Riot Games showed of a couple of new League of Legends skins this week as part of a PBE preview like we typically see before an update drops, but this time, the skins stand out for an unusual reason. They’re called the “Monster Tamer” skins which should sound familiar to those who voted in a past community poll about which skin themes would get added to League, and since they were revealed, they’ve been attracting some major Pokemon comparisons.
The three skins in question are for Veigar, Kog’Maw, and Lulu. Of those three champions, only one of them actually has a pet, but they all invoke monster trainer themes in their own way.
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You can see those skins below to see for yourself if all the Pokemon comparisons are warranted.
If you want to lean into those Pokemon analogies, Veigar has been equated to Allister, the Gym Leader from Pokemon Shield who specializes in ghost Pokemon. Lulu’s design has been compared to the electric-using Gym Leader Elesa from Pokemon Black and White and Black and White 2 while Kog’Maw seems to be loosely based off of a Pikachu design. Helping that comparison is the fact that Lulu and Kog’Maw share a splash art with each other which isn’t uncommon in these shared skin themes but certainly sees intentional here.
That’s not to say these are direct copies of the Pokemon equivalents or anything like that, but it’s certainly difficult to ignore the comparisons once you see them. Regardless, they’re neat spins on the creature and creature trainer themes Riot teased back during the initial skin votes.
The results of that past skin vote were revealed back in February 2021. Crime City Nightmare, Debonair 2.0, and Monster Tamers were the three skin themes to choose from, and they ranked in that exact order after all the votes were tallied and players made their preferences known. Riot said at the time it would fulfill requests for the first two and would think on Monster Tamers.
It’s worth noting, however, that the two Monster Tamer skins shown initially in concept art were for Janna and Ezreal. Those are naturally nowhere to be found in this reveal, so it’s unclear currently if they’re being saved for a future drop or if they never made it past the concept art stage.
