Riot Games counts a variety of factors before selecting a champion for a new Legendary skin in League of Legends.
In a recent Ask Riot dev post, League of Legends Producer on Skins, Riot DevinSage, has shared how a champion gets selected for a Legendary skin. First of all, Riot prioritizes a champion who is widely popular in the current meta.
“Legendaries take quite a bit more time to develop than Epic skins, so we tend to prioritize champions that are pretty broadly popular,” Riot said.
Then, they take a look into the thematics of the year and identify how well a champion might fit into that. The latest Battle Academia Legendary Caitlyn and Battle Queen Katarina are a perfect example of this.
Besides, Riot also checks how recently a champion has received a skin. For example, if Caitlyn was fit for another skin line and that skin was released in 2021, someone else would have received the new Battle Academia Legendary skin.
Furthermore, Riot also avoids stacking a champion with sci-fi skins. “What their current catalog of skins looks like: We would want to avoid stacking a champion with nothing but sci-fi skins,” Riot said.
However, regardless of what champion Riot chooses, they want everyone to be “excited” about them.