League of Legends Season 12: Skarner to receive visual and gameplay update after VGU poll


Skarner is set to receive the next VGU (visual and gameplay update) as a result of player votes in the recent League of Legends poll! This poll was an exciting new step for the League of Legends development team, giving players a chance to decide what's next for the game's evolution.

From January 7th to January 19th, League of Legends players had the ability to vote for the champion to receive the next VGU update. Hosted via a poll in-client, players got to voice their desires to update older and less popular champions.

This time around, Nocturne, Kog'Maw, Tryndamere, Shyvana and Skarner were all candidates for the next VGU. Skarner took down the voting in dominant fashion, and we'll soon see a new look and some changes to the Champion's abilities as a result!

Skarner set to receive a visual and gameplay update after winning VGU poll

According to stats released by Riot on February 4th Skarner is set to receive a VGU, and the Gothic skin line is set to receive the next thematic update as well.

The poll results saw Skarner win by a landslide after he garnered 33.4% of the votes while the runner-up, Shyvana, was next in line with 19.6% of the votes.

Skarner VGU poll vote
click to enlarge
Credit: Riot Games
CRUSHING: Skarner received a landslide amount of votes

Going in line with how VGU updates are usually handled, Riot is looking to make Skarner's kit more modern while making sure that they adhere to his core gameplay identity. According to Lead Champion Producer, Reav3, "We’ve tried smaller reworks of Skarner’s kit in the past, but it never really increased his play rate, so we’ll be looking to do a massive reboot of his kit, theme, and visuals (similar to Sion and Urgot). We’ll look to keep his kidnapping ult in some form, but otherwise, we’ll be rebuilding him from the ground up."

As it stands, Skarner currently has had one of the lowest play rates of any Champion in League of Legends, only boasting a 0.5% Pick Rate for all levels of play in Season 12 according to stats site u.gg.

Skarner receiving an update means that the likes of Shyvana miss out on her own for a third year in a row. Something that Reav3 recognized by saying, "while we can’t promise that Shyvana will be the next big VGU we do, she is a pretty strong contender for the next one we explore outside of a VGU vote."

With no official release date in sight, League players might have to wait a bit for Skarner's, but one thing's for certain, Riot will surely give some updates to the dangerous jungler as Season 12 progresses.

READ MORE: League of Legends 12.4: Patch Notes, Release Date, New Champion & Latest News

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