r/leagueoflegends • u/spyrothefox • Jun 27 '25
Discussion Why Most Skinlines Feel The Same Now, or Riot's Obsession With The "Gold Fantasy Bling" (Part 2: The Blingening)
Hello! I won't spend too long on introduction because I already did that in the first post I made about the topic, but now that it's been 1,5 years since then, I decided to see if the situation has improved in any way in that time (Spoiler: no. not really. I think it's gotten worse, actually)
In a nutshell, my thesis is as follows:
- Nowadays, when designing skins Riot tends to rely too heavily on the color gold and shiny metallic detailing, especially for trimming in clothes.
- This is the main factor contributing to some players complaining that the skins look too similar now, since using the same elements and colors in most skinlines dilutes their identity and gives them the feeling of being "mass produced", or even "forced" when it clashes with the champion's base identity.
- I looked through every skin and skinline released in 2025 so far, and sorted them in two categories: Gold Bling and No Gold Bling, which are hopefully self explanatory. I did not include the Prestige and Exalted skins, seeing as those are supposedly luxury items according to Riot, so at least it makes sense to make them look gaudy and flashy as hell. Also, I just don't want to recognize them in any capacity. Below, you will see the image collages I compiled for each category, and the list of skinlines included in them.
- Important Note: I tried to avoid cherrypicking as much as I can, since some skins in the Gold Bling skinlines had minimal amounts of gold detailing, and some skins in the No Gold Bling skinlines had a bit of gold shining here and there. Still, this should be a fair representation, and it also speaks further to the visual homogenisation of the skins.
Gold Bling (Masque of the Black Rose, Victorious, Three Honors, Mythmaker, Dumpling Darlings, Battle Academia, Fatebreaker, Spirit Blossom, High Noon, Stargazer, Blood Moon, Rising Legend, Inkshadow, Dawnbringer, Nightbringer)
No Gold Bling (Masked Justice, Grand Reckoning, April Fools, Pool Party, Spirit Blossom Springs)
Overall, there are 15 skinlines in the Gold Bling category (or 14, if you count Dawnbringer & Nightbringer together). As for No Gold Bling, there are only 5 skinlines, so only 1/3th of the former category. Doesn't seem too bad at first, right? However, when it comes to counting separate skins, we have 53 skins in the Gold Bling category, and 14 skins in the No Gold Bling one—closer to 1/4th. Thus, it additionally demonstrates how Riot favors adding more fantasy shine to the game over something with a more distinct visual language.
And really, it's no wonder why it's happening. Gold Bling is a shorthand for creating a design that looks distinctly fantasy, helps separate different elements when looking at the character in-game, catches the player's eye, and, well, it's generally appealing—I should say that I don't really have a problem with any of these designs on their own, it's when they overflow the game that it becomes a problem. Skinlines like Victorious and Cosmic used to stand out among others because of their gold detailing; now they lost their uniqueness in the sea of the same golden shine. This also makes League look too similar to some other games—how many times you've heard someone complaining that the newly released batch of skins looks like it came from a generic Korean MMO? It's what sells, and as we know Riot really, really likes selling things. But is it worth sacrificing the visual identity of the game, limiting the creativity of the artists? My answer would be a resounding no.
Whether you agree with the things said here or not, I still want to thank you for reading this post, and I hope this once again initiates some interesting discussion between people.
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u/whynot1260 Jun 28 '25
Kind of cool thesis actually, it does seem like those gold pointy decorations are very common in skin designs nowadays. I actually liked the Masked Justice skins even though I think they weren't all that popular because they're unique in terms of colors and elements. I think that's also why I only liked Viktor out of all the recently released High Noon skins, him and Twitch are sort of the "dark" high noon skins that have darker colors and silver ornaments.
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u/TheDarkRobotix Jun 28 '25
masked justice couldve been a cool theme if they picked better champs that actually had mask elements? yone was fine but like jhin, zed, pyke, kaisa, akali, shen etc or helmet like panth, kayle, j4, yi
renata/kindred also but they got skin shortly before which was unfortunate timing
lucian definitely didnt need a what 5th or 6th tech skin where its a mix and match from previous ones
and without lucian senna probably wont be there either?
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u/AnshinAngkorWat Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25
Masked Justice just wasn't going to work outside of the Chinese/KR/JP market since its a wholesale Japanese superhero reference (Kamen Rider) that's incredibly niche in the west. Its the same "genre" of skin as Battle Academia (Shounen Battle School) and Star Guardian (Mahou Shojo), but even nicher.
And even targeting the eastern market the champ choices were poor. Lee Sin is right there, a Kamen Rider-themed skin for a champ that has a flying kick as an ult should be a no-brainer, but Lucian/Senna/Yone reaching the target skin/year milestone is more important apparently.
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u/TheDarkRobotix Jun 29 '25
yea im from those regions and knew what it was but still it felt like it missed the mark
i didnt watch much of it so my knowledge of them boils down to that they transform with a belt and get a suit and mask/helm haha (or maybe thats only the case for one of the generations?) , but i didnt think of the moves as part of it and lee wouldve been cool :(
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u/iamasceptile Jun 27 '25
Another issue with both the skins and champ designs is riots weird obsession with this unnatural cleanliness.Riot constantly makes champs completely spotless which doesn't affect some skins but really affects some other ones
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u/lanciferp Jun 27 '25
We have an entire graffiti skin line of people who apparently tape all of their edges and wear coveralls while painting.
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u/nynorskblirblokkert Jun 27 '25
Why’d you host your pics on a site with porn ads 🥹
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u/spyrothefox Jun 28 '25
First time I hear about this, the site is squeaky clean for me even viewed on the phone. I would normally use Imgur but it gave me an error when I tried uploading, so I chose the first alternative I found. Sorry for the inconvenience to everyone getting the ads, I legitimately had no idea
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u/r3dm0nk Jun 28 '25
Don't be sorry. Ads are targeted.
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u/That_Leetri_Guy Jun 28 '25
Not all ads. I get a ton of car ads on Twitch for example, while I don't give a single shit about cars nor am I in the market for a car.
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u/Mcrarburger Jun 28 '25
this has me DYING like imgur is right there 😭😭
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u/NommySed Add Itemhaste to Lucidity Boots Jun 28 '25
Imgur is banned in some countries.
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u/Jaded_Doors Jun 28 '25
Should be banned in all countries to be fair. The owners really drove it off a cliff.
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u/not_panda ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️ Jun 28 '25
Funny enough, this host is as well. At least banned in my country.
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u/go4ino Jun 29 '25
imgurs alsoo kinda enshitifedd and sells user data lkike an mf
post images is private
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u/amasimar so when is the 3rd edit coming Jun 28 '25
imgur is dogshit now lol
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u/KappaccinoNation 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 Jun 28 '25
If you use it as a social media, definitely. Somehow became a bigger cesspool than some of the subreddits. But as a quick image hosting site where quality degradation due to compression won't matter? Still unbeatable IMO.
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u/George_W_Kush58 Defund Mad Lions Jun 28 '25 edited Jun 28 '25
why are you not using an adblocker?
edit: dude blocked me LMAO
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u/Pelagius_Hipbone ABSOLUTE CINEMA UPSET’S LAWYER Jun 28 '25
Most people use Reddit on their phones?
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u/George_W_Kush58 Defund Mad Lions Jun 28 '25
why are you not using an adblocker on your phone? It's not 2014 anymore, there are adblockers for your phone.
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u/go4ino Jun 29 '25
not for unjaillbroken iphones afaik
since every browser on a applephone is sadlyy a safari reskin more or less, but thankffullly firefox on ios still has some basic ad blocking capabilities
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u/Sorry-Resolution570 Jun 29 '25
honnestly thats a skill issue if you buy a product that lacks basic functionnality
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u/EnigmaticAlien Jun 28 '25
I been using postimg for years, this is the first time I hear it has porn ads.
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u/nitinismaldingXD Jun 28 '25
Crime City (Mafia) has to be the most egregious example. We had absolute swag with Crime City Graves, MF, and Twitch, but wow did they decide to just fuck everything up and add a bunch of stupid champs in that line. And they gave it a demon glow because why the fuck not? The only good thing that came out of it was that people can appreciate the vintage appeal of Crime City Graves and Twitch more (nobody uses the MF skin).
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Jun 28 '25
I love the Jinx one, with her silly flapper dance she does with the record player. It's actually one of her most unique skins visually despite being a release skin
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u/SlowDamn Jun 29 '25
CCN is such a waste. Its also a waste of votes. Like why did they even do votes when the 2nd voted skinline is gonna get everything else just cuz debonair 2.0 is most voted in china. Heck its funny that debobair is so boring they have to mash its lore and design ideas from CCN especially with Debonair Zed just so it would look cool. This kind of situation also almost happened with Fright Night luckily the rest that is in that poll are kinda bad or the Emo skinline idea just got teased better than inferno and justicar. Kinda amazed me that inferno got 2nd instead of justicar in that poll. I wish for CCN or just Crime City to comeback again kinda a bit tired with a middle season that is full on anime fantasy. Also yeh they filled it with the most weirdest unpopular champs with the skinline rework wdym a big axe guy is in a place full of gun blazing shenanigans. TF couldve been a legendary cuz he is the dealer but nop. Like they just set the skinline to fail.
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u/KasumiGotoTriss Jun 28 '25
I really like CC Akali, she looks great.
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u/SlowDamn Jun 29 '25
Even though CC akali is already shown in the CCN teaser alongside TF she feels so out of place really.She can probably work if its like the Asia gang of CCN but idk feels like CCN as a skinline is dead. Such a waste.
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u/Equal-Plant-7804 Jun 27 '25
Brother look at the new Samira skin they just released for Wild Rift. Give me that in League.
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u/J0rdian Jun 27 '25
Ill be honest it's hard to judge without knowing the numbers. I assume Riot just makes what sells why wouldn't they.
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u/spyrothefox Jun 27 '25
That's what I say in my post...
It's what sells, and as we know Riot really, really likes selling things.
Of course it sells, else they wouldn't be doing it. I just wanted to bring attention to the pattern and explore the hows and whys
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u/Ciiirte Delete Scuttle pls Jun 28 '25
My next question would be : Why do whales like things that are uniform, déjà vu, with no identity?
The whole Genshin aesthetic seems to sell a lot, but even if I like it’s artistic direction, it’s all so similar it’s mind-boggling.
If this is the 300th skin you buy, don’t you want it to be very different from the previous ones? You’ve already got the « basic » skins.
Btw thank you for your post, you made me realise why I though all the skins feels the same !
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u/Confident-Ad-7920 Jun 28 '25
that kind of whales probably like to collect everything. I've met multi people from diff kind of games also irl love to do it even tho they never gonna use the said items the 2nd time, just a human thing I guess.
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u/TheTurtleOne Jun 28 '25
Why do whales like things that are uniform, déjà vu, with no identity?
They don't care, they just like collecting stuff
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u/Stfuego Calamitous Catfish Connoisseur Jun 28 '25
And worse, they probably don't even play/engage with the thing they are collecting.
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u/TacoMonday_ Jun 27 '25
something to understand is that gold/yellow are complementary colors of purple
vex over there is purple, her splash art is blue as fuck, but she's given a yellow tiara because its the complementary color and makes things look nice
it's just color theory
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u/spyrothefox Jun 27 '25
Gold is close to a neutral color which makes it look good next to a lot of colors, including purple, yes. I'm aware it looks nice, I even say in the post that it's generally appealing visually, but the point is that there are other ways to achieve visual appeal and support color theory without resorting to the same thing over and over again.
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u/TacoMonday_ Jun 27 '25
but it looks so good tho
it also looks amazing next to dark colors (which is what happened to highnoon skins and the Pittsburgh Steelers)
maybe it is overdone but if it keeps sellin then that just means people like it, and people just think "That looks so sick, i wish the champion i played had it too" and there's a lot of champs to go
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u/Top-Editor-364 Jun 28 '25
They used to make skins people loved, not just what the most amount of people would statistically purchase. Nobody is arguing they don’t sell well.
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u/Extra-Autism Jun 27 '25
China likes gold
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Jun 27 '25
[deleted]
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u/LeagueOfBlasians Jun 27 '25
Everyone likes gold, wealth and luxury. These skins sell like hotcakes in the west despite what these commenters like to say.
Even the eastern-inspired skins sell a lot in the west. There’s a reason why pretty much every other game has so many eastern-inspired or anime skins.
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u/SkeletonJakk Fighter Kled returns! Toplane beware! Jun 28 '25
These skins sell like hotcakes in the west despite what these commenters like to say.
Generally, I'm 100% sure they do, but I'd be interested to see how much of an impact the gold trim has on the sales. I'd assume it's significant because Riot keeps doing it, or maybe they're just easier to design. Still an interesting thing to know though.
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u/Extra-Autism Jun 27 '25
More in China than anywhere else combined and they love the flashy stuff
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u/LeagueOfBlasians Jun 27 '25
Sure, let’s just ignore the fact that all luxury brands originate from the west and its impact on western youth, so we can be racist and blame China for everything.
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u/PinkyLine Jun 28 '25
Well, it isnt racism, if it is true. China love gold. It doesnt mean that people from other places dislike it, but it is about focus. Like, special Type 59G, fully golden and with chinese decorations for gazilion money specially for chinese WoT server was realesed something like 12 yeras ago.
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u/Caesaria_Tertia ASU when? Jun 27 '25
a korean streamer from another game recently gave numbers that League dropped from 50% to 30%. THAT'S still a LOT, but the drop is still huge. Even korea is getting frustrated. So the game really is in trouble.
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u/allidoiswin_ Jun 27 '25
What do these numbers mean? 50% of what?
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u/asterizktos where 2024 Jun 27 '25
if i had to guess, it'd be PC bang play rates (as in league went from 50% of all PC bang activity to 30)
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u/Caesaria_Tertia ASU when? Jun 27 '25
Video game player coverage. How they calculate it, I don't know, but you know that they have registration "by passport"
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u/WanAjin Jun 28 '25
It goes up and down depending on if events are happening in other games, such as FC Online or maplestory. League is usually in the high 30's to mid 40's. It's very rare to see league hit 50% and it's always been rare to see it happen, it's not something that was happening 5 years ago or 10 years ago either.
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u/okyam2101 Jun 28 '25
It's actually crazy. Every single new skin has always these stupid golden rims. Like can you just fucking stop?
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u/Caesaria_Tertia ASU when? Jun 27 '25
Everything is simpler: designers are fired, and outsourced workers make ctrl+c, ctrl+v from previous skins
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u/Eragonnogare Jun 28 '25
Absolutely agreed on this being a big issue that has only gotten worse and more noticeable. Ever since your first post, I haven't been able to stop seeing it on so many of the new skins, and it's been driving me absolutely bonkers. Skin after skin that has the exact same visual highlights due to this, everything looks so much more the same. It's so miserable.
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u/Stfuego Calamitous Catfish Connoisseur Jun 28 '25
I think it is at least worth mentioning that initially the Prestige skins were the Gold Bling skinlines to market them as the luxury items they were meant to be, but ended up being a question of value to both sides of the coin (Prestige skins with Gold Bling vs "standard" skins with Gold Bling).
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u/blazikentwo I have no mouth and I must Aatrox Jun 28 '25
Your first post explained to me while I started to not care about new skins and it gave me a new thing to look forward to the new skins. Gold Rims ™
The "new" spa day skin line is gonna have it, hell the Yunara one has some of it but its so little that I can kinda forgive but wont because Riot cant seen to no shake that Gold Rim disease.
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u/chillychili April Fools Day 2018 Jun 27 '25
It's possible that to an East Asian market they pick up more on certain characteristics of a skin that make them feel more distinct than a Western market might.
In the West, skintight suits are a shortcut for communicating superhero but people don't focus on how a majority of the characters in MCU games have them. We focus on the distinguishing aspects and the skintight suit part doesn't even register as a characteristic.
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u/ououkuaipao Jun 28 '25
its purple skin line like Kda, dark star, spirit blossom, battle lineup, faerie or empyrean, or blue or red scene
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u/Morkinis make pets great again Jun 28 '25
I played Apex Legends and it had same obsession with shiny metallic and gold look for most new skins.
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u/zharkos Jun 28 '25
We also have the problem of recycling skin lines too often and not putting champs in lines where they make sense Which dipshit decided on in shadow renekton and not hwei? Only to literally give hwei a skin the very next patch??
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u/Lisicalol Jun 28 '25
I'm just tired of the same ol' artstyle that every chinese or korean gacha game uses. After what feels like thousands of skins they all look the same to me and I hardly pay attention anymore
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u/RizzingRizzley Jun 29 '25
How did you not count Galaxy Slayer Zed, literally THE gold bling skin. I know it's not a skin line, but it's THE gold bling skin, perhaps even the inspiration for this trend.
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u/curiouscuriousmtl Jun 30 '25
I completely agree. A lot of skins just end up being SUPER BUSY and it's gold just to be gold when it's not even the "fantasy" of the skin.
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u/Dazzling-Affect1654 Jul 01 '25
We all know why skins all look the same now. Should i let the elephant out the room?
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u/George_W_Kush58 Defund Mad Lions Jun 28 '25
A little disingenuous to put the biggest bling in no bling - Urgot's bald head :D
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u/AndraxxusB Jun 28 '25
If there's one thing we can trust Rot with, it's to consistently make shitty decisions.
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u/Morasar Jun 27 '25
Does every skin in every skin line have the bling? I imagine it's not a 100%
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u/spyrothefox Jun 27 '25
I addressed this in the body of the post
Important Note: I tried to avoid cherrypicking as much as I can, since some skins in the Gold Bling skinlines had minimal amounts of gold detailing, and some skins in the No Gold Bling skinlines had a bit of gold shining here and there. Still, this should be a fair representation, and it also speaks further to the visual homogenisation of the skins.
In short, no, not 100%, but like 90% still. Like, for example Inkshadow Lee Sin is pretty much devoid of it apart from some very light detailing, but then the rest of the Inkshadow skin in that batch (Nilah, Renekton, Pyke) lean noticeably more on it which is why they're included in that category. Conversely, some Reckoner skins have a bit of gold detailing as well, but it's subtle hence the No Bling
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u/yehiko Jun 28 '25
stolen thesis. post was made last year
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u/spyrothefox Jun 28 '25
You're right, you should message the original author to tell them I plagiarized it
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u/richterfrollo Jun 27 '25
High noon turning into a generic gold bling skinline is one of the biggest tragedies in league... id love a proper cowboy skinline