Hi, I'm Greg Street.

I head creative development at Riot Games.

And I'm Andrei Van Roon.

I am design director on League of Legends.

And we are gonna run down

every Champion in League of Legends.

Also got those Champions grouped by the

positions they often play in.

Some cases, we had to make a call,

or a Champion ended up in a bit of weird spot.

And sometimes we're gonna go very quickly

because League of Legends has 141 Champions.

[rock music]

Jungle Champions.

Amumu.

Sad, lonely child or Yordle.

I'm not even actually sure what he is right now.

He's some kind of little mummy.

He's definitely sad. I'm sure on that.

And he's little.

Most of the way there.

Evelynn.

Sexy, scary succubus lady.

Demon incarnated by horrible feelings from people.

[Evelynn chuckles]

[Greg] Elise.

Spider lady. Terrifying.

A nightmarish imbalance when it comes to Worlds.

Yeah, she's kind of a spider lady.

Gragas.

He is a guy who is looking

for the best drink in the world.

[Gragas] The only time I have a

drinking problem is when I spill it.

I get upset by Gragas when pros pick him.

I think in part because of his ubiquity and his reliability.

He does make for some simple plays,

usually around his ultimate.

He also makes games feel very same-y.

He walks around, he throws kegs at people;

repeat four thousand times every game.

[Andrei] Graves.

[Greg] First name Malcolm.

He has a shotgun and a cool mustache,

and sometimes a cigar.

He tried vaping,

but it didn't take.

[Greg] Because he has a shotgun,

he used to kinda be bot lane.

Now he's little more of jungle guy.

[Andrei] Cho'Gath.

Eats the world.

He's a big monster guy that gets bigger

when he eats things.

Diana.

[Diana] They called me a heretic.

Now they are dead.

Moonlight-y.

Nemesis and past friend to Leona.

She's got a good sword.

[Andrei] Dr. Mundo.

This big, purple Frankenstein monster dude.

Who believes he's a doctor.

[Mundo] Mundo will go where he pleases.

He has cleavers.

Hecarim.

Horse. Undead horse.

Fast centaur dude.

Everyone loves the arcade skin.

[Hecarim] You won't live to see your world destroyed.

[Andrei] Ivern.

He's kinda the League version of a druid

like a plant guys that stalks across lanes.

And his backstory used to be incredibly evil

until he found a better way.

[Greg] His pet's name is Daisy.

[Andrei] Daisy's pretty cute.

[Ivern chuckling]

[grass rustling]

[Greg] Jarvan IV.

Melodramatic king-to-be.

He has a spear. He jumps on people.

That's a recurring motif in League of Legends.

Actually has one of our Demacia yellows as well.

[Greg laughs]

That's one of our other recurring motifs.

Kayn.

Another common motif of League of Legends is edge-lords,

and Kayn is one.

[Andrei] I do love the back and forth

he's got with Rhaast, though.

Especially Rhaast having such a sense of humor

about the whole thing,

rather than buying into the dark,

demonic, edgy side of things as much.

Rhaast is his scythe that also can possess him,

depending on how you choose to play Kayn.

[Andrei] Demon trapped in an ancient weapon.

Kha-Zix.

[Greg] He evolves into lots of different things,

but they all have blades and wings

and he jumps on you.

Kindred.

A lamb and a wolf who are personifications

of death in Runeterra.

Love the idea;

I don't think we quite nailed them.

Especially the role of Wolf, really.

Bit too much sidekick rather than fully-fledged partner.

[Greg] Yeah, it doesn't feel like you're playing

two Champions.

It feels like you're playing one Champion

with a wolf circling around you.

The ult's fun.

[Andrei] Also, love their look.

Lines, animations especially.

[Greg] Lee Sin.

Blind monk. Makes for fantastic plays.

His lore used to be so stupid

because he was a Summoner

who decided to join the League,

meaning he was a player?

I don't even know what that means.

I've something: the Insec thing's really interesting here

'cause back in the day,

the whole drop a ward down behind somebody,

w to it, kick them back into a team.

That was pretty revolutionary.

It got named after the guy who

first started doing it, Insec.

Became a verb.

Now it's a sort of thing that just crops up everywhere,

even on pretty average skill games.

The player base has gotten that much better,

both at Lee Sin and and playing LoL in general.

Master Yi.

He's got a helmet with six eyes or somethin'.

He's got sword boots.

[Greg] When you first play League of Legends, you think,

There is no possible way to beat this Champion.

And then you never see him in high Elo.

Actually, this year excepted.

We saw that hot gold-funneling thing,

which it was just monstrous with.

You see everything this year.

True.

[Greg] Nunu & Willump.

Absolutely adorable. The new version.

Now they can roll it down mid

instead of just running it down mid.

And now people understand, I hope,

that Nunu isn't the yeti.

Nunu is the boy.

Nocturne.

Evil wraith, love his ultimate.

Rest of the kit's a little bland.

Lore's pretty bland.

I think he was a nightmare that came to life one day.

I'd love to feature-u him someday.

[Greg] Olaf.

Viking.

Brolaf. I think that should be his main skin.

[Olaf] You can't arrest me, my dad owns a dealership.

To each their own. [Greg laughs]

[Greg] Rammus.

Okay.

[Rammus] Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Actually, turns out he originally did

have different dialogue.

It was recorded. It was never released.

It was so terrible.

They were so short on time,

they just recorded a few lines:

Okay. Going.

That sort of thing,

and put that out.

Planning to come back to it someday,

back in the yearly days.

And it clicked.

He's an armored-dilo,

which is kinda dumb.

[Andrei chortling]

He's kinda cool though. He is cool.

Rengar.

[snarling] [dramatic music]

Stabby tabby.

Knife cat.

He has depth perception issues,

'cause he's only got one eye.

He's also been one of those...

People love to play him

and hate playing against him Champions.

I've something: scales on the based of audio of the game.

His ability set especially are phenomenal.

He's a cool character,

but he can be frustrating

'cause he hides in grass

and jumps out at you.

[Andrei] Bit of an Alien Vs. Predator vibe

as well with him and Kha'Zix,

which I've always loved.

Yeah, they have their like hunt contest,

which is super cool.

Rek'Sai.

One of only two Champions that don't have

intelligible dialogue in the game.

[Greg] All of our Void Champions like apostrophes.

[Andrei] We just really wanted to make a shark, basically.

She's a monstrous Void space shark.

Sejuani.

[Greg] She's only got one horn.

[Andrei] She really doesn't like her sisters.

[Greg] She rides a boar.

[Andrei] She's been another pro balance nightmare.

[Greg] She has a flail.

[Andrei] Shaco.

He's a evil jester dude that likes to

trick you with stuff.

At the same time,

I think he'd create some of the best

trickster and deception and mind-games play

we've got in game.

I don't like playing against him,

and the Shaco on my team is always terrible.

[Greg laughs]

But there's something great in there still.

Gotta worry about people who play Shaco.

Take no offense.

Shyvana.

The half-dragon.

She just turns into a dragon sometimes.

Bit stat-tricky. Dragons are cool, though.

Dragon's cool.

I think we gotta make an Ezreal joke in here as well.

Ezreal likes to kiss Shyvana's leg,

according to canon.

[Andrei] Vi.

[Greg] She's a bruiser,

always ready to fight.

[Andrei] We've struggled with that ultimate.

Keep her feeling fair and balanced.

[Greg] Volibear.

He stands for armor and polar bears.

[Andrei] And lightning. And lightning.

[Andrei] To be fair, there's some really cool

stuff in there,

but I don't think we did a great job of it

the first time around.

[Greg] No. Or the second.

[Andrei] We should fix that.

[Greg] He needs an update for sure.

I think Ornn made him cooler in some ways.

True, he's actually got a relationship that matters.

[Greg] Sion.

Undead battering ram.

I think one of our best VGUs as well.

The little flag that he has comin' off his head,

if you look close, is actually a dagger

stuck in the back of his skull.

[Andrei] Gameplay-wise, I think he's also one of our tanks

who does the best job of being unreliable,

and therefore gets to be high-impact

and pretty skill-expressive.

[Greg] Skarner.

Crystal scorpion.

Sad. Misses his people.

I have two guys I work with that play Skarner,

and I think we hold it against them.

Don't we have one guy who plays nothing

but thousands of Skarner games?

We have a couple of those people,

and all they play is Skarner.

One of them even just gets called Skarner at work.

[Greg laughs]

That gets bit weird for me.

Warwick.

[Greg] Less of a werewolf,

still a werewolf.

[Andrei] Tank werewolf. Has a really cool CG trailer.

I think another of our best VGUs

where we really didn't lose the essence of the Champion.

[Andrei] Stayed really true to the spirit,

but modernized him

and made a lot of stuff feel better.

[Man In VGU] No!

[Greg] Zac.

[Andrei] Blobby goo man.

One of our more lighthearted

and not quite fourth wall breaking

but zanier characters.

I don't understand that name, Zac.

How is that a blobby man?

Apparently, we just wanted him to be

a regular guy who had regular parents in Piltover.

And they called him Zac. I'm serious.

[Greg] Moving onto top lane Champs.

Aatrox.

Will always be at the start of the alphabet

for sorting alphabetically.

We need an A-A-A Champion.

Actually, we can do that.

More seriously,

I love his update.

I think we probably went too far away from

some of the original gameplay

that people liked about Aatrox.

He needed work,

but we dove out a bit too far there.

He's another Darkin Champion,

meaning his weapon is taking control of him,

the dude isn't important,

it's the weapon that counts.

[heartbeat thumps]

[Andrei] Camille.

At first, she was just hookshot, right?

She was all built around,

Hey, we have a cool idea for a Champion

where she has a grappling hook.

That's true, we even called it hookshot for a long time.

I think Camille's always got a tool to respond to

whatever the enemy is doing.

And that's also what people hate so much about Camille.

It's made to be both a pretty popular Champion,

especially in top lane,

and a frequent ban.

[Greg] Darius.

[Andrei] Rival to Garen.

Kinda similar kit,

And I think one of the most successful

small updates we've done

in terms of taking him from

super stat-shaky and really pub-stompy

to doing a lot better on high Elo

with some better skill expression on cool moments.

I feel like part of his original goal was

Hey, if this guy's in lane,

you're probably gonna lose,

you just have to try something else.

Pretty badass.

[wind howling]

Fiora.

She has bangs

and a app-ay.

[Andrei] She's really good at stabbing people.

Pretty arrogant.

[Greg] But lovely.

Players also love percentage max health true damage.

[Greg laughs]

They love it.

[Greg] Garen.

[dramatic music]

[Garen shouts] [sword clangs]

[Tryndamere growls]

He's kind of like Superman,

it's hard to tell stories about Superman.

He's also one of those standard archetypes

that are pretty valuable in a story

at the same time.

Garen still camps brush.

He's this great general for Demacia

that hides in the brush that jumps out

and spins at you.

[Garen] What we do is right!

Break their ranks!

I think his relationships with the other Demacia

characters also do a bit to flesh him out

and make him a little more interesting.

In Demacia, they are suspicious of magic,

yet Garen's sister is a powerful mage.

[Andrei] Garen is not a mage at all.

Giant magical sword falling from the sky.

Just pure coincidence. [Greg stifles laughter]

No magic.

Gangplank.

He's kind of a pirate.

He's very pirate.

He did die,

and then he came back.

I've always loved his w being Remove Scurvy

that temporarily make him better and removes

some impediments from him.

I heard his story that you guys were like,

We need one more ability for this Champion.

And Cadwell's like,

He should have an orange to ward scurvy.

Punished by scurvy almost all the time,

except briefly when he eats fruit.

[Greg] Gnar.

He's a cute, little Yordle that turns into a big Yordle.

You think he would be really cute and easy to play,

but he's not.

Wanted to go for the Yordle version of

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

That sort of classic opposing personalities thing.

[Greg] Illaoi.

[Andrei] Not played bu that many Champions,

but really loved by those who do play her.

Actually really happy with how she turned out at this point.

She has this big ball that somehow summons the tentacles.

I never quite understood the meta-physics of how that works.

I do love the philosophy she's got, though:

Live life to its fullest.

Always be moving and learning.

Fight and eat and other things.

[Illaoi] Even if I die,

I die in motion.

I think players have this ship with her and Gangplank,

or maybe that was us.

We also implied that she's got interest in Braum.

[Illaoi] I know you are strong.

I wonder if you have stamina.

[Andrei] Irelia.

[Greg] Blade lady.

Better nerf her.

We did an update to Irelia this year,

and again she's ended up really strong.

I think the coolest part about her design is

that her dash can reset,

and so she can find inventive ways to

move throughout the fight

and really take advantage of that.

Also, farming minions.

Even just farming minions with her feels really great.

Jax.

He's so awesome,

he needs only a lantern to defeat...

I think he only has three fingers.

He's a frog.

That's not revealed yet,

but I'm sure he's a frog. That's not canon.

That said, enough frogs have three fingers.

I don't think so.

Kennen.

Lightning rat.

Hyperactive.

League of legends has a lot of ninjas.

Kennen is one of them.

He's one of our least ninja-y ninjas.

Because he's little and has lightning.

And loud. No stealth.

[Greg laughs]

He's not a very good ninja actually.

I don't think he's a ninja at all.

He looks like one with the mask.

[Andrei] Kled.

Another Yordle.

He rides a lizard.

Skaarl is adorable. Skaarl's the lizard.

Also, get off his lawn.

[Greg] Kled is less adorable.

He kinda comes across as a grumpy old man.

Think he's most love-him-or-hate-him Champions as well.

I love his dialogue,

but I can see it being

really horrible and off-putting for a lotta people.

[Greg] If you look at the section

that lists allies and enemies,

Kled lists every Champion as his enemy.

[Kled cheers] [Morning Mood plays]

[Skaarl roars]

[Greg] Malphite.

A rock. His ult feels great.

I think he's probably got a

least-developed personality of any Champion.

[Greg] In our minds, he's ten times as bigger

than he can appear in game.

Maybe more.

[Andrei] Maokai.

He's a tree.

Somewhat angry tree.

He throws things at you.

The saplings were adorable, to be fair.

Took me a long time to realize that he was

associated with Shadows Isle's faction.

Mordekaiser.

Lord of death.

Named after a writer's then-girlfirend, now-fiancé.

He needs an update.

[Andrei] Nasus.

[stoming thunders] [rock cracks]

[magic rings] [Nasus shouts]

If you play Nasus,

you should Wither and run.

Or just keep farming the entire game

until your team loses,

but you're still farming.

He's an Anubis-type dude.

That q's ridiculously satisfying., though.

I like the q. Particularly at 200 stacks.

Pantheon.

Spartan.

I hear ya like 300.

It's more drawing on history,

but you know, same inspirations.

I think he can eventually be cool in the lore.

He's part of the Targon faction.

His ult is fun.

I think there's a lotta potential for him,

he just need some work.

He's actually one of the updates I'm most excited

for us to do.

[Greg] Renekton.

Nasus's angry brother.

Giant crocodile.

He has giant blades,

loves to jump in and cut you with them.

Lotta Renekton players,

if they haven't won by level five or six,

they're kinda done.

Some pretty good VO lines, too.

[Renekton] Light meat, dark meat,

it's all the same.

[Andrei] Poppy.

[Greg] She's a little Yordle with a big hammer.

[Andrei] Big dreams.

[Greg] Little snaggletooth.

I liked the Poppy update a lot.

I played a lot of her after we fixed her up.

I was doubtful we'd be able to balance that ultimate,

but I think the team really nailed it, actually.

Quinn.

She has a bird.

Doesn't really feel like she's a bird Champion.

I think there's something in that archetype

we could do great stuff with,

but the ranger with bird companion or whatever

we haven't really nailed.

[Greg] Riven.

Riven's a Champion who's deeply,

deeply loved by players who go really deep on her.

Little-known fact:

There are more Riven mains

than there are League of Legends players.

And I'll tell you about it.

Rumble.

[Greg] He's a Yordle with a mech suit.

He's got one of the most talkative skins in the game.

[Rumble] Just needs a little kickstart there.

[Rumble grunts]

The mechanized menace.

[Andrei] I love that ultimate, actually.

It's not quite as team-fight-deciding as it used to be.

[Greg] Shen.

The least ninja-like ninja.

He runs around yelling,

he's really tanky,

teleports across the map

and protects you.

No stealth, no subtlety.

I like Shen.

We tried updating his art once

to make him look tanky and burly.

It was just really weird.

The big, buff ninja.

Didn't feel Shen-like at all.

[Greg] Singed.

Runs around.

Pretty troll-y.

Proxy-farms.

Really different play style.

The character's a little hard to understand.

He's some kind of scientist with a big shield

and a tank of chemicals that spreads

flammable stuff everywhere.

With a judo throw.

Which I think is meant to be him scooping people up

with the shield and flipping them.

Tryndamere.

[Greg] One of his arms is bigger than the other.

[Andrei] Angry split-pusher.

I thought we could do pretty cool stuff with him,

but he's a little too standard barbarian at the moment.

He has a lot of potential.

Udyr.

[Andrei] Part man, part bear,

part phoenix, part tiger,

part turtle.

He turns into a lot of different animals,

and none of them really help him.

Think that's a bit unfair.

That dude's been ridiculously strong a lot of the time.

He used to have the best skin in the game,

but then all of our more recent skins

have kinda passed it up.

I still love that...

can't remember wheat we called it.

The plushie skin, though.

Urgot.

We decided to make a Champion that appealed

to players that want really,

really gross, ugly Champions.

[Andrei] We then reworked him to be

a bit more focused on the monstrous,

the nightmare, the horrifying.

We gave him shotgun knees.

And a meat grinder in his belly that he pulls people into.

I think the update...

He's really cool now.

He's still pretty niche.

Yeah, not every Champion has to be

a Riven or a Yasuo,

and there's a place for Urgots in the game.

[Urgot laughs] [chains rattle]

Wukong.

Our take on the Monkey King myth.

Apparently players in China are

pretty convinced that he's a thing with Ahri

based on some fan fiction.

[Andrei] Xin Zhao.

Another Demacian with a spear.

Very manly.

I think his title is Seneschal,

and there's this story that one of the earlier Jarvans

went to Noxus to bust him out of the arena,

which seems unlikely but hey.

Yasuo.

[Andrei] He's a really polarizing one.

Many players love him and play hundreds of games.

He's also one were opinion varies of him

greatly in different regions.

We did some surveying on this recently,

and North America, for example,

in terms of feeling fear to play against

players rated him 137 out of the 140 Champions

available at the time.

But contrast in China,

they rated him 23.

So, some really different takes on things there.

Understanding as the Chinese nickname for him

translates as happy wind man.

[Greg] I dunno if he's happy. He's wind man.

He's a little despondent wind man.

[arrows whiz]

[Yasuo shouts]

[Greg] Yorick.

Alas, poor Yorick.

I knew him, Horatio.

Used to be our buggiest Champion in the game.

He used to be a gravedigger,

which we thought maybe not many players

were coming to League of Legends to live out their fantasy

as a gravedigger.

He's a bit more than a gravedigger, as well.

[Greg] He's got cool minions now.

[Andrei] And now, let's talk about mid lane.

[Greg] Akali.

Our tattoo ninja.

[Andrei] She's got the stealth,

she's got a bunch of trickery ranger tools.

mobiles, burst-y, cool assassin.

[Greg] Really love the way, visually,

her update turned out.

[Andrei] Ahri.

Nine-tailed fox.

She's a Vastayan,

meaning she's part human,

part animal spirit.

She has a really fun q.

She likes to charm people.

Very popular in Korea for some reason.

She's got nine tails

because we were drawing on some of the

myths like that.

Korean kumiho, for example,

who traditionally have nine tails.

Aurelion Sol.

He's our David Bowie space dragon.

David Bowie was one of our biggest sources of

personality reference early on.

We wanted that big,

really out there, kind of arrogant

but pulls it off charming personality.

[Aurelion Sol] A snow globe?

Perfect for my collec--

to destroy you.

Destroy you!

Was a fun character design

because we're like,

What is the Runeterran take on

a divine-level powered dragon?

Also one of those few Champions

we've managed to keep in a really good state

as a pro pocket pick.

Some teams will run him. He'll crop up.

He'll have some high impact.

Then he'll probably get banned out for a while.

[E-Sports Commentator] He level one'd roo!

[Assistant Commentator] Right down, prey gets hit.

Yes, it is the roam!

[Greg] Our engineers had a lot of fun

and challenges trying to make that body animate correctly

because he's so long.

[suspenseful music]

[Aurelion Sol] But the thing they do best...

[explosion booms]

is beg for mercy.

[Andrei] Anivia.

She is a phoenix,

but in a twist, she's an ice phoenix.

I think she's like a demi-god,

and kinda Ornn's sister at the moment.

Can you confirm?

I cannot.

Azir.

Probably our biggest balance challenge.

He can summon an entire army to fight you.

[Andrei] I love his personality.

I also just wanna yell Shurima, Shurima, Shurima

some of the time.

He's like a Shuriman emperor.

Pharaoh-type dude with a bird head.

[dramatic music]

[Greg] Cassiopeia.

A snake lady. Another Shuriman.

Manipulative, back-stabbing,

but a classic medusa.

Snakes don't wear boots.

[Andrei] Corki.

[Greg] Corki, for some reason,

flies around Runeterra in an airplane,

which presents a lot of story-telling challenges.

He also looks more like a weird old man than a Yordle.

[Greg] He now has a bomb he can go get

to drop on the battlefield.

Really enjoyable what that does at least,

and spamming the missiles with his ult

I think's a pretty fun moment.

[Greg] Ekko. [fast-paced rock music]

Young, arrogant,

cocky, brilliant inventor.

Grew up on the streets.

He has a device that allows him to cheat time.

[heroic orchestra music]

[Andrei] Fizz.

He might be a Yordle,

but he looks like a fish.

He throws sharks.

You gotta give credit for that.

[splashes]

[cymbal crescendos]

[shark chomps]

Also one of their most,

according to players we surveyed,

frustrating Champions when he's really strong.

I think designers would say that, too.

That's fair.

[Greg] Heimerdinger.

A Yordle inventor.

Places turrets, throws bombs,

makes bad science jokes.

And it's funny, too,

'cause he didn't really used to be a Yordle,

but when we updated him we're like,

Well, he's closest to a Yordle,

let's just give him a pink nose

and turn that weird brainy thing into hair.

He's kinda cute now.

Old Heimerdinger was nicknamed broccoli-head

by some of his players

because the way that brain just

stuck out of the back of him.

Jayce.

He has a hammer that can turn into a gun-crossbow thing

and back into a hammer.

Really arrogant.

[Jayce] This is what the future looks like.

Likes to go in his lane all by himself

while the rest of the team is fighting somewhere else.

Has never been a pro balance problem.

Not a single time.

Kassadin.

He likes to teleport into you

and stab you with his cool sword.

Is it possible his daughter might've come back?

Can we confirm?

[Greg] Karthus.

[death metal music]

Every game needs to have a powerful undead mage.

Fun fact: back in, I think it was Beta,

Karthus's passive was that he was immune to sleeps,

polymorphs, and one other CC type I forget.

None of which actually existed in the game at the time,

so it did literally nothing.

[death metal music]

Katarina.

[metal thunking]

She jumps around and throws knives at you.

[Andrei] She spins, she might have a thing

with Garen going on.

[Greg] Even though she works for the other side.

[dramtic music] [sword clanking]

[Katarina laughs]

[knives whiz] [armor clunks]

[Andrei] LeBlanc.

Probably our less-tricky deception character,

compared to say, Shaco.

Tried an update to her a couple years back.

Eventually concluded with doing more harm than good,

and revertin' most of it.

Very hard to balance.

Her ability to pick targets,

take high risks, and then slip out of things

is not quite unparalleled,

but incredibly high.

[Greg] The burst-y deception.

It's kind of the assassin architect,

but as a mage.

Making skins for LeBlanc is a challenge

'cause she's basically a lady with a staff,

so it's hard to recognize her silhouette

when you've changed her skin into something else.

[Andrei] Lissandra.

My favorite Champion.

I'm told I have to buff all the ice mages.

I always say that because she's a frost mage,

and everyone thought I buffed frost mages in a while.

Actually tried to play her for a while

to live up to the reputation.

I tried Lissandra support.

I tried to make it a thing.

It's not really a thing.

[Lissandra] And when the war is over,

the world...

our world...

will be reborn in ice.

[Andrei] Malzahar.

He summons lots and lots and lots

of little Void things.

He's got that dagger he never uses for anything.

[Greg laughs]

[Greg] Orianna.

A lady of clockwork.

A Champion everybody loves to talk about.

Thinks it's well-designed

and nobody plays most of the time.

Occasional pro picks.

Always crops up halfway through Worlds.

It turns out she was strong all this time,

and never we knew.

I think every League of Legends player has their moment.

I'm gonna get really good at Orianna.

And they try a few games.

They're like, Oh man.

Ryze.

Rework. Rework.

Hey, let's have a wizard in League of Legends,

but let's make him blue and not wearing a lot of clothes.

[Andrei] What if we also made him really tanky?

That'd make him easier to balance, right?

Let's give him a lot of abilities

that only pros can really use effectively.

And then an ultimate that's even more so.

Has good CG, though.

[Ryze] But the only power I truly have

is the strength to let it go.

[magic rings]

[Andrei] Swain.

[Greg] Man, Swain used to be so lame.

He was the bird mage.

I think he's pretty cool now.

I think there's some cool stuff in there even beforehand,

but I certainly prefer the new Swain.

I think that passive, especially.

Being able to drag people towards you.

Like stuff from your CC or allies.

That feels great.

[Greg] He's got a demon hand.

[Andrei] Syndra.

[Greg] She also has balls.

[Andrei] Up to seven of them.

[Greg] She throws them at you.

[Andrei] Players love getting hit by that ultimate.

Another one that shows up in pro a lot.

Taliyah.

Earth-manipulating mage.

She can make walls down the middle of the map.

Actually, probably more of a jungler

at this point than a mid laner, though.

I'm sure we'll see her back in mid.

[dramatic music]

[Andrei] Talon.

[Greg] Parkour.

[Andrei] Edgy parkour.

Hey, it's another ninja.

[Andrei] Twisted Fate.

[card swishing]

Think he's got that charming,

little bit cheeky personality.

[Greg] The card manipulation is really unique,

there's not any other Champion that really plays like that:

waiting for the right card to come out,

timing it correctly.

You can also either make great plays

or fail horrifically with that ultimate.

[suspenseful choral music] [magic rings]

[Fiddlesticks roars] [magic rings out]

[card magic rings out]

[Greg] Viktor.

He's on of those dudes...

He believes in replacing himself piece by piece

with mechanical elements to make himself better.

He's kinda the mad scientist,

but he's not diabolical about it.

[Andrei] Vladimir.

Kind of a fancy vampire.

No, no: hemomancer. Totally not a vampire.

It's a completely different thing.

He just looks like a vampire and has blood magic.

And has the name Vlad.

Xerath.

Insane floating sarcophagus.

First time I played Xerath,

I went the entire game without

understanding how to use the ult.

Did you accidentally cancel it all the time?

I never was able to actually fire the

large-scale projectiles.

That's a shame. It's a fun ult.

Zed.

Definitely our most popular ninja.

[Greg] The best ninja.

[Andrei] Actually, maybe Akali's more popular

at the moment. I'd have to check.

He's got a shadow

and he's got blades on his arms.

He's also one of the classic dark, edgy,

the-ends-justifies-the-means,

brooding types.

[Greg] He's a great villain

for a lot of the characters in League.

[Andrei] Ziggs.

Obviously the best-designed Champion in the game.

Andrei designed it.

I'm super biased here.

It was the first Champ I worked on by myself,

so I've got a huge soft spot for him.

He's a Yordle that throws bombs.

Grenade jumping from a bunch of FPS games

was something that was really on my mind.

Just wanted to really capture that reckless,

zany sense of fun rather than more serious

take on explosives.

[Greg] Zoe.

Not at all controversial.

Best moment of League of Legends is playing Zoe.

Worst moment in League of Legends playing against Zoe.

[Andrei] She's very much a work-in-progress at the moment.

We've got some brief look at a bunch of things

to try and keep her strong and fun,

but make her a more fair-feeling

experience to play against.

[Greg] It's like she has four Champion's worth

of cool abilities in one little body.

[Andrei] I mean, she generates strong emotional reactions

for better and for worse.

[Greg] Marksman slash ADC.

Ashe.

She's an archer with a bow made of ice.

One of our more distinct ADCs as well,

given a lot of her kit is about CC

and a bit of vision,

rather than just straight damage and mobility.

Caitlyn.

She's a sniper sheriff cheerleader.

[Andrei] I can't add much more than that

besides she's got a cool hat

and a lot of belts.

And a lot of range.

Draven.

Welcome to the League of Draven.

That phrase was actually what first got put up on

one of the whiteboards at work when people were

kicking around the initial ideas for Draven,

and that just got everybody bought in

and understanding what we're trying to make.

[Greg] He was just kind of a lame gladiator at first,

so we figured out the angle of no, he's a showboat man.

He wants everyone to pay attention to him.

Actually, before the gladiator,

there was an earlier version again

which was just this weird lizard guy

who lived in the jungle and threw axes.

We'll probably get around to making him at some point.

[Andrei] Ezreal.

One of our most popular ADCs.

Been a balance challenge with that q

which allows such cool creative play at the same time,

but I think it's worth keeping around.

I feel like if League of Legends ever had a box again,

he's a strong contender to go on the box.

Actually, we've got a full visual update.

And we'll doll up our stuff from coming out soon.

[Greg] But his abilities are pretty good,

so we didn't need to mess them up.

[Andrei] Lucian.

I love Lucian.

He is a badass gunslinger

that hunts down the undead to avenge his

partner whose soul was captured by Thresh.

I love that rivalry

and the connection of Demacia, where Lucian's from,

and the Shadow Isles.

And the lore as well.

[Greg] He's not a happy man.

[Andrei] I can understand that.

[Greg] Jinx.

Another really popular ADC.

Got a whole range of different weapons

and one of her development names was

Psycho Arsenal as a result.

[Greg] I use her all the time as the example

of a Champion who's thematics matched the gameplay

because her passive really encourages you to take

bigger and bigger risks,

which is the whole point of being Jinx.

We also had a bit of a translation misunderstanding

when we were originally localizing

details of her reveal to other regions.

The title is Jinx, the Loose Cannon.

This unfortunately got translated into one region

into what's effectively Jinx, the Floozy Cannoneer,

which was not at all what we were going for.

[rock music]

[magic blasts]

[Greg] Jhin.

Somewhat unhinged but brilliant artist,

obsession with the number four.

He's one of our darker characters.

When you look at his personality,

he's clearly a psychopath

but views himself as a maestro

and an artist in kind of a Hannibal Lecter way.

[Andrei] His voice is so calming, though.

Twitch.

He's a rat with a crossbow and likes poison.

He was hiding.

[Greg] Vayne.

I do love Vayne's design, though.

I think the degree to which she has to put herself

at risk to do anything...

Constantly moving around the edges of a fight

actually leads to some really cool plays.

She's like a vampire hunter,

maybe part vampire,

who tumbles around and shoots crossbows.

Don't think she has any sense of humor.

[Greg] Xayah.

[Andrei] The other half of the duo of the couple

we released last year.

She's the bird of prey to Rakan's bird of paradise.

It's like he's all flamboyant and extraverted,

and she's kind of dark and brooding.

I also think she's cool

'cause a lot of our marksmen have a gun or a bow,

but she throws feather darts.

[Andrei] Kai'Sa.

[Greg] Daughter of the Void.

[Andrei] Another mobiles play-making ADC.

[Greg] She fires missiles.

Kalista.

I love her story. The spirit of vengeance.

I play a lot of support,

and I love playing alongside of her as well

in terms of how my gameplay gets changed up

and the things I can do.

But man, she has been a balance nightmare for us.

Really hard to play,

so once you play a lot of games with her,

she's really good.

She also shuts down the lead pretty hard,

and that ultimate saving her support

can lead to a lot of lack of action in lane.

I love the way she moves around with her passive,

making her feel very undead

with kinda that janky movement.

I have this fantastic [mumbles]

Challenges, as well.

Kog'Maw.

See, even though we usually play the Void as this

horrible creepy place,

the Void can be cute too.

He runs around.

His backstory's all about wanting to eat things.

He slobbers a lot.

He's pretty cute.

He melts your face off.

[Greg] Miss Fortune.

[Andrei] Our pirate hunter. Bounty hunter.

She's actually got a lot more backstory

than you would think just from playing her.

A lot of the strut is kind of an act to disarm her enemies.

Think we really need to update her VO at some point.

[Miss Fortune] Watch your mouth, kid,

or you'll find yourself respawning at home.

[Andrei] There's a lot of cool character on there that,

as we're saying, just isn't coming across.

[tentacles whooshing]

Sivir.

The warrior princess. [both laugh]

A mercenary warrior princess.

She throws a round circle thing.

I like the way her ult changes team comps.

There's some strong synergies there.

If you've got somebody like Olaf,

you just want to get onto the enemy team.

A lot of ADCs do a lot of damage at long range.

She's shorter range and has more utility.

Tristana.

A happy-go-lucky Yordle. ADC.

With a rocket launcher.

Loves to shoot things. Very excitable.

Also my favorite character to play in Mechs vs. Minions.

[Andrei] Varus.

He is our kinda prototypical male archer ADC.

Tormented backstory, but backstories at this point.

He's another one of the dudes with a Darkin weapon.

The character's really the bow,

not what's left of the mortal.

He also has a fairly amount of

kind of magical feel for a class that has a bunch of

people with guns.

And sniping people can be cool, too, with his q.

[Greg] And now, the support Champions.

[Andrei] Alistar.

Abominable.

Oof.

He's a minotaur. Think he's Targonian.

[Greg] He likes to knock people up with his combo.

And he's got that skin with the cowbell,

where you can just spam that noise over and over.

[cowbell rings repeatedly]

[Greg] Annie.

[Andrei] Murderous young pyromancer,

pyromaniac, a bit of both?

Have you seen her bear, Tibbers?

[Andrei] I think named after a producer's girlfriend

and her favorite teddy bear or something.

[Greg] The girlfriend like to set things on fire?

Eh, I'm not asking.

Bard.

I love Bard, he just expands

the universe in so many different ways.

When we were making Bard,

one of our goals with him was to make him a bit unknowable.

One of those characters that you love,

that you are fascinated by,

but you didn't quite know what we wanted,

why he was doing things.

Tried a lot of pretty weird abilities with him,

a few of which worked out.

And today, you can get Bards that

cast their ultimate at the perfect time to

win the enemy team the game.

Just roam off in weird directions,

picking up notes for who knows what purpose?

I love Bard.

The roaming support part is pretty cool

that he has motivation to leave lane

and not just sit there and babysit his marksman.

Brand.

Another fire mage.

But he's actually on fire.

Did we ever update his spell icons?

They were so bad.

Wouldn't swear to it.

Braum.

The manly support.

And I think one of our most warm-hearted, happy,

nicest characters in the game as well.

He's just wholesome.

He's a great Champion.

He has this giant shield.

It's actually a giant door

that he uses to protect his allies.

Doesn't use a weapon.

Mainly about the protecting.

Although he actually bashes people with the shield

quite a bit.

[heroic music]

[Andrei] Blitzcrank.

He likes to grab people.

Bit of a weird contradiction in terms of how his VO

and his backstory go together, from memory.

We actually argue about is he a lovable

iron giant type character,

or is he like a vicious troll?

His dialogue's all Dalek:

exterminate humanity,

the time of man has come to an end.

[Blitzcrank] Exterminate. Exterminate.

[Greg] Fiddlesticks.

Murderous scarecrow.

He summons crows to peck at you.

[Fiddlesticks screeches] [wings fluttering]

His gameplay's not great.

Kinda reminds me of a WoW warlock

with the whole drain-tank thing.

That ultimate creates such high moments,

but crit playing against some of those basic spells in lane

creates such low moments.

Galio.

He used to be a gargoyle,

now he's a 300 foot tall colossus.

Kayle.

Effectively an angel.

Or at least I think that was the archetype

that was being drawn on at the time.

League of Legends has angels?

Eh, close enough.

Perpetually strong. Can play any role.

Has a big sword.

We're working on an update at the moment

for both her and her sister, Morgana.

Janna.

She's kinda the prototypical magical support

that keeps people from ever getting close to her.

[Andrei] Yeah, tends to shut down an awful lot of action.

[Greg] Karma.

I think there's something really,

really interesting in the duality

that Karma's meant to capture.

Both the strength and the combative side

and the more reflective and protective side.

Leona.

[dramatic music]

[shield metallically rings]

She's a sun warrior with a big shield that,

for support, likes to jump in and stab you.

Has dialogue lines like I will protect you

and then goes straight into the enemy team

and starts murdering them,

leaving you by yourself.

[Leona] I will protect you.

[multiple spell effects ring]

There are a lot of players, I think, who only play Leona.

[Andrei] Lulu.

Fey sorceress. Yordle.

Little unusual, personality-wise.

Think she spent hundreds of years

trapped in some weird dimension or something.

I think her log-in screen says it all,

where the woodland creatures are running in fear from her.

[Andrei] Lux.

[Greg] She is a light mage.

She is Demacian nobility,

but is secretly a mage which

they're kinda mage-ist in Demacia.

Think she's got one of the most satisfying

ultimates in the game, that giant lazer.

[Greg] And one of the most satisfying laughs in the game.

[Andrei] Oh, too far.

[dramatic music]

[Greg] Morgana.

Our fallen angel,

or fallen not-angel-but-totally-an-angel.

We think she's one of those Champions who could pretty

much play any role.

And I also think one of our old Champions

whose kit holds up really, really well.

[Greg] Dark Binding's fun.

[Andrei] We're workin' on an update for her,

but we're not gonna change much

gameplay-wise.

Gameplay's pretty good.

[Andrei] Nami.

League of Legends also has mermaids, apparently.

Whoa, really?

She's one of my favorite supports,

I like the diversity of her abilities.

She has some healing,

some protections,

some ability to do damage.

I've played a lot of Nami lat year.

I'd agree with jack of all trades.

[Greg] Nautilus.

[ominous music] [chain rattling]

Giant drowned titan in a diving suit.

Never get to see his face.

Nautilus actually came from an original

piece of concept art we had that was this

weird guy in a bomb-disposal suit.

We liked the bombs and we liked the suit,

but we didn't like them going together.

We ended up splitting half of that out into Nautilus

and the other half out into Ziggs.

Nidalee.

[Greg] She can turn into a puma,

or throw a spear at you.

Ornn.

[Andrei] Gruff, ancient forge god.

[Greg] He'll give cool weapons to everyone on the team.

[Andrei] Pyke.

So, if you wanna play support,

but you really like to murder people...

Then do we have the assassin for you.

Someone gets helped by his ult

sharing gold from kills he gets with allies,

so he is helping.

[Greg] He wears shark jaws around his neck.

Rakan.

One half of a duo of Champions,

a couple, in fact,

that we released the last year.

Another Champion inspired in part by David Bowie,

personality-wise.

He was first pitched to me as bird of paradise

with his partner being bird of prey,

which I thought says it all.

Really love his VO as well.

The bunch of the genuinely happy-to-be-doing stuff.

Excited by going on.

[Xayah scoffs] [metal scrapes]

Soraka.

She's the only real healer in League of Legends

and hopefully the only one.

Been one of our bigger challenges

over the years to balance.

Think she's an a reasonable

but not ideal spot at the moment.

[Greg] Sona.

[harp reverberates]

Musical support.

Like Bard, doesn't talk, just different reasons.

The DJ Sona skin set a new high bar

for what we were able to deliver to players

in terms of skins.

Tahm Kench.

We originally set out to make...

We wanted to make a tank that did stuff different

to other tanks.

I love how Tahm Kench turned out.

I love the tongue. I love the fez.

I love the personality. The river spirit.

You can feel him living in the Mississippi River

under a bridge somewhere.

[Andrei] Playing his log-in theme with his tongue.

[Tahm growls]

Taric.

He's like a crystal paladin guy.

I liked what the team did with the update to him as well.

As well actually gave him a bunch of depth

and compassion in his backstory.

Think they made him a much stronger character.

[Greg] And much better art.

[Andrei] He looked so absurd before. That' true.

He was one of the those most around their age.

Teemo.

Ah, Teemo.

I mean, some player hate him and everything he stands for,

some people think he's worse than that.

He's kinda the anti-mascot of League of Legends.

He's frustrating to play against with his poison

and his invisibility

and his leaving mushroom bombs everywhere.

He's also adorable. Some people love him.

[Greg] We play him straight,

like he's not aware he's such a force of evil in the world.

Thresh.

One of our most popular supports,

and also I think our first stab at making a

really different backstory for a support.

Somebody much darker.

And then pairing that with a bunch of gameplay

that focused on the play-making in different ways

than our previous support picks had allowed.

Whenever I get asked what's my favorite

Champion of League of Legends,

I won't have an absolute favorite.

Thresh is an easy one to mention

for the way his theme works really well with his abilities,

and all of his abilities are actually pretty fun.

[Andrei] Love the way his theme suggests that he is

gonna be a fighter or something similar,

and then there's a bit of a expectations breaking

when you find out he's a somewhat supportive character

and plays a really different role than what you expect.

And that's actually helped us

draw in new audiences of players into the support role

and let them have fun with it.

[Greg] The lantern can just

change the outcome of a game so much.

It was a really high moment

for a support character to be able to do.

[Andrei] Trundle.

[action music]

[Trundle roars]

Here's my Trundle story.

I got him once in an ARAM game.

I'd never played Trundle before,

never died, never bought an item,

got an S.

Lot of it's just about that pillar, though,

and the creative plays you can make in team-fights

and the way you can screw people,

hopefully not your allies, up.

Veigar.

He is, I guess, a very evil Yordle mage.

I think he thinks he's much eviler than he is, though.

There's also named after a former Rioter

who was extremely tall.

So I think that was the height of humor we ever got to.

He's one of those infinite-scaling characters

who just gets more and more powerful as the game goes on.

Vel'Koz.

Our intelligent Void monster,

we called him professor eye beam in development.

I really feel like he's come to define the Void,

even though he's one of the

later Void characters developed.

We originally tried to make him

a bit like Kog'Maw, in that he'd have no CC on his kit

and be somebody you built a team comp around.

Weren't quite able to pull that off,

but he still CC-light

and really heavy on the damage.

I think that ultimate feels fantastic to control, as well.

[Greg] Did we think we was gonna be popular in support?

[Andrei] We think there was a chance.

We're starting to see some majors get to

bot play at that point.

Zilean.

For those of you who really wanna play

an old man in League of Legends...

Well, not just that, but an old man who throws clocks.

[Greg laughs]

[Greg] Zyra.

[Andrei] A plant mage. Creates plants.

Murders people with them.

She sends thorns out after you,

she has giant plants that can do tons of area damage.

We originally were expecting Zyra

to be more of a mid laner,

but looking back,

I think we just missed how

strong a natural fit that has with support play.

It's very heavy on the disengage

or the picking targets for allies.

It's got a bit of ability to scout brush and so on.

[Greg] Lots of video games have the trope of the

character that summons turrets or minions,

and they're always hard to balance.

And Zyra is no exception.

So that was all 141 League of Legends Champions.

I hope it was fun for you. It was fun for us.

We'll come back when we've got 282 of them.