Hi. I’m Ryan “Reav3” Mireles, the lead producer of the champions team,
and I wanted to take a little time to talk with you about some of our plans for 2021.
So last year, we set a goal to ship at least one new champion in every position,
with the exception of mid lane, where we wanted to have both a mage and a melee champion.
We believe that players shouldn’t have to go longer than a year
to get a new champ to try in their role, so this is something we plan on doing again this year.
Up first on that list is a new jungler, who you just saw in the opening cinematic.
That’s right, we’re finally bringing Viego, The Ruined King
into League as a playable champion.
At long last he's more than just an item, and to prove it,
here’s a quick peek at the new gameplay he’ll be bringing to the Rift.
If you want to try him out yourself, he'll be hitting PBE very soon,
and goes live later this month.
New Champions
So Viego’s release is just the start of The Ruined King's story,
and the next three new champions we will be releasing this year
will also tie into Viego’s return.
Now for a while, we've been wanting to add more magic damage fighters,
especially one tailor-made for top lane.
We believe snipping a bigger space out of our roster for AP fighters
will not only lead to more diversity in top lane, but also
more choices for other lanes as well.
And with that goal in mind, we began to sew together
a new champion for the Ruined King's Return.
But where do their loyalties lie: with Viego?
Or with Senna and Lucian in the fight for hope?
Also for our internet sleuths out there,
we hid a small easter egg for this champ in The Ruined King game,
so let’s see if any of you can find it.
So after we pass through the new skirmisher,
the next champion after that is a gloomy new artillery mage
who would prefer if we just didn’t even bother her at all.
I mean I don’t blame her.
These days there's so many skillshots and dashes
and hyperactivity around Summoner's Rift.
Either way, as tiring as all these champions can be shooting skillshots everywhere,
it sure beats being back in that happy-go-lucky Bandle City.
She would choose anything over that colorful, horrible, bright place.
Now the third champion that will be part of the Ruined King's Return is a marksman,
but much like Senna, they are planned for a non-traditional position.
It’s a bit too early though to say more about this champ,
so look out for future Roadmaps for a new Sentinel of Light.
Champion Updates
Now that we’ve talked about some of our plans for new champions,
let’s get right into VGUs.
So first of all, we're still hard at work on the Dr. Mundo update,
which should go live this spring.
We really want to amplify Mundo’s whole “dark comedy” theme
while bringing his visuals up to date as well.
The last time we shared his new concept, we heard a lot of feedback from players
that his hair was a bit too well-groomed for Mundo.
We talked as a team about that and we agreed with it.
So we updated it to look less well kept as you can see in his new portrait art shown here.
Now as for his gameplay,
we still want Mundo to go where he pleases, chucking cleavers along the way.
So we'll be keeping a lot of what you love about Mundo intact.
But look out for a new dev blog this week that'll go way deeper into Mundo's development.
Finally, we announced another player-choice VGU poll last year,
and while we didn’t quite make it for 2020, we’re happy to say it’s coming this week.
You’ll be able to choose which champion you think we should update next.
The poll will include five champions.
Two returning champions: Shyvana and Nocturne
As well as three newcomers: Udyr, Quinn, and Skarner
But before casting your vote, you can learn more about why we chose these champs.
What we would consider changing on them.
So you can make the best, most informed decision on who to vote for.
This will be coming in a dev blog along with the poll this week.
So that wraps it up for champions team!
I can’t wait for you all to see the new champs we have in store for Viego’s return,
as well what you think of Mundo’s VGU progress.
Thanks for watching, and see you on the Rift.