VALORANT community edits pink skins hoping to get Riot’s attention

Noting an absence of pink weapon skins, the VALORANT community is making their own.

VALORANT agent Neon sprinting toward the camera in promotional art for the game.
Image via Riot Games

Though VALORANT has a large variety of skins for players to equip, from weapons inspired by Japanese demons to guns with an aquarium inside the chamber, some fans still see holes in their collections.

Recommended Videos

Nearing two years since the game’s release, there are now enough skin lines that a recent trend has emerged where players are trying to color-coordinate their weapon libraries.

Image of a purple-themed collection. | Image via @punkybyrd on Twitter
Image
Image of a red-themed collection. | Image via @DaHotMango on Twitter

But this trend has revealed a glaring gap in VALORANT’s skin line: There are very minimal options for pink weapons, especially for ultra and exclusive skins. So the community jumped in to create them, and they hope to gain Riot’s attention.

Several Twitter users have been editing pink variants based on existing skins in the game. One of the most popular posts, by Twitter user Ralph “Ralphoki1,” includes pink versions of the Prime, Forsaken, Gaia’s Vengeance, and Reaver vandals.

“My partner always asking about the lack of pink and teal skins in the game made me realize there was a marketing opportunity for Riot here,” Ralph said. “The reaction from the community has been incredible.”

Inspired by Ralph, several other users have chimed in and edited more pink variants.

User “kyafnx” has been posting edits of different skins for several weapon types.

“As a graphic designer I got inspired, so I thought I would continue the trend as everyone has been loving to see the potential of skins,” kyafnx said. “I’m hoping Riot has noticed the trend and considers implementing skins like this into the game.”

This isn’t out of the question, either. Riot has implemented community creations before in VALORANT, including fan creations and memes.

There is a suggestion that Riot might be able to use the pink skins similarly to how Overwatch released a pink Mercy skin in the past for Breast Cancer awareness.

“The community has also brought to my attention that in Overwatch they once did a pink skin for something related to breast cancer,” kyafnx said. “I think Riot doing that would send a really big message.”

The absence of pink skins in VALORANT also indicates that Riot may not expect the community to want to buy a pink bundle. Whether this is based on an assumption of lower numbers of women playing the game or people simply not liking the color pink, the community has made it clear that they do want to see pink skins in the game.

Author
Image of Nadine Manske
Nadine Manske
Nadine is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She covers VALORANT and Overwatch with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region and marginalized genders in esports. Before joining Dot Esports as a freelance writer, she interned at Gen.G Esports and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her favorite Pokémon is Quagsire.