Anivia is an Ice Bird... that's it || Casual Champion Review 

I'm kind of surprised you didn't mention that Anivia is one of the VERY FEW female champions to be 100% monstrous or non-human (just like Rek'sai). I feel that it is one of the best thing about her design, especially for the time she came out (around 2009, when almost every female champion was only a sexy lady with tight clothes).

Anivia main here, words cannot describe how much I love this champion. No joke, when I first started playing and saw her in the store, I just... loved her. Don't know why. There are so many champions that have better design and lore, but somehow this ice bird was the one who captivated me. I know a lot of people find her gameplay boring, but i just adore it. Watch your step, be calm, let the storm wear them off, and keep them from fleeing. It's definitely not for everyone, but it feels perfect for me. She desperately needs an ASU asap, but the only reason they would give her one is if they wanted to make a champion/game focused on the Freljord, and even then I have my doubts. I want to see her getting along with Ornn and scolding Volibear goddamnit Thank you for reviewing the bird Nicky, means a lot to me 🐔❄️

Anivia really needs a VGU , looking at her siblings makes me really which Riot cares more about monster champions .

Look, its a birdie

Also my Rammus being a Freljord Demi-god theory: 1: The reason there’s no other deserts in the world is because Rammus made the only desert by rolling around the land and turning all of the rough ground and rocks into sand, that would later be known as Shurima. 2: The only reason people hear Rammus say “ok” “yeah” “alright” is because he’s in a land where people don’t speak Freljord, therefore they can only guess every few words he’s saying. Feel free to nitpick this I just find it funny

honestly I think her origami skin works well for her, the awkward model actually enhances the stiff paper feel lol

i love this series so much it just reminds me of the old days of youtube where people just talked in to a mic and played a game something about it is just so nostalgic and conforting really loving your work keep it up

She’s actually so much fun to play, I just picked her up

11:26 this part had me fucking dead. The way that he is in the exact same position but dead on the ground, and how Ashe's legs can be seen, the tone of his voice, him lowkey admitting that he killed his team but also sounding like he was neglecting it, the surrender vote, everything is perfect.

Anivia really needs a fried chicken skin , just like Galio

playing the old characters is oddly fun when the other team keeps seeing you as a sitting duck cause they can jump 10 times but you can just drop nukes on them. when you're not high rank they don't play with their brains. so I still see anivia as a fun experience even though she doesn't do much. she's still effective.

It hurts me that he thinks she's boring. There is so much you can do with her R and W. You literally get to fiddle with the enemy team like a ball of playdough if you know what you're doing

Volibear to Anivia: Oh dear, oh dear... Gorgeous. Volibear to Ornn: YOU FUCKING DONKEY

i think a simple way to sell her as being a giagantic ice birb would be to slow down her movement when she's idelling and moving. with how hecktic she flaps her wings it really looks like she's struggling to keep herself above ground which makes me think that she's a fledgeling. to fly is to preserve as much energy as possible while putting enough in to stay afloat

Mi campeón favorito, sin duda alguna Anivia, la criofenix. No tendrá mucho ataque, no tendrá mucha defensa... pero me encanta. Es muy difícil de controlar, sobre todo la Q, porque tienes que petarla y controlar la distancia muy bien para stunear.

I love watching all these Casual Fridays, they are so chill. More then that, I just love that these vids are chill which make them MORE enjoyable. Feels like a friend discussing x champion of the week over a voice call hehe

Making Anivia into an Owl would be really interesting. That said, i wish they changed her ulti, i mean FFS Udyr have an even BETTER VERSION OF HER ULTI, AND THAT´S NOT EVEN AN ULTI, THAT´S JUST A REGULAR ABILITY, even the unempowered one still is better then Anivias ulti, WHAT´S GOING ON?!? XD They should rework her so her ulti doesn´t disappear when she gets CCd, and also they should make it so when Anivia transform into an egg (eggnivia passive) She gets her ulti around herself dmging everything around. maybe it gets stronger the closer she is to spawning from the egg. It would also be nice if it could move, but then it might not be permanent depending on mana. Everyone have 2 million dashes these days, so even if it´s area lockdown it´s not really since every character can just dash through it.

how dare you slander her kit! She's such a good birb. Just really really needs an ASU. (Totally not biased Anivia main)

hopefully she does get a VGU since she really needs it, also im still waiting to see aatrox nicky fan art

Anivia could definitely do with an Aurelion Sol style model, slightly bigger and more floaty, a VGU would be really nice

The first thing I think of when seeing Anivia is Dunkey saying "on my wings"

I think along with changing the bird anivia is, they could enhance how she is supposed to be cold and a creator of blizzards better like instead of just having icicles making up her body they could have her leave a little trail of snowflakes and frosty FX while moving, even if its just for like homegaurd and increased move speeds. As well I feel like having her constantly flapping makes it look like she struggles to stay in the air when she can make blizzards feels so counter intuitive so maybe showing her gliding using her own created winds instead of constant flapping could make her seem more fantastical and powerful

there are videos showing how the owl makes no sound when it's flying, even when near really sensitive mics, it'd be really cool an giant owl but you can't even hear ir coming near

NICKY IT SAYS "CAUSAL" NICKY YOU MUST REMEDY THIS MISTAKE IMMEDIATLY NICKY NOW NICKY PLEASE NICKY YOU NEEEEED TO CHANGE IT TO CASUAL

NickyBoi wallahi I will spawn outside your house if you keep up the Anivia slander.

Ilharg is the boar god from Ravnica in MTG not the Iron boar but pretty close lol

I cant not hear TF2 Heavy’s voice anytime somone mentions “bird”

I very much enjoy that anivia is mainly a macro focused champion, where general game sense and smart positioning is way more important than just smashing your buttons as fast as possible

Can't wait for Nicky to tear apart my favorite champion next week

i find it particularly interesting that Voli got a rework before Anivia did lmao, i guess the general idea of her kit works but it lacks some regal elements some power fantasy, the idea of turning anivia into an owl its cool but the owl needs some something else other that "ice Owl" Also anivia is still titled "the cryophoenix"? because in that regard she does not look like a Fenix. Also Also, check out how "Phoenix" in Dota 2 has the phoenix egg integrated into the ult is so fucking badass Thanks for the vid as always, have a Good day Nickyboi :)

Anivia used to be my perma ban. I'm not a fan of champs that I have to kill twice. I haven't seen her being played at all recently though. I might not like her but she deserves an update. Lots of fun possibilities.

i like anivia i wish more champs had terrain based abilities

Illahrg is a god boar, indeed, but in magic

i love the Cut from 11:25 - 11:27 amazing.

I like the idea of Anivia, sometimes just having a regular ass phoenix but ice is cool. She is actually pretty unique for being a female character that's just a full blown animal, off the top of my head the only other female champ like that is Yuumi (Nidalee doesn't count). I want to see the seal sister tho

Reworking her into a frost oul is a great idea. Currently she is a generic ice eagle and that does NOT give off "I am here to protect the people and my ice protects the freljord" vibes but more like "I will freeze everything into ice and then there will be peace in freljord"

i like anivia and you are absolutely right about her being boring in both gameplay and lore

ANOTHER AWESOME CASUAL REVIEW!!!

I love how her entire kit is invalidate by one dash and because of that like you said you have to stand near them and let them engage on you otherwise if you try to go in on them, they dash away

I might be the only one but Anivia is my least favourite champion in the game. You can't do anything against her she has so much cc and you can't roam because she has crazy wave clear And even if you somehow do manage to kill her she just revives back to full hp with her egg.

anivia is fr the biggest bird though

Because someone has to say it ig Bird up *THERE I DID THE THING YAY*

Old ass monster champions getting jack shit for years while lux gets her 3ed ultimate skin and ahri gets a complete visual update for no reason.

Ive noticed the CS bug thing, its weird, also Anivia really deserves an ASU/VGU, she would look hella cool

The day she gets a VGU is the start of a new era lmao

If they do a VGU, they should make her an actual bird with y'know, feathers, and then maybe some ice armour on top, or an ice crown. I want her to look like Articuno Edit: Nicky's idea of using an owl is excellent

I love that part in 10:57 where Udyr's R clashed with Anivia's R, it was fire and ice circling above each other.

i once played a one for all game where my team chose anivia... and the enemy team chose... also anivia... the wall shenanigans were amazing

I played anivia for a while and really liked her, I loved out playing people with her kit and controlling a team fight is really satisfying. One of the main reasons I stopped playing her is because every game I played was 50min+ (at least in bronze/silver at the time)

"Do you know how big anivia is supposed to be?" It's a long time before we reach the M champions..but do you know how big MALPHITE is supposed to be? compared to his in game model? Bruh.

It is the problem of her that she just is kinda lame lorewise as she is ingame. The thing is, her brothers are antropromorph (Volibear walks onall 4s when using Q) & Ornn even wears clothes. They are kinda supposed to be furries or atleast have some human traits, I could imagine Anivia walking instead of constantly flapping her wings wich looks just silly for a giant bird of prey, she is not a humming-bird. For a good refference on kaju sized avians is Rodan from Godzilla King of the Monsters (2019). Just basic flying causes a hurrican. I've seen the owl concept aswell & it's kinda all I could ask for. She looks more gentle & cuddly as I would imagine a demigod who would be all about peace. Compare that to the current one wich just looks ugly not just interms of ingame model, she just looks harsh, unpleasant & not even like a godly being.

Well a little fun fact, about one of her skins. I'm from Hungary and we can get a free skin as hungarians when creatong a new account. And that skin is Anivia's Bird of Prey skin. The reason for that is we have a mythological bord called Turul bird. Which in fact a bird of pray as wikipedia says. It's kind of a national symbol of ours. I think its story is quite boring, but the big boi falcon is really cool. We have a big as statue of it in a mountian. Back to the skin. It's JUST a bird of prey. But we get the skin as named: Turul madár Anivia, so Turul bird Anivia. That's just lazy as f.. Nothing changed. Just maybe Turul looked like this, idk, be happy with your free champ and skin. Love you

Holy sh- I did NOT realize how much Nicky Woman there’d be!!! Oh loooord!!!!!

I think it doesn't work for freljord to have multiple well-understood demigods and one who isn't, unless they're going to lean hard into it. If they release an elk-based (they haven't used elk yet, right?) "forgotten brother" demigod and the point is there not only aren't well-known legends about him but some horrible event (like our world's burning of the great library) caused all knowledge about him to be lost, and he's been hanging onto existence through the faith of one or two tiny isolated families...Cool Story, Bro. In a setting where the gods and demigods can directly intervene in mortal affairs, lack of clear information about characters like Anivia with big connections to powerful peoples just smacks of lazy writing, not planned ambiguity.

I love these reviews and generally I find that I agree with a lot of the points made. But Imma be honest with you chief, kinda hard disagree on Anivia's gameplay. I'll give you that her model is cheeks (but I play papercraft skin exclusively so the low poly "folded paper" ascetic is just *chefs kiss*) but her gameplay being super simple is what makes her endearing. Having some nice and simple champs with nice and simple abilities not only gives newer players a good foothold to learn from but also allows for a more low key game where you can kinda not use your brain as much and just sort of... Vibe? It also helps to highlight the mechanical flashiness of more complicated champs like Irelia or Akali by comparison. Idk I really love the bird, she fits into a nice role where she doesn't really play like any other champ but also doesn't feel too niche to pick

Owls in my culture are associated with destruction rather than wisdom, and I think there are some other cultures that think owls are witches so turning anivia into an owl might be wierd to some people if your intention is to show her being peaceful.

I love playing Anivia (give or take 800k mastery points) and honestly, aside from being an ice phoenix.....yeah nothing special about her sadly :(

This video just kind of hurts for me, been playing Anivia since the end of season 5 and she has been my go to champ since whenever I play mid lane (don't play her a ton cause I get relegated to jungle frequently, but that is besides the point). I agree with a lot of points you make this video in regards to the lore, model, and just general aesthetic of the champion just suffering from being outdated and all I can say is for Riot to just give her an ASU to update her to modern standards. Gameplay wise I think she is fine, granted it is a bit more of person's preference as she is not very flashy, but she controls fights methodically rather than running the game over with overwhelming burst and speed (which is how an ice themed champion should play imo). That being said, if they wanted to give her some more passive tools on an ASU I'd be completely down with that, just don't mess with her AoE area control or her wall, those are precious. But yeah, I would love to finally get some lore updates for her (although I'm just fearful we won't get anything until the riot MMO comes out in half a decade or more) and see her potential be realized (also, I'd prefer she remain more hawk like that owl like, I think the owl concept could be interesting as a skin but phoenixes and owls have some pretty big differences and her turning into an owl just doesn't sound good too me (just my opinion though)).

Maybe is just me, but I don't like the idea of Anivia as a Owl, given the obvious nord influences in freljord I think a raven or a crow works pretty well given the fact that Odin had two crows who gave him information, but also Swain exist and has something similar and that may be too redundant. So I dont know I guess ( sorry if broken english)

As someone who enjoys anivia's gameplay god she needs an asu. I mean I don't actually care, since I have the blackfrost skin which is pretty pog and lets me lay the big egg. Personally I wouldn't care if they just gave her a visual update in something like LOR where it's less complicated so we knew what she looked like in the lore and just promised after all the champs that took higher priority to her got their ASU/VGU she'd get hers since nondescript ice bird is boring, she is a jungle camp as a champion.

Sometimes I just feel that 90% of player base really think that mages are boring(not mage-assasins tho). Like,only 3 mage I like is Viktor,Azir and Vladimir

bringing up that story about ornns house actually brings to mind my Idea of what I'd love anivia to be especially since we have so few in league anyways... a trickster god, not a particularly malicious one mind you just one that maybe doesnt think things all the way through good of heart but a poor planner as for what bird IDK personally I'd love for her to be a chimera of birds primarily some sort of jay...probably just a common north American blue jay with multiple sets of wings but maybe also throw in a bit of owl or hawk. I'd also make Anivia more than...just ice...make her snow make her frozen air make her...aurora borealis at this time of year at this time of day in this part of the country localized entirely within ornns kitchen

I feel very attacked as someone who likes Aniva and Articuno, and other ice birds... They're simple and majestic. But yeah, Riot is so busy making new characters they really haven't given her anything new since Ornn was added years ago lol.

So I like anivia, but I kinda agree with most of the points (even if I like the gameplay). For design and lore, I feel another interesting thing they could do, is that all true ice comes from her body, so when true ice weapons were made, chunks of her had to get ripped out, leaving her more and more mangled, or the handle was jammed into her to let it naturally infuse together, show a willingness to sacrifice herself for what was likely conceived as a protective measure, and make her look interesting, with missing "feathers" and talons. Dunno how well it would work for a model, but I have thought of this before, and this felt like the right place to mention it. If I were to change the gameplay, I would maybe make her have a few supportive properties to buff allies, or something, but as I mentioned, I kinda like current Anivia gameplay, if a bit boring and slow pace.

Old champion for vgu slot ..while ASU invented so they could do more to already popular champions..

I don't play league a lot, maybe like 5-8 games a week but I freaking love playing anivia in aram, super chill gameplay loop and good walls are just so iconic maybe it's just cuz I have a few skins

Look we can't blame her for being boring as her lines are VERY dated, like go to LoR and you'll get way more interactions than even her legendary skin, her model is dated, her lore doesn't get touched much because of riot themselves choosing not to. Her gameplay is boring to some but that's cause they don't see the potential she has and how absolutely playmaking it can be. I'm hoping Song of Nunu has her in it so we can get more lore and maybe even a look at how she should look now!

She's still in that warcraft 3 era of League. And the game's been distancing itself from it's Warcraft 3 mod era for the past 6 years but they've just decided to completely neglect half the characters who were released before they started taking the game seriously. It's a very bizarre situation

Personally, I think anivia would work with a more human design. To clarify, she is the only monster champion I think this for, and quite a few could serve to be more monstrous. My main point of contention with her just being a ice phoenix is that, no matter how you spin it, she will just be a bird. I think it might be more interesting if she had a human head and white hair that shifted to icy feathers and she still had all the main bird aspects. Voli and ornn are humanoid but not quite human, and her taking that slightly further to give her a human feature would show she has more of a connection to the humans(or maybe I misremembered something).

Anivia could be really good, but is really boring because she's as old as the game. Also, I don't play Anivia, but even I know you're supposed to use her wall more than, like twice lol

I used to main anivia, got her cosmic skin with my prime gaming rp, tho I grew tired of her since, well, she's pretty boring. But I still come back to playing her once in a while whenever I need to turn my brain off

I tried to join ur discord, but for some reason I cannot join, I had difficulty doing the verification for my phone number, please help ToT

As a M7 Anivia player I disagree with your statement, she is not for everyone but she is definitely not *boring*, you just don't get her potential.

How could you lost a game with my top favorite champion?! Nickyboi disappointed me with this review

I don't know what these videos have, but I receive a strange sense of serenity when I watch them. End of the working week, relaxing watching something casual. It's good.

If you run out of things to say you can always squeeze the art section in there to stimulate the zoomers, that or a family guy clip. It'd require more effort but you could also talk and compare their release/peak popularity gameplay to their present day gameplay

I knew an Anivia main, but they completely stopped playing her. Cold turkey.

If they reworked Anivia, I would like her to have a "shove" ability where she blows a blizzard/wind at them, and if she hits you into her wall or a wall it stuns you.

would it be interesting if you have guests come and play with you and bounce ideas around? like inviting sunny for vex or skarner videos or smth

Imo I would ditch her being ice and go for some kind of snow owl that still has feathers. Only because her powers are ice doesn't mean she has to be ice aswell. Ornn and Voli aren't made of fire or electricity, too.

You know with each passing champ review I keep thinking Nicky do you even _like_ this game and it's characters lmao

i agree that her lore and her visuals are stinky and need reworked, but i disagree with your take on the gameplay. her gameplay holds up really well, and is pretty fun imo. she would be a great candidate for an ASU

If they give a VGU ill be happy but for now i only see a low quality 3d model of articuno from pokemon

She is the first monster that really needs to be more (human) just like voli or ornn but she is just .... an ice bird

A man of good taste, Carnanivia (Festival Anivia) makes her into a bird that dance samba, what else could we ask for?

My man here acting like draven and Darius don’t have a loving and brotherly relationship

If they made Anivia different kind of birds, like Valor with Quinn, in her skins it would be much better

idk why, idk how, but these champion reviews feels like home, like before covid.

One other thing is I believe Nunu’s people follow Anivia around the Freljord.

Personally, the phoenix aspect is a little too ingrained in her lore and interactions with other characters. Making her an owl is better for a skin, like her Bewitched skin.

3:43 a boar god named Illharg? You sure you're not mistaking it for Mtg? 😂😅

You said that Anivia and Voli have the only good sibling relationship in the game but what about Aphelios and Alune?

Riot needs to add Seal sister already so she can take Anivia to the demi god mall to get her talons done, icicles sharpened and her blowout for an ASU that can come out with her sis

you mention your expert skills at 7:44 but that was skillful, you held stun for her ult and didnt panic, nj

Maybe you could talk about how you would change the gameplay of the characters who are old like this one when you run out of things to say?

At this rate I'll be dead by the time you do swain. Why not do him sooner? 💁🏼‍♀️

Riot just needs to make a story of anivia die to voli or something like that then boom resurrection with rework ez money Riot can pay me later

if he makes these vids every friday it will take like 3 years to review all champs / not including future ones

When i heard of batnivia i was like god this skin must be awesome the splash art is so good and the model is so- oh FUUUUU-

honestly tho she is so fun in aram late cos u can kinda just block the whole lane with ur ult and w and even early game every w u land behind someone standing near a wall usually leads to a flash