Perhaps never before have Riot’s design staff faced such a troublesome situation as they do now, after T1 officially won the Worlds 2023. The reason is that T1’s players have an incredibly wide champion pool and too many options. Regardless of the choice, they are all reasonable champions for the League of Legends audience. However, for T1, the choices must also be meaningful, truly worthy of the stature of this championship, especially after a year full of ups and downs.
As known, in the final days before “locking” the champions to be selected for the Worlds skin, some T1 players “switched gears” or intended to tease the audience. For example, Faker switched to Orianna – the champion that helped him win many crucial matches and is regarded as one of his two “signature champions” at this year’s Worlds. Previously, he was thought to choose Ahri when he deliberately picked this champion in the finals against Weibo Gaming. Faker’s “switching gears” left many fans feeling quite disappointed.
But what truly drove Riot and fans “crazy” was Keria. A few weeks ago, everyone was convinced that Keria would choose Bard for his Worlds skin. However, right before the skin had to be finalized, Keria conducted another survey, and this time, Renata Glasc came out on top. It seemed Bard would “fall into oblivion,” but it turned out that Keria once again “switched gears” and finally, according to some sources from the Korean news, Keria returned to Bard.
Notably, according to the information provided, at 5 PM (Korean time), all players had to “lock” their decisions. But by 12:30 AM the next day, Keria contacted Riot to change his decision. This is unprecedented in the history of Worlds. But in the end, it seems Riot had to “concede” to Keria.
According to some online arguments, perhaps Keria’s indecision was due to him not preparing backup plans in case Lux was not chosen. Coupled with the disappointment of not being able to get a Worlds skin for his favorite champion, it seems Keria was even more confused and struggled to make such a choice.