LoL: DRX BeryL's Worlds 2022 skin for Ashe is a nod to Elysia from Honkai Impact 3rd

The League of Legends (LoL) Worlds 2022 skins for DRX are out, and it’s chock full of references to the 2022 LoL World Champions.

The splash art for the skin was revealed on Wednesday (17 May), followed by a short video featuring each skin's animated version.

DRX, the underdog champions of last year’s Worlds, completed their Cinderella run to become the first Play-ins team to win Worlds after a 3-2 upset against LoL giants T1.

Aside from World Championship rings from Mercedes Benz and US$489,500 in prize money, DRX was also rewarded with their own Worlds skin-line based on the champions chosen by the players.

Every year, LoL developer Riot Games honours the Worlds champion with a limited-edition skin line that commemorates their victory. Since 2016, players have been able to contribute to the design of each chosen champion's skin.

The Worlds 2022 skins paid tribute to the individuality and personality of each player from the 2022 DRX roster, with a hint of their underdog journey that year. Cho "BeryL" Geon-hee, widely known as a lover of HoYoverse gacha games like Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact, caught the attention of fans for his chosen skin for Ashe.

The upcoming DRX Ashe skin is heavily inspired by one of Honkai Impact 3rd's characters, Elysia. Complete with the pink hair, the signature ponytail and cape, Ashe's skin is much closer to Elysia’s Faded Miss Elf skin, which was close to DRX’s signature blue and white colours.

The animation also showed Ashe posing with a heart, taking a selfie and signing it before giving it to someone unseen (presumably BeryL).

Elysia is a fan-favourite in Honkai Impact 3rd due to her elegant appearance, charming personality, and tragic story.

The LPL Fanclub Twitter page also noted that the LoL skin splash art had some references to the recently-released Honkai: Star Rail as well, with Ashe’s clothing and the background of the artwork looking very similar to Lan, the Reignbow Arbiter who is an Aeon in the game representing The Hunt.

In one of his post-Worlds interviews in 2022, BeryL specifically mentioned that he “probably” would pick Ashe as champion to get a DRX Worlds skin.

The champion was originally a bot lane pick but was successful as a support pick in the Worlds 2022 meta.

Ashe was one of the many that BeryL brought out from his diverse champion pool and was instrumental in the team’s success in the Quarterfinals match against EDward Gaming (EDG).

"I'll be honest, I asked the Riot skin design team if I can get inspiration from a character in another game [for my Worlds 2022 skin],” he said.

He said that he “got publicly executed” after showing the photo to the Riot skin design team. However, the team did listen and take BeryL’s input making fans of both games very happy.

Some, like Twitter user @MisspinkElve, have downloaded (or redownloaded) the game just to buy the skin because of it. Many also expressed how beautifully made it was and would probably purchase it, along with some other DRX skins.

This wasn't the first time BeryL had a Worlds skin inspired by a character from a different game.

In 2020, he chose Leona as his DAMWON KIA Gaming Worlds skin, referencing Saren Sasaki, and revealed in an interview that he showed Riot his "wife" from the mobile game Princess Connect!

It was also said BeryL spent nearly US$7,000 of his Worlds 2020 earnings on Genshin Impact wishes, according to a report by Dexerto that year.

Reportedly, in 2022, he also did not extend his stay in the US to celebrate with DRX because he had to go home to pull for Nahida in Genshin Impact, whose banner was about to be released at the time.

Clearly, the DRX support player is a man of culture. With that said, BeryL's teammates were able to get their own references in for the other championship skins.

Most notably, there was more than one Alpaca in some of the DRX Worlds skins, which was a nod to Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu, also known as a beloved “Alpaca” by fans.

Deft’s Caitlyn also briefly showed his struggle for years before winning a title through her recall animation.

Hong "Pyosik" Chang-hyeon also got his Kindred skin, a promise he made to his fans when he was still a streamer.

Kim "ZEKA" Geon-woo’s Akali might be simple, but it symbolises him slashing through the competition at Worlds.

Hwang "Kingen" Seong-hoon also became the first player to get a Prestige Worlds skin for being the MVP for 2022, choosing Aatrox, the champion that he used to seal DRX’s win against T1.

Even DRX substitute Lee "Juhan" Ju-han got a Worlds skin in Maokai, who had little alpacas in the champion’s animation.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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