PROJECT: Vi

First time I saw PROJECT: Vi load into a game I thought it looked way cleaner than it had any right to at 1350 RP. The whole cyberpunk augmentation thing fits Vi so naturally that it almost feels like this should have been her base design. Been running this skin in ranked since late season 7 and honestly it still holds up against skins that came out years later.

How PROJECT changes Vi’s kit

The VFX overhaul is where this skin earns its price tag. Every ability gets the neon-blue particle treatment that the PROJECT line is known for. Her Q charge-up has this digital wind-up effect, like she’s loading firmware into her gauntlets before she launches. Clean visual, reads well in teamfights even when things get chaotic around dragon pit.

W activation pulses with that signature PROJECT hexagonal pattern. Subtle but noticeable. E gets the least dramatic change – mostly just recolored shockwave particles – but it still fits the aesthetic. Not gonna lie, the R is what sells it. Vault Breaker’s ult sends Vi flying with a trail of hard-light data fragments. Locked onto their ADC last week in a Diamond 2 game and the impact VFX looked violent. Good violent.

The recall animation is solid. Vi punches in some kind of digital code sequence, very on-brand for the PROJECT universe. Base voice lines though, no new VO. Standard for an Epic tier skin and I dont mind it here because Vi’s base voice already has enough attitude.

Model-wise she gets the full cybernetic treatment. Sleek armor plating, visor, the whole package. Her gauntlets look more mechanical than the default ones, more precise. Like surgical tools instead of blunt instruments. The color palette sits in that blue-silver range that most PROJECT skins share, which works but also means she can blend in visually if you’re running a full PROJECT comp.

The PROJECT line and where Vi fits

PROJECT: Vi dropped November 22, 2017. Middle of season 7. She came in alongside one of the bigger PROJECT batches if I remember right. Esben Lash Rasmussen nailed the splash – Vi’s mid-leap with her gauntlets charged, cityscape behind her. Classic PROJECT composition but executed well.

The PROJECT skinline is one of Riot’s biggest. Probably their most consistent too. Every champion in the line gets the same cyberpunk augmentation treatment and Vi fits the theme better than most. She’s already a punch-first-ask-questions-later bruiser, so strapping tech onto her gauntlets just makes sense thematically. Could be wrong here but I think Vi might be one of the best fits in the entire PROJECT roster alongside Vayne and Jhin.

No chromas available for this one. Zero. Kinda surprising given how many PROJECT skins got chroma packs later, but Vi’s version never received that treatment. Would have loved a red or orange variant for the particles honestly. (Random aside: a PROJECT: Vi chroma with Noxus-red VFX would go absurdly hard and I’ve been saying this for years.)

Is PROJECT: Vi worth 1350 RP?

1350 RP feels fair for what you get. New model, full VFX rework, custom recall. Voice pack is base only but that’s standard at this price point. Shop has it permanently so no pressure to grab it during a specific event window.

For Vi mains specifically this sits comfortably in the top three. Demon Vi goes harder on the fantasy side, and Arcane Brawler Vi has the nostalgia factor, but PROJECT: Vi is the cleanest “serious” option. If you’re climbing ranked and want something that looks good without being distracting, this is the pick. Spammed this through maybe 80 games last season in bot lane ganking rotations and the Q particles never got old.

Might be overthinking it but there’s something about the PROJECT aesthetic on a jungler that just works. You’re this augmented operative diving the backline, ulting their mid laner into your team. Fits the power fantasy perfectly. The skin released back in 2017 and still competes with stuff from season 13 and 14. Thats the mark of good design.

Real verdict: if you play Vi with any regularity, PROJECT is worth the RP. Not the flashiest option in her wardrobe anymore but arguably the most polished. S-tier Vi cosmetic that earns its Epic tag. Around 2 AM last Tuesday I was debating between this and Heartbreaker Vi for a ranked session and went PROJECT again. Keep coming back to this one for a reason.