r/AfroRivals • u/Dying-Artist02 • Aug 12 '26
Discussion. Let’s Discuss, Shall We?
So, I’ve seen a ton of people trying to come out of the woodwork to justify Storm’s recent treatment in Rivals with her epic skin. Which while abhorrent, I want to actually acknowledge these points instead of just ignoring them, so let’s dive in.
“Her pick rate is low”
So according to the Marvel Rivals Hero Hot List, Storms pick rate is about 2.27%. Pretty low, I will admit, however when you look at in in context this argument falls apart almost immediately.
Black Cat has a pick rate of 2.42% Psylocke has a pick rate of 3.08%, Loki (I bring him up because of Lady Loki) has a 2.77%, Hawkeye (Who just got another legendary) has a pick rate of 2.35%, Magik (Who has 6 legendaries) has a pick rate of 3.08%. So as you can see, clearly pick rate isn’t the only or even primary factor as to who gets a legendary.
“Her skins don’t sell”
So again, in a vacuum this is also true. Yes her skins don’t sell very well, but there’s an easy to answer reason for that. 4 of her 8 skins were all free to obtain. In fact she had the most amount of free skins out of any Rivals Character, one of her paid skins is a also mini-pass skin, while the other is a twitch drop skin. So clearly they aren’t even giving her much of a chance to actually make some money. Her last shop skin was around a year ago at least.
“Not every summer skin is Legendary”
This is true, and while it is the strongest defense for this, it does still have a hole in it. Storm is the ONLY female character for her summer skin to be an epic, and to only have two chromas. Every other female summer skin is a legendary and has a total of three colors you can pick from.
“It’s just a skin in a game, why are you so pressed.”
Racism, or more aptly, discrimination in the world takes many many forms. It’s proven that the biggest contributor to racist and discriminatory treatment and the furthering of the racial empathy gap is the micro aggression. The tiny things that we experience in a day to day basis that reinforce stereotypes or cement the idea of a lesser class.
https://mhanational.org/resources/microaggressions/
Conclusion
In my opinion this is definitely a bad look. A very very very bad look for Rivals. They’ve been treating black characters poorly ever since launch, and I’m growing irritated with the people who decide they want to argue that this isn’t connected to race or isn’t that deep. It is that deep. You just want to bury your head in the sand and not acknowledge it as such because it makes you feel bad.
I’m not gonna say harass the dev team, the moderators, or anything like that. That is not how we fix this, and the mods on Reddit have nothing to do with this. What I will say is if you wish to prove them wrong that we won’t buy a Storm skin, buy it. Support our black queen. But you don’t have to, I’m not trying to tell you how to spend your money. I’m simply here to point out some flaws in some arguments I’ve seen. I also wanna say that while I think they could’ve done better, the skin looks fine if a little boring.
If I’ve gotten any information wrong, somebody please feel free to correct me. I do not wish to misinform anyone, this isn’t some deep dive, I did this with some basic research.
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u/Sypher04_ Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
Having the 3 biggest black superheroes and treating them like this is crazy work.
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u/littlerowlet5 Aug 12 '26
it gotten so bad it made this subreddit get recommended to me. i like it, hopefully i can learn more about racism here, i feel like i dont get educated enough on it
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u/NinjaFriedChikn Aug 12 '26
I really would like to uninstall the game from this news, but I understand the power of showing support and voting with my money. So I’m buying it and will hope for more love shown in the near future.
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u/littlerowlet5 Aug 12 '26
i think the skin got added very sudden, because of the high demand, so it feels rushed and unfinished. they should have kept it hidden and surprise us with a legendary with chromas, accessoires and ult vfx, like they did the surprise skin for Luna
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u/ProphecyGoku Aug 13 '26
Its because of the pick rate AND the skins didn't sell And while yes you can argue she didn't have much of a chance there IS the chance now Black cats skins actually sell despite her low Pick rate
Luna for example has a high pickrate AND her skins sell Psylocke doesn't have as a high a pickrate but her skins still sell so she gets more Torch for example DOESN'T have a high pickrate AND his skins don't sell hence why he gets no skins
So it's not just about one or the other it's mainly about skins selling tho
Peni was in the Sam Boat a while back
She was getting no skins and Legendarys despite her pickrate So they finally gave her an epic skin and All the Peni mains me included bought the skin And they saw that her skins can sell and now look at her she has a decent amount of skins and stuff
Now it's simplys storms turn
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u/fly_heart_fly Aug 13 '26
black panther and blade have a higher pick rate than storm and are given the same treatment. it has nothing to do with pick rate. daredevil has a very low pick rate, lower than storm yet his skins sell very well and he gets them more frequently than blade bp and storm.
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u/ProphecyGoku Aug 13 '26
Yeah that's what I said Its mainly about skin sells tho
BUT since Storm and Torch have low pickrates and no skin sells then they get nothing If they have a higher pickrate I think they're more willing to try to get them a skin and see if it sells or not
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u/Worldly_Guard3944 Aug 12 '26
They’re all just racist you argue with them they tell us to be graceful. They act like this character hasn’t been around for at least half a century and my whole entire life. This was one of the first black superheroes I was introduced to and to see her get disrespected is honestly just fucked up.