League of Legends: Battle Academia skin ranking

A sextet of new anime-themed skins have hit the League of Legends’ PBE server – but which ones are the best? Let’s take a look and find out!

After the massive success of the Star Guardian skin line, it was only a matter of time before Riot added yet another anime-inspired theme to League of Legends. Today marks the debut of the new Battle Academia skins on the PBE – a set of shonen-inspired looks for six of LoL’s most popular champs.

Each skin has a fantastic splash art and an excellently anime-esque model, but which really goes the distance to deliver the true anime experience? We’re about to find out!

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6. Battle Professor Graves

All of the Battle Academia skins look great, but Graves sadly ends up with the worst of the lot. His auto-attack particles are excellently flashy, but the rest of the effects are either so-so in terms of quality or just overwrought. It doesn’t help that he traded out his usual beefy shotguns in favor of a tiny sword-gun that looks like it’d break in his hands. If you’re a die-hard Graves main, this skin is probably worth it, but otherwise, you’re better off spending your RP elsewhere.

5. Battle Principal Yuumi

Yuumi‘s release skin is also an inclusion in the Battle Academia line – and in atypical fashion, it’s a skin worth buying when she comes out. The fancy blue particles on her Bop ‘n’ Block shield and ultimate look really nice, and she gets a killer splash art to go with the skin, but it’s still outshone by the rest of the list. Sorry, Yuumi – guess you just weren’t anime enough to compete.

4. Battle Academia Katarina

Of the students at Battle Academia, Katarina places the lowest. The lack of particles in her base kit really hampers Riot’s ability to go ham with her skins, which means Battle Academia Kat feels pretty lackluster – especially when compared to her other offerings like PROJECT. That said, Kat at least has an amazing ult animation and a pretty sick recall. Plus, her splash art reveals some saucy secrets – it looks like she recently broke up with Jayce to date a handsome Demacian…

3. Battle Academia Lux

I know, I know, it’s yet another Lux skin, but it’s still a great inclusion to the theme. Battle Academia Lux has some amazing particle effects, especially on her W and E, and the echoing voice effect when she casts her ult really helps play up the anime theme. Besides, if she was anime enough for the Star Guardian theme, Lux definitely deserves to be present for the Battle Academia line.

And just to confirm, no, the Prestige edition of this skin doesn’t score any higher than the base version. It’s too expensive for what you get, and the gold theme is starting to get old.

2. Battle Academia Jayce

Fittingly, the class president of Battle Academia places quite high on the list. Jayce has plenty of particles for Riot to play with, and they made full use of every one of them – just check out his new Lightning Field or Acceleration Gate effects. When Battle Academia Jayce goes in, everything comes together to make it look like he’s really hammering down his opponents in true anime style – and that’s more than enough to get him to second place.

1. Battle Academia Ezreal

However, at the end of the day, the main character of the anime has to take top billing – so while Jayce gets close, he’s ultimately outshone by Ezreal’s Battle Academia duds. Ez’s first Legendary skin is an absolute doozy – the effects are great, the sounds pitch-perfect, and the animations seamlessly blend intelligibility with the same degree of anime-ness that you’d expect to see in shows like Dragon Ball or Mob Psycho. Throw in a perfectly-animated face and an absolutely hilarious homeguard animation and you have a recipe for an amazing skin.

Which skin is your personal favorite? Let us know down in the comments!