esports

Dragon Champion Coming To League of Legends

Riot Games pushing "technical and creative" limits with Ao Shin.

By Ryan Smith

2 min readPublished on 02/20/2017 · 1:24 PM UTC

Will any League of Legends champions be able to stand up to a giant storm dragon?

Riot Games lifted the curtain on their character development for a sneak preview of Ao Shin, a champion still in concept art stage. The art included depicts Ao Shin as an elemental-based dragon who can conjure lightning, rain clouds and tsunami or tornado. In a post announcing the new character, Riot producer SixTwo describes him as “capable of raining good fortune on his allies and, in the very next breath, bringing stormy, thunderous ruin upon his foes."

SixTwo noted that LoL players had asked for a dragon champion for awhile, but the goal wasn’t to do just any ol’ dragon, but to push the limits of what’s technically and creatively possible.

“One of the challenges we're looking forward to tackling is how to capture his unique anatomy and movement in a way that brings a new dimension to the champion pool. It's too early to go into much detail, but we're really excited about the ways this champion will move across the battlefield,” SixTwo said.

It looks as if might be awhile still until Ao Shin’ rears his scaly head in game, because Riot says he won’t be the next champion released.

How will Ao Shin effect League of Legends eSports? It's too early to tell, but Red Bull eSports interviewed Riot's eSports VP Dustin Beck and he told us about how tough it is for the game to continually balance new characters. To see what he has to say click the story below.