I know many people aren’t fans of the free-to-play, class-based, team shooter-MOBA hybrid Paladins. Many have called it an Overwatch-ripoff since inception; as such doesn’t have a great reputation, but it’s still a respectable video game. Saying that, there’s been a few questionable decisions in the past from its developers, Hi-Rez Studios. The Cards Unbound fiasco – which the developers thankfully reverted – still strikes fear in many Paladins players, but the latest change seems to have brought a new movement among the Paladins community. According to the latest patch notes for Paladins, the character Viktor, veteran soldier 76 of the game, is getting a visual rework.

His lore states that he’s a former commander of an elite military unit for the kinda-evil Magistrate government. As such, it’s weird to see an old veteran of war be given the face of a young man, with an almost comical hairstyle to boot. The artwork also hides how clunky he does look in-game. For perspective, here’s the original Viktor in all his glory:

The gun-toting character has also been a meme in the Paladins community for awhile now; Hi-Rez almost always features Viktor dying in the release video of any new character. It’s come to the point where even for the release video of Viktor’s visual rework, Hi-Rez have literally compiled his deaths, and showed his rework as a sort of rebirth:

With the amount of players not as high as before, the active players have formed a very close-kit community. They’ve also formed a strong bond with Hi-Rez, the developers. The Paladins subreddit is where both players and developers congregate, making it the essential meeting ground for any Paladins-related discussion. But take a look at the subreddit now, and it’s safe to say the community hasn’t received the visual rework that well.

I mean, look at this:

Some members of the community are looking at this with a sense of humour though:

All the hate towards the new Viktor has even brought about a new social movement on the subreddit: #NotMyViktor.

The Paladins subreddit community does have a history of successful ‘movements’ though. They famously got together to spam the subreddit with really, really bad artwork based off the game. This was to protest against the pay-to-win Cards Unbounds system, which was based off the Star Wars Battlefront 2 pay-to-win system. The devs eventually listened, and reverted to a better, fairer system. Hi-Rez even added into the game sprays based off some of the bad art. Here’s Barik, the turret-building tank, in one of the bad art sprays:

If you think Hi-Rez won’t have to revert something as minor a visual rework then you thought wrong. Fernando, a narcissistic shield-wielding knight, had his portrait – yes, just his portrait – changed; after prolonged annoyance at Hi-Rez, the community got back their favourite portrait again.

Perhaps one day Hi-Rez will learn to never mess with the community’s favourite things; when that day is, however, remains to be seen.

You can download and try out Paladins yourself if you’d like by clicking here.