I've been witnessing a lot of smack talk in-round lately, whenever someone choosing to use a skin on their champion makes a single wrong move.

I have to wonder - would the same comments get made, if the player were not using the skin?

I'm a fan of changing the look of my champs. I main Riven and Irelia and have preferred skins for both. I've made an investment in the champion, and paid myself back by choosing how the champion looks under my command. While skins don't change the mechanics of a champion, they do change the feel, and feel means a lot.

When Free Twitch week happened, I read a few posts here - and noticed myself - that there was a stark difference between the free players trying the champion out, and those who loved, revered, and rocked the lane with Twitch on a regular basis. Almost invariably, those who owned the champion had a skin on. It's a marker. A flag that says "Beware all Yi who lane with this. I will K(ill) S(ecure) at every opportunity."

Marking yourself as having an investment is effective. But here's the catch. Owning and using a skin doesn't make you a pro.

Stop treating the game like buying more Riot Points earns you better skills. Grinding enough games to level toward 30 does that.

Stop treating your champion purchases as excuses to lord your play over someone using a free champ; they might be a smurf.

And, above all else, stop judging people by the champions they use, or the skins they wear. You'll probably find out just a few minutes into a round whether they've wasted their money or not.