World Champions: 2015 Skins

Not gonna lie, the SKT T1 2015 Worlds set holds a weird spot in my heart. Faker's second title, the dynasty fully cemented, and Riot gave us six skins that felt like a proper celebration of dominance. Red and black with gold accents across the board, SKT's logo stamped into recall animations, and that unmistakable Korean esports energy baked into every model. Been playing League since season 3, and this is the Worlds set I think about when someone says "championship skins." Could be wrong here but I think most Diamond players from that era would agree.

What Makes the World Champions 2015 Line Stand Out

Every Worlds skin set has a formula. Team colors, logo on the back, themed recall, maybe a trophy reference. The 2015 SKT skins lean hard into the red and black palette that defined SKT T1's brand during their peak years. Compared to the 2013 set, which looked honestly kind of flat, the 2015 versions have way more polish. More detailed textures, cleaner model work, and recalls that actually reference the players.

The shared visual signature here is that deep crimson with metallic gold trim. Every champion gets SKT's logo worked into their outfit somewhere, and the recall animations all feature the Summoner's Cup. Riot was still figuring out how much budget to throw at Worlds skins in 2016 when these dropped, and you can tell these sit right at the boundary between "recolor with extras" and "genuine thematic redesign." Not quite the production level of later Worlds sets like 2017 or 2018, but a clear step up from earlier ones.

What ties the line together visually is consistency. Lock in any of these six and your loading screen card instantly reads as SKT. The splashes share a unified background style with arena lighting and the team's signature red glow. Kinda feels like Riot's art team had one brief and executed it cleanly across all six without anyone going rogue. That said, some champions wear the jersey better than others. More on that in a sec.

(Random aside: I used to have the SKT T1 Azir splash as my desktop wallpaper for like eight months straight in 2017. The emperor of Shurima holding the Summoner's Cup just hit different.)

Best World Champions 2015 Skins

SKT T1 Azir is the standout. Full stop. MaRin's pick for the set, and it makes sense because his Azir play at Worlds was disgusting. The skin puts Azir in SKT's uniform with soldiers that carry the team's banner into teamfights. Watching those soldiers line up in your W formation with the red and gold color scheme is clean. Been spamming Azir in Diamond since season 6 on and off, and this is still one of my favorite skins for him. The soldiers read well in lane and the ult wall looks imposing with the SKT coloring.

SKT T1 Ryze comes in second for me. Faker's pick, obviously. The man picked Ryze for his Worlds skin two years in a row, which tells you something about how central that champion was to his identity back then. The model gives Ryze an SKT jacket over his usual look, and theres something satisfying about pressing R on a Faker-branded Ryze and teleporting your whole team into a fight. Not the flashiest skin Ryze has, but it carries weight.

SKT T1 Elise is underrated. Bengi's jungle Elise was a staple of that Worlds run, and the skin translates well. Spider form gets the red and black treatment, and the human form model looks sharp in SKT colors. Could be wrong here but I think Elise mains sleep on this one. Seen maybe two or three of these in my ranked games all of last season.

SKT T1 Renekton is solid without being spectacular. Duke played it, the croc gets the uniform, it works. Nothing about it will blow your mind but it does the job. SKT T1 Kalista rounds out the set as Bang's pick, and honestly Kalista skins are always a bit awkward because of how her model moves. The SKT version is fine. Serviceable.

Real talk though, SKT T1 Alistar is the one that gets the least love and I think thats fair. Wolf's pick, and Alistar in a jersey just looks kind of goofy. Big cow in team colors. It is what it is.

The Champion Roster

Six champions. Alistar, Ryze, Renekton, Elise, Azir, Kalista. Each one picked by the player who used them during SKT's 2015 Worlds run. This is back when Riot let each player on the winning roster choose one champion for the set, which meant you got a genuine snapshot of that team's champion pool.

Azir fits the vibe best. Emperor champion, emperor of the mid lane at Worlds, the thematic overlap writes itself. Elise works because spider queen in team colors has natural visual contrast. The red spider form pops against the Rift's green and grey tones, especially during ganking sequences around dragon pit.

Kalista feels the most dated now. Not because of the skin quality, but because Kalista herself has been borderline unplayable for multiple seasons. If you're an ADC main who still locks in Kalista in solo queue, respect, but you're a rare breed. The skin sits in most people's collection gathering dust. Maybe just my experience but I havent seen a Kalista in my games since like season 11.

Ryze is interesting because he got an SKT skin for both 2013 and 2015 Worlds. Two Faker Ryze skins. The 2015 version is the better one by a mile. Cleaner model, better recall, more defined colors. If you main Ryze and want the Faker connection, this is the one to grab over the 2013 version.

Who's missing? Nobody, technically. Five players, five skins, plus the sub got one too. But if I could add a champion to this line retroactively, I'd want to see Faker's LeBlanc get the SKT 2015 treatment. His LeBlanc at that tournament was filthy. (Sidebar for mid lane mains: you know exactly which game I'm talking about.)

Tier and Price Breakdown

All six skins are Standard tier at 975 RP each. No Legendaries, no Epics, no chromas. This was standard for Worlds skins in 2016. Riot hadn't yet started giving the winning team's set the premium treatment that later years got. You're paying 975 RP for a model change, texture swap, and themed recall animation. No new voice lines, no ability VFX changes, no unique sound effects.

Is 975 RP fair? Honestly, yeah. For what they are, the price sits right. You're not buying these for cutting edge particle work. You're buying them because SKT T1 won Worlds in 2015 and you want to rep that. The skins are permanent shop items, so you can grab any of them whenever.

Might be overthinking it but I think the lack of VFX changes is actually fine here. These are trophy skins. Team jersey skins. They don't need to reinvent the champion's visual kit. They need to look like SKT T1, and they do. Compare that to some later Worlds skins at 1350 RP that try to do more and end up feeling cluttered. Sometimes simpler is better. 975 RP for a clean team skin, no complaints from me.

If you want all six, that's 5850 RP total. Not cheap, but not insane either. Back around late 2016 when these dropped I remember picking up Azir and Ryze and calling it good. Still use both in my rotation to this day. The other four I grabbed over time during sales, which is probably the smart play if you're not in a rush.

The Dynasty Context

You cant talk about these skins without talking about why they exist. SKT T1 won Worlds 2015 by beating KOO Tigers 4-1 in the finals. Faker's second World Championship. The roster was Faker, MaRin, Bengi, Bang, Wolf, with Duke subbing in. This was peak Korean League of Legends dominance, the era when LCK teams felt unbeatable on the international stage.

The skins released in 2016, roughly mid-year. Riot's turnaround on Worlds skins was slower back then compared to now. Players picked their champions and Riot delivered. The splash arts capture that post-victory energy, all six champions posed in what feels like a team photo setup with arena lighting.

Not sure if it's just me but these skins hit harder if you watched that Worlds live. I remember staying up until like 3 AM watching the finals on a work night, season 5. Seeing those skins drop months later felt like a reward for being part of that moment. Even now, locking in SKT T1 Azir in ranked at 2 AM on a Tuesday carries that nostalgia. The skin itself is decent at 975 RP. The memory behind it is what makes it worth keeping in my collection permanently.

For newer players who started in season 10 or later, these skins are a history lesson. SKT T1 became T1, the roster changed completely, but these six skins freeze that 2015 squad in time. Faker is still playing, still winning, but the team around him in these skins is long gone. There's something cool about that.