Oh hello, this question! It must be World Championship Team skins time! Over the last year, we’ve evolved and updated our approach to selecting the skins we make to celebrate the team and players who win Worlds. As teams continue to experiment with their rosters, we’ve had to reevaluate our criteria for the skins.

We’ve set some guidelines with the teams, namely around the minimum threshold for a player to be considered for a skin. We ask that they meet at least one of the following conditions:

Participate in at least 2 play-in stage games that had an impact on the team’s advancement to the knockout game (i.e. those games had to matter for seeding or advancement). Participate in at least 2 group stage games that had an impact on the team’s advancement to the knockout game (i.e. those games had to matter for seeding or advancement). Participate in at least 1 knockout stage game (Quarters, Semis, or Finals).

We also have a few criteria for which champions players can choose. The most important is that the player must have played the champion at least once during Worlds. The player can choose any champion that they played, even if it was only once. If the winning team already has a skin for that champion from a previous win, we might ask for another option. In the case of champions where we already have skins planned or in development, this no longer affects their eligibility for a championship skin. That’s a policy we changed last year, namely with SKT Jhin.

Unless there are extraordinary circumstances, we limit the number of World Championship Team Skins to six per year.

And then we’ve got the coaches. We save in-game coach content for something truly special. For example, if a coach has won three championships, they will be considered for in-game content.

Lastly, let’s chat briefly about theming. Up through 2016, the theme for the skins was “Esports!” After receiving feedback around the 2016 SKT World Championship Team skins, we realized we had an opportunity to do something more compelling with our theming and allow for a broader reach to players who like a particular fantasy beyond jerseys, laptops, and headphones. We worked with SKT in 2017 and SSG this last round to create a skin fantasy that reflects their tastes and attitude as a team. It’s a crazy challenge for sure, but one we think is really paying off as the quality of these skins (from what you’ve told us) is just better.

2017 World Championship Team SSG skins are just around the corner!