Pokimane requests her own Vandal skin, Riot Games responds

Fariha Bhatti Published 01/05/2021

Twitch streamer Imane “Pokimane” Anys has jumped on the Valorant weapon skin hype train after a designer revealed a Vandal explicitly created for her brand.

A 100 Thieves designer whipped up an eye-catching Vandal skin spray-painted in bright colours, in line with Pokimane’s energetic persona. The designer also added the streamer’s signature on the weapon to add a personal touch.

The blueprint of the “Pokimane Vandal” went viral among the fans and soon reached the streamer herself, who tagged Valorant’s official Twitter account to add her personalized skin to the game.

omg plz iwoqasedkjiwqklaj @PlayVALORANT i would do ANYTHING for this
— pokimane ❤️ (@pokimanelol) April 29, 2021

The unique skin also had heart stickers and cute shapes pasted randomly across the body. Valorant has similar skins in its battle pass, but the developer has not yet begun adding skins based on specific personalities to the game like those seen in Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. That said, this does seem possible as Riot influencer manager Aliana Miller “noted” the skin’s existence.

The team behind Valorant is closely in touch with the community and keeps track of memes that may do well in Battle pass. Previously, the developer rolled out a viral “revive me Jett” spray, which shows that Pokimane’s Vandal may make the cut sometime in the future.

Valorant players aren’t happy about Pokimane Vandal

Pokimane is one of the most popular streamers in the world and has been actively streaming Riot Games titles for years, including a recent co-stream of Valorant Champions Tour 2021 Masters matches. While she’s not well known for streaming FPS titles, she peaked at Diamond rank on one of her Valorant accounts.

Despite her high rank and dedicated Valorant streams, community members are upset that the developer would consider adding a Pokimane skin to the game. Players griped that she’s still ultimately a casual player and that any push towards creating skins based on Valorant personalities should start with pro players like Tyson “TenZ” Ngo and Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom. This has also been seen in games like Dota 2 and Overwatch.

Pokimane responded to the hate in a wholesome way and said that both pro players and streamers can be commemorated in the game, not just one or the other.

consider this: valorant skins for esports teams AND content creators! ????????
— imane ???????? (@imane) May 1, 2021

Riot seemingly based a spray on a memeable moment from Twitch streamer Sykkuno. There is likely money to be made in releasing sprays based on popular personas, and Pokimane would be a strong person to start with.

Fariha Bhatti

About Fariha Bhatti

Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.

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