Hi, I’m Ryan “Reav3” Mireles, Lead on the Champions Team at Riot.
I’m here today to talk to you about our plans for Champions in 2022.
Now, in the last roadmap, I shared that we’d be pushing the next two
champion releases into 2022.
At the time we weren’t sure how it would impact our schedule
but now we have a clearer picture, so I’d like to share an update.
Our goal last year was to release a champion for every lane,
with the exception of mid, which would be receiving two.
When we were planning Champions for this year, it became clear that we
wouldn't be able to target the same goal for 2022
while still giving each champion the time and attention they would need.
So, we’ll be slowing down a little.
While we want to get Champions out for as many of you as possible,
it's more important to us that we release Champions when they are ready,
even if that means we don't hit a specific quota for the year.
Take last year for example, when we delayed Vex to build out her tech.
We were worried about disappointing you all.
But when we saw your reaction to her release, we knew we made the right call.
We know it feels bad to wait over a year for a new champion to play
so we’re still going to aim for a spread of champions for each lane
over a multi-year basis.
We just might not hit every role every year.
We will probably still make more champions for mid lane so we can try
to hit a good split between mages and assassins.
Now let’s talk about some of the new champions coming this year.
Hoy!
You wanna mess with him?
You gotta deal with me first.
Ayy... again?!
Ugh, come on!
Hah!
Catch!
Woah! Gotta hurry!
That's my team you're messing with!
Lightning in a gun, coming through!
If the Chem-Barons couldn’t keep me down, no one can.
Just... a little... closer...
Woohoo!
Got 'em!
Change of plans!
Let's make sure we go out...
with a boom!
Wow... intense!
I guess Mom was right...
the bigger they are, the faster they fizzle.
Ayy... not again...
So our first new champion this year is Zeri, an electrifying,
neon-colored ADC from Zaun.
Zeri is a hyperactive bot lane carry whose kit takes inspiration from
shooters, specifically from machine guns and assault rifles.
She has a pretty unique playstyle for an ADC.
So instead of auto attacking, her Q is a skillshot that she uses
to do everything other bot laners would use their auto attacks for.
Zeri still has an auto attack, it’s just not her primary way to farm,
do damage, or take objectives.
It’s meant to be used sparingly at just the right moments.
Her auto attacks also count as spells.
This means that they could trigger item effects that would normally trigger
with spells instead of autos.
This leads to a rapid fire play pattern that we hope feels unique from other champions.
Basically, if you want to play Zeri, my advice is to never stop moving.
The next champion we will be releasing this year is a new enchanter.
When we were thinking about the type of support we wanted to make,
we looked at the enchanter cast overall.
There are a lot of lighthearted, colorful, good-aligned champions there
and we felt support players deserved something more sinister and dark
to balance out that cheery brightness in the role.
We also wanted to make a champion whose theme and kit makes support players
feel like the boss that they are.
All you support players know what I’m talking about.
Those damage carries always get all the credit.
But it’s always been you, behind the scenes.
Keeping them alive with your buffs, constantly saving them from certain death.
How could they make all those sick plays without you?
And if any of you supports out there know what I’m talking about,
then I think you're going to go berzerk over this new enchanter.
So after the new dark support, we-
I see it...
I see everything.
The Lavender Sea.
Purple cities cover the land.
She rules over it all.
My Empress.
This is what Runeterra should be—its true form.
The city of Belveth shall fall first.
Beautiful Remora swimming endlessly through cities of Lavender.
Overwhelming everything in her path.
Consuming us.
We are all saved.
Where am I?
(Off-screen) Uh... filming Season Start.
You were kind of rambling. You okay?
Yeah, I'm- I’m good. Where was I in the script?
(Off-screen) You were just getting ready to tell us about the new jungler.
Oh yeah, yeah, that’s right.
So after the new support, we’ve been hard at work on a terrifying
new jungler who’s ramping up to swarm the Rift later this year.
I’ll just leave it at that for now, since just talking about it is starting
to bring back that uneasy feeling.
So that’s all for new champions, but what about VGUs?
Later this year, we're releasing the champion you all voted for
last year: Udyr.
We have a dev blog coming out today that dives deeper into his update,
but we do have one small change that we wanted to share here.
We know that Udyr’s antlers weren’t really hitting the mark for many of you,
even after the tweaks.
And once we got them in game, we also realized they weren’t really needed
for a unique silhouette.
So we removed them.
Goodbye antlers!
Be sure to check out the dev blog to see all the awesome progress
that the team has made so far on Udyr.
But that’s not all the news for you VGU fans out there.
We will also have a new vote going live today, where we will once again
ask you all to vote for a champion to receive a VGU next year.
So Shyvana, Nocturne, and Skarner will be returning, but they will be joined by
some new contenders with Tryndamere and Kog’Maw.
Make sure to check out the poll to learn more about why we chose these 5
champions as well as our design goals for each of them.
And that just about wraps it up for what we want to share today.
But before we go, here’s a quick teaser for a new, very mysterious,
non-traditional bot lane champion we will be whipping out later this year.
Thanks so much for watching, and make sure to check out our newest champion Zeri
on PBE or when she releases in a few weeks! I’ll see you on the Rift.