set each year. And since 2016, players have helped with the concept and design of their champion's skin.
Players must have used their chosen champion at least once during the tournament, and there are additional restrictions on which champions can be selected. Riot may also ask the player to choose a different champion if the team already has a skin for that champion from a previous victory.
Like last year’s DRX skins, there will also be one champion that will have a Prestige skin, mostly like the pick for the MVP of the Grand Finals, Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, or the LoL G.O.A.T. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok.
Let's take a quick look at the eligible champions for a Worlds skin for each player.
Zeus: Yone or Jayce
In the post-match press conference on Sunday (19 November), he immediately answered that it would most likely be Jayce or Yone.
“I’m still thinking about it. My heart’s telling me Jayce, but my head says Yone, or maybe it’s vice versa,” the T1 top laner said.
Zeus, a dominant force in the top lane, showcased his expertise during Worlds with champions like Aatrox, Gragas, Gnar, Jayce, Rumble, Yone, and Gwen.
Notably, Jayce stands out as one of his signature picks, comprising 39 out of 326 career games with an impressive 76.9% win rate.
Yone is another standout, with Zeus boasting an 88.9% win rate in the 9 times he brought out the champion in his professional career. During Worlds, Zeus strategically deployed Yone in the crucial semifinal match against JD Gaming. Yone had been instrumental in shutting down Bai “369” Jiahao in the top lane and executing valuable plays across the map.
Oner: Lee Sin
Lee Sin is one of the most popular champions to be picked at Worlds yearly and already has 2 skins from Worlds 2013 for SK Telecom (now T1) for Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong and from Worlds 2019 for FunPlus Phoenix for Gao "Tian" Tianliang.
“Lee Sin has so many skins, so I have to think about it,” Mun "Oner" Hyeon-jun said. Lee Sin was picked 23 times throughout this year's Worlds, but his win rate was less than desirable, with just 20.91%.
However, in the hands of Oner at the Grand Finals, Lee Sin shone in two games despite going against a strong meta pick like Maokai and high mobility champ Bel’veth and earning Oner the highest KDA on any champion he’s played at Worlds.
But since Lee Sin already has two skins, this may still change, and Oner can pick any of the champions he’s played in the tournament: Nocturne, JarvanIV, Rell, Poppy, Sejuani, and Maokai.
Faker: “What Everyone Wants” (potentially Ahri)
Faker is mulling over his fourth championship skin choice, prioritizing fan appeal.
“I guess I have to come up with a champion that I want to make a skin for,” he admitted, adding a condition that a “vast majority of fans would enjoy.”
Faker has the most games on Azir, including the famous game-ending ultimate he executed against Ruler of JD Gaming in the semifinals that ended in a 3-1. Tied to Azir is Orianna, a much-contested meta pick in the mid lane. He also had three games on Sylas, one of which was at the Grand Finals, which became lethal when combined with Nocturne and Renata Glasc.
However, the champion most likely to get the skin is Ahri, according to his teammate, T1’s bot laner Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong in a stream on Sunday night after the Grand Finals (19 November).
"I think Faker might pick Ahri for the Worlds skin. Oh, it's a spoiler? Didn't he say it at the interview? Well, he may pick Ahri or something else ..." Gumayusi gleefully said, speaking with his fans in high spirits.
However, many fans and personalities noticed that the LoL G.O.A.T. missed most (if not all) of his Charm skill on Ahri, although this is a secondary concern considering they still won that game.
Gumayusi: Jinx
The T1 bot laner had many choices for a champion skin, given that he’s used 11 champions for all 15 games that T1 played at Worlds: Varus, Kalista, Xayah, Ashe, Draven, Jhin, Jinx, Nilah, Senna, Caitlyn, and Kai’sa.
But his answer was quite simple: he wanted a champion skin for Jinx.
With the likes of Xayah and Kai’sa dominating the Play-ins Swiss Stage meta, Gumayusi’s Jinx pick was a surprise and a delight to all the fans.
Paired with Tahm Kench in Game 2 against Bilibili Gaming, his Jinx scored 11 kills, 3 assists, and even zero deaths — a bot lane duo that baffled their opponents and ended up in a win to help them qualify for the Knockout stage.
Keria: Renata Glasc or Bard (but really wants Lux)
Ryu “Keria” Min-seok has been known to be the Support player with the widest and most volatile champion pool at Worlds this year, picking 7 for over 15 games: Renata Glasc, Bard, Tahm Kench, Ashe, Rakan, Senna, and Alistar.
Keria was not afraid to take off-meta picks like Bard and Tahm Kench, and even pull off Double AD Carry team compositions, since, according to Yahoo Southeast Asia’s interview with him, he and Gumayusi “practiced a lot of champions throughout the year,” making it easy to pull off plenty of combinations.
There was one champion that Keria wanted a skin for, but he couldn’t because they were unable to pick blue side at the Grand Finals: Lux.
“But I didn’t play Lux, so I’d have to go with either Bard or Renata.”
Keria showed mastery on Bard, especially in the crucial semifinal match against JD Gaming. He used Bard’s Magical Journey to help his team pull off heists on the river and escape immediately.
Meanwhile, Keria had five games on Renata Glasc, two of which were at the Grand Finals, with Renata’s Hostile Takeover and Bailout proving to be game-ending or game-saving for him and his teammates.
In Keria's stream on the night after the Grand Finals, he "begged Riot staff to give him Lux." According to him, he even practised the choreography for Lux's animation.
“Look, I only thought about making a Lux skin. I never considered wearing another skin. So I went to the Riot meeting and spent most of my time discussing Lux.," he admitted.
When he went on to discuss this with the Riot skins team, he asked them to “make it pretty.”
“And they said they can make Bard pretty, too. And I just frowned," Keria feeling defeated.
Well, Keria, time to get a second trophy.
While these are T1's initial picks, they may change based on their final agreement with Riot Games.
Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.
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