We’re a week away from the long-awaited release of the League of Legends World Championship skin set inspired by T1’s victory in Korea last year—and with it, Faker’s seventh skin. Funnily enough, the 28-year-old mid-laner now has more skins honoring him than nearly a quarter of champions even have skins.
This fact was not lost on the League community at all this week, with one eagle-eyed Redditor listing all 41 champions that now have fewer full cosmetics than the Unkillable Demon King. Faker’s “collection” includes next week’s T1 Orianna skin, his three hall-of-fame Ahri and LeBlanc skins, and older cosmetics for Ryze, Syndra, and Zed, with each symbolizing a Summoner’s Cup he’s lifted over the years.
The majority of champs that don’t have as many skins as Faker does are relatively new or highly unpopular, but there are some outliers in the group; Viego (13th), Kayn (24th), Smolder (25th), and Lillia (30th) are all sitting at over 7.5 percent pick rate, according to stats site U.GG right now, and yet you’ll find more Faker skins than any of them.
A few of the other champs in the pool without skins have even been in the game longer than Faker’s career, while he’s gone equal in the skin count with Zilean—who celebrates his 15th year anniversary in League this year. What makes the stat even funnier is Faker’s insistence never to use cosmetics while playing; not even that $400 Immortalized Ahri skin celebrating his Hall of Legends induction earlier this year.
“When will he become a champion himself?” one player said, which prompted much discussion over how Riot could immortalize Faker in-game; from including the mid laner as a shopkeeper to having him become an eventual teacher in the game’s tutorial, with so many skins he might as well join the League roster at this point.
We’ll see whether Faker has what it takes to add an eighth League skin to the collection later this year as T1 shapes up for the LCK Summer finals and Worlds 2024.
