Does Odyssey Kayn Having A Personalised Icon Hurt Competitive Integrity?
League of Legends has one of the most effervescent and exotic looking cosmetics in the game. The in-game cosmetics forge a delightful way for the players to customise their favourite champions and look great on the Summoner’s Rift. These cosmetics have been divided into various champion skins, ward skins, and little legends skins (TFT) as well, which roam around the player in the Howling Abyss (ARAM).
League of Legends’ cosmetics do not provide any advantages to the user, and are used for decorative purposes only. They can be purchased in-game using RP (Riot Points) and cost somewhere from 520 RP to 3,250 RP depending on the rarity of the skin. While most cosmetics do not have any lore behind them, some have alternative universes that change the champion's look entirely through the cosmetics. Some of the famous cosmetic alternative universes are K/DA, Star Guardian, and Odyssey.
The Odyssey Event back in 2018 saw the crew of the Morning Star in the Galaxy trying to fight alien creatures while being on a spaceship. Many existing League of Legends champions like Kayn, Jinx, Yasuo, Malphite, Sona, and Ziggs received their Odyssey themed cosmetics during the event. However, recently a Redditor and many active LoL players have noticed a rather unnatural icon for the cosmetic ‘Odessey Kayn.’ This observation has led to many new theories regarding the future of League of Legends' cosmetics and if every cosmetic in the game would be receiving their personalised icons in the future.
However, before delving into these speculations, let us establish the very logic by which different cosmetics do not have their personalised icons in the game.
WHY DON'T LEAGUE OF LEGENDS COSMETICS HAVE THEIR OWN PERSONALISED ICONS IN THE GAME?
League of Legends’ mini-map is one of the most crucial aspects of the game, and it allows players to gain information from different parts of the map. It can be used to know different enemy champions’ positions on the turf and the icons of the champions never change from the base variant, even when the players are using different cosmetics in the game.
However, recently Odyssey Kayn has broken this notion, and his base Kayn icon is replaced with a special Odyssey Kayn icon appearing on the mini-map. This could just be a bug in the game; however; there is a reason why players see the usual base variant icons on the map. Newer players especially would face trouble while distinguishing champions while watching the mini-map, therefore, Odyssey Kayn breaking this rule could potentially mean big things for all the cosmetics in the game in the near future. It doesn’t void the competitive integrity of the game, as many professional players have already the knowledge of almost every cosmetic in the game and the cosmetic doesn’t steer much away from the base variant, therefore, they are easy to distinguish in the game for regular players.
Many players in the community speculate that Riot Games might be experimenting with cosmetic icons to make users have a more personalised experience in the game. It could be an exciting prospect for the developers as well. However, that being said, if this feature ever makes its way into the game, players should have an option to turn it off (like Eternals) as it could hurt the concentration of the players.
Does Odyssey Kayn's revamped icon suggest new upcoming changes for old legacy skins?
Odyssey Kayn looks very interesting with an enhanced icon, and many players would love this personalised touch to their existing cosmetics. However, it is not confirmed that all the old cosmetics will be getting their own icons in the game. There are many cosmetics in the game, and making one for each of them would be tiresome work for the developers, to say the least.
However, if the developers do take this road in the upcoming future, it would open doors to many imaginative approaches to the game's icons. The in-game icons could be animated, or other mini-map changes could make people buy more skins and have a great experience in the game.
Many champions like Gnar and Kayn have their icons changed when their avatar is changed in the game. Therefore, a change like this one isn’t out of the pages. Gnar icon change helps players know if the champion is Mega Gnar or the usual Gnar. The same for Kayn helps players know if the player has opted for Shadow form or the Rhaast form of the champion.
How could the new revamped icons improve the quality of life in League of Legends for the players?
Improved icons could potentially do a lot more than they present in the game. They could tell the user if the enemy champions are using their ultimate on the map, and a few more things to encourage players to check their mini-map more often. Apart from the decorative icons for cosmetics, the developers could also look for ways to make the game more clear and more fun for the existing and upcoming players.
Images via Riot Games