What’s up guys it’s me Jeremy!
Previously we talked about some of the skins that Riot had in development that could exist
in game in the future.
Riot are always working on new skins for most if not all champions in the game, and although
some go on to become finished products, the skins in this list have pretty much no chance
because they have been officially cancelled or remade into something else.
That being said, these skins are super interesting to look at, especially if they were turned
into something new, because you really get a sense of the direction Riot decided to take
them, and If you enjoy the video make sure to hit that like button and if you don't hit
the dislike.
The first skin on our list is Dark Crusader Mordekaiser.
People had been requesting a true Medieval style skin for Mordekaiser for the longest
time, but Riot’s first attempt ended up being shelved because he didn’t look distinctive
enough.
Riot hold skins to a really high standard and that often means some really cool themes
end up on the chopping block.
Fortunately for us, they eventually revisited the concept while working on the High Stakes
skin line and brought us King of Clubs Mordekaiser.
Rather than a cool though rather underwhelming medieval knight as shown in the Dark Crusader
concept, Riot stepped it up a notch and gave him a royal but menacing vibe.
Definitely a lot more in character for Mordekaiser, and a really cool insight into the process
of taking a skin concept and developing it further.
We’re not sure if the resemblance to King Knight from the Shovel Knight game is intentional
or not, but either way it’s cool as hell.
Next up is Battle Priestess Soraka, and to be honest, we can definitely see why this
one was scrapped.
The idea of having an armor-clad Soraka is pretty cool, but as a pretty scrawny champion
she looks really bulky and unwieldy.
It doesn’t really do anything for her character either - Soraka is a champion that was once
a celestial being that chose a mortal life.
Even as a mortal, her flavor and abilities ooze divinity, and Battle Priestess Soraka
really didn’t capture the right feeling, which is probably why it was cancelled.
The concept was eventually reworked into Celestine Soraka, which does a far better job at bringing
a new angle to her character.
It’s definitely not a battle-orientated skin, but it’s way closer to what you’d
expect a healing support to look like, more like a Cleric or Priest in MMO terms.
She’s outfitted with kinda plain robes, but the gold trim and particle effects really
help give that powerful, holy feel.
Her staff also looks fantastic in Celestine Soraka, unlike Battle Priestess Soraka’s
banana-hammer staff looking thing.
Riot have said in the past that it’s really important to be able to tell how a champion
should play based on their appearance, and Celestine Soraka does a way better job from
that perspective.
We have a really strange one for you next, and unfortunately no skin to show for it.
On July 1st back in 2013, summoner Zyrelia posted on the general discussions forums that
a skin called Lunar Karma had popped up in the NA server store.
Curiously it had no artwork, and could be bought for either 10 RP or 10 IP, strange
as a skin because they are usually RP exclusive.
Later on Riot Chager updated everyone on the misplaced content, saying that it had been
deployed to the client store before the skin was actually ready for release.
This ended up with players who bought the skin being refunded, and the store was temporarily
disabled during the fiasco.
The weirdest part is that Lunar Karma hasn’t appeared again in any form for the last 3
years since that all happened, either as a finished release or as a reworked skin.
So, what do you think happened to Lunar Karma?
Since it popped up in store a little while after the rework, it was probably a skin designed
for the new Karma rather than the old one.
A Lunar skin could be really cool for a champion like Soraka or Karma though, and I hope Riot
decide to produce more skins with that theme in the future.
If they do, we’ll be on the lookout for this one.
Our next cancelled skins are coming as a pair, because they are both for the same champion,
Katarina.
The skins are Crimson Elite Katarina and Cyber Katarina, and the only proof of existence
we have for these skins are the textures.
It’s quite tricky to imagine the finished look on a model in your head, but at least
we can get a general idea.
Crimson Elite Katarina is the most recognisable because it shares the same color scheme as
Crimson Elite Talon.
She has a deep red for her hair, with her clothes being mostly black, with gold and
silver trims.
Katarina still has her iconic green eyes and facial scar, and just to the right of that
we can see her long red hair adorned with some kind of gold headpiece.
Artist ShiNaa did an amazing job demonstrating what Crimson Elite Katarina might have looked
like if finished up and mounted on a model.
She definitely has her similarities in terms of flavor to Riven and Talon, so Crimson Elite
Katarina would be a really cool skin to see in game sometime down the line.
So far it hasn’t been officially cancelled or reworked into anything new though, so maybe
we’ll still see it one day.
Cyber Katarina on the other hand is harder to figure out.
We can make out some of the more obvious features from the texture - her face is pretty standard
for a Katarina skin, along with her red hair.
From that point onwards it gets really hard to tell what part of the texture belongs where
on the model.
We can make out the general styling - some kind of crafted leather or bronze armor along
with silver and purple trims to give her a more technological feel.
The bottom left corner appears to have the texture for her sword, and the bright pink
would definitely give off a cybernetic glow in game.
Cyber Katarina’s particle effects were also leaked, although in an unfinished state.
We can see the purple glow her abilities would give off which is super cool and reminds me
of some of the Project skins, specifically Fiora.
We don’t really know what’s happening with either this skin or Crimson Elite Katarina,
but it’s been a few years since these files were extracted from the game, so it’s hard
to expect to see them in game.
Maybe Cyber Katarina will be reworked into a Project Skin, but it’s pretty unlikely
Crimson Elite Katarina will show up in game considering how long it’s been.
Tryndamere is next up, with a skin called Dreadknight that was extracted from game files.
We don’t know much about the Dreadknight Tryndamere skin, but what we do know is that
it was reworked into the insanely awesome Pyramid Head homage that is Nightmare Tryndamere.
This is the second in the Nightmare line of skins, following Cho’Gath, and what a way
to take it to the next level.
Nightmare Tryndamere is my absolute favorite of his skins, and I really hope Riot release
more skins in this style in the future.
There’s something pretty terrifying about a big musclebound guy with his face covered
charging at you with a chain wrapped sword, and it really suits Tryndamere as a theme
more than a Dreadknight skin would in my opinion.
Tryndamere is kinda meant to be bare and barbaric rather than covered in armor, and Nightmare
Trynd really does it justice.
That being said, Riot managed to make Dreadknight Nasus work well without him being totally
armored, so they probably could have done something cool for Tryndamere too.
Jade Empress Karma is another skin concept that we have no images for, we only know it
exists by name from a file extracted from the game.
There are a couple of other Jade skins already in game, such as Jade Fang Cassiopeia or Jade
Dragon Wukong.
The key features in these skins is the jade green color that is primarily used in the
skins, and because of that this skin is probably gone for good.
The Karma rework included a visual update for her skins, including the base skin, and
both the regular Karma skin and her abilities have a green focus.
There’s not a whole lot of point in Riot released a jade green based skin for a champion
that is already mostly green, so Jade Empress Karma was probably scrapped during the Karma
rework.
We’re not done with Karma yet though, as we know Riot have been working on at least
one more Karma skin, Bladestorm.
Fortunately this one was extracted with a skin texture, so we can get an idea for how
it would look in game.
The primary color seems to be blue for her clothing, along with silver pieces of trim
that would seemingly be to flesh her out a bit and add armored sections.
It’s pretty unlikely that this one will see the light of day in it’s current form
though because it was designed before her rework and visual update, so it was probably
made to work with her old particle effects and abilities.
Big champion updates and redesigns can change a lot about both their kits and their place
in the lore, and Riot always want to make sure that skin themes fit the champions they
are developed for.
Bladestorm Karma is shelved for now, so we might see another take on it later on in the
future, similar to what happened with Dark Crusader and King of Clubs Mordekaiser.
The last of the cancelled skins today come in another pair, Cyber Ninja Zed and Proxy
Zed.
These two cancelled skins were also taken from the game client, and were eventually
scrapped and reworked into what is now Project Zed.
The biggest influencer was Cyber Zed as they share the same black and silver metal plating
on most of the DDS textures.
Notably Cyber Ninja Zed has blue highlights and glow, unlike the actual Project Zed release
where instead Riot decided to use a red and purple glow, which gives it a bit of a darker
feel.
As for Proxy Zed, it’s actually kinda hard to tell what the skin was supposed to look
like from the texture.
It’s way more washed out and minimalistic than Cyber Ninja Zed, and it seems like it
used the same base model as the regular Zed skin.
Fortunately that means that we can take it and stick it on top of Zed’s model to get
an idea what this unfinished concept would look like, which is exactly what Youtuber
SirFredyssun has done.
It looks kinda close to some of the sand skins when it comes to the muted colors, but I’d
wager that this skin was scrapped pretty early on in the design process, and this texture
isn’t really what the finished skin was planned to look like.
It’s still pretty cool to look at though, even if it’s a bit too simple.
It’s possible that Riot were working on Proxy Zed before they came up with the Cyber
Ninja Zed concept, and then just decided to roll with that all the way up until they finished
Project Zed.
This gives us a little bit of hope that we might see Project Katarina in game one day
though, since they did eventually turn Cyber Ninja Zed into a finished skin in the Project
line.
They have similar themes, so maybe they’ll be taken in a similar direction.
So overall most of the skins Riot shelves do seem to show up in the future eventually,
although usually as part of a redesign.
Do you agree with the direction Riot took some of these reworked skins, or do you think
one of them should have been released as it is?
Make sure you let us know in the comments.
And it looks like that’s gonna be it from me, if you enjoyed the video drop a like,
subscribe if you want, thanks for watching, and I’ll see you guys next time!