The Community Skin Contest was an event themed around designing and adding fan made skin concepts into the official game in a future update, which later ended up being the Community Battle Pass 2020.
Contest Format[ | ]
The contest was divided into three stages, these being 'Champion Selection', 'Concepting', and 'Creation'.[1]
The first stage is self explanatory, with it being deciding which characters would be receive the community skins. Champions were divided into four separate brackets based on class, with the winners being the ones to receive the skins, though champions who were scheduled to receive skins around the same time the community skins were planned to launch weren't included in the brackets, leading to some champions advancing to the second round by default (including Androxus, Jenos, Pip, and Zhin). This resulted in Bomb King, Cassie, Evie, Furia, Imani, Khan, Lex, Maeve, Seris, Skye, Strix, and Tyra being excluded. Khan, Lex, Strix, and Tyra were likely excluded due to the Wild West Battle Pass launching prior to the community skins, while Evie was likely excluded due to her Sweet Shop skin launching soon after, however all other exclusions are odd.
- Bomb King had not received a skin since the Battle Byte Battle Pass and wouldn't receive a new skin following this until the Arcane Pacts Battle Pass, yet all other characters that were included in said passes were allowed in the brackets.
- Cassie had not received a skin since the second battle pass and wouldn't receive a new skin for several years with the Monstercat Crossover Pass related content, yet other members of the second battle pass and Monstercat pass (with the exception of Khan and Skye) were allowed in the bracket.
- Furia had not received a skin since the Battle Suit Battle Pass, though she would go on to receive a skin in the Darkness & Dragons Battle Pass several months following the community skins. However, other members of the Battlesuit Pass, as well as Viktor, who was in the Darkness and Dragons Pass, would be allowed in the bracket.
- Imani had not received a skin since the Steel Forged Battle Pass and wouldn't receive a new skin until the Radiant Stars Battle Pass, yet other members of both passes who had been released at the time of the bracket (with the exception of Seris in the latter) would be allowed in the bracket.
- Maeve had received a skin in the Pirate's Treasure Battle Pass, and would receive another in the Sands of Myth Battle Pass following the community skins, yet all other champions in both passes released at the time, as well as Terminus, who also received a skin in the Sands of Myth update, were allowed in the bracket.
- Skye had not received a skin since the Street Style event and wouldn't receive a new skin until several years later in the Nightfall Event Pass, yet all other champions who had been released at the time of the bracket and were included in the event and pass (with the exception of Maeve in the former), as well as Drogoz, who received a skin in the Street Style update as well, would be allowed in the bracket.
Voting began on March 25th, 2019, with two additional rounds occurring on March 29th, 2019 and April 4th, 2019. After three rounds of voting, Ash, Grover, Lian, and Talus emerged victorious.
With the winners decided, the second stage, 'Concepting', followed soon after on April 16th, 2019, lasting until April 30th, 2019. In this stage, members of the Paladins community would create and submit the best skin concepts they could come up with, with the developers choosing the five best submissions for each champion for the community to vote on. Though there were some rules regarding submissions, a full list can be viewed here.[2] The main rules included:
- Participants must be 18 or older
- Submitted concepts must be for the winning champions
- Submitted concepts must not have been entered in a previous contest
- Submitted concepts must be entirely original and created solely by the submitter
- Submitted concepts must be appropriate and will be disqualified if too obscene, offensive, vulgar, or discriminatory
- If a submission is chosen, failure to respond to developer emails will result in disqualification
- Submitted concepts may be disqualified if they are incomplete / unclear, violate laws such as copyright infringement, contains false or misleading information, or are inappropriate for Paladins / damaging to Hi-Rez
Skins must also be technically possible to implement, with additional rules being put in place to ensure skins can be properly implemented. These include:
- Grover cannot wear a shirt
- Ash must have a flag. If one is not included, the developers will design one themselves
- Ash cannot hold another object aside from her weapon due it requiring both her hands
Winning submissions earned their creators 8,000 
and 50 codes that could be given away to automatically unlock their skins in-game. Additionally, other non-winning submissions may also be added in the future if the developers like the concept enough.
Voting to decide the winning submissions began on May 15th, 2019, and lasted until May 22nd, 2019. The winners were announced on May 31st, 2019.
Following the winning submissions being chosen, the final stage would begin. Winners would be contacted by the developers where they would follow the development of the skin, with additional changes being made if necessary.
Submissions[ | ]
A total of 658 concepts were submitted, which were mostly narrowed down to five concepts per champion, with the community voting for which of the five concepts should be the champion's new future skin. Click "Expand" to view the finalists. Most of the other non-finalists will be linked below as well.
Finalists
Finalists[ | ]
WINNER: "Ska'drin" by Ilustra_dart 
"Nature's Defender" by KingMason 
"Pirate Cannoneer" by Angry_Racoon 
"Cyberpunk" by EnzoSenpai "Valkyrie" by Aetherpower
Other Submissions[ | ]
Finalists[ | ]
WINNER: "Soul Briar" by Squeaky101 "Scarecrow" by TheWrest "Deep Sea" by Brandoman "Apocalypse" by FelixBro "Coral Reef" by QueezleJones
Other Submissions[ | ]
Finalists[ | ]
WINNER: "Dark Monarch" by Squeaky101 "Serpentine" by IRISCHROMA "Peacebringer" by Angry_Racoon "Warmonger / Royal Armory" by AresCalled "Dragon Queen" by ???
Other Submissions[ | ]
Finalists[ | ]
WINNER: "Monkey King" by arty_snaps "IMPossible Talia" by Kimirasu Unnamed Wendigo by Yurimoro Unnamed Jester by Yurimoro "Cyberpunk" by Kiasheo914 "Wanderer" by FelixBro
Other Submissions[ | ]
Controversy[ | ]
When the final voting went up, people soon noticed that Talus had six concepts available to vote for rather than the intended five. Naturally, this led to some in the community claiming this was unfair, which was only made more extreme due to one of the concepts being a popular genderbent version of Talus known as "IMPossible Talia", which had artwork posted on social media prior to the contest and had gained a notable following, leading many in the community to assume the developers had inserted Talia into the finalists hoping for it to be selected so the skin's popularity could be abused to make more money.
Additionally, the contest rules stated that submissions submitted by individuals in certain locations, such as territories subject to any sanction programs administered and enforced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury, would be void and forbidden from entry. However, the creator of the Talia skin, Kimirasu, supposedly lived in Crimea, which would normally have prohibited them from participating, yet oddly was allowed, while other submissions would be prevented from entering due to the rule, further supporting this narrative.
After a short time, the developers would comment on the matter. They claimed it was too hard to narrow Talus' concepts down to five, so they decided to go with six instead and have the community decide for them, where they also apologized for not explaining this to everyone; however, many still believed the devs wished to abuse Talia's popularity. On top of this, the developers also decided to remove Talia from the contest due to "other content by the artist (being) inconsistent with Evil Mojo's values." This wasn't elaborated on, but was believed to be referring to a piece of artwork by the artist that depicted Evie in a Nazi themed outfit. While many were glad things were now fair between all champions, many others were also still upset with the developers for disqualifying Talia due to a completely unrelated piece of fanart, with the whole situation feeling like a weak justification for removing Talia instead of outright admitting Talia was removed to make the situation fair.
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