LoR: Analyzing the New Champion Teasers!

Some time ago, we got a mini-teaser for the new champions we'll get in patch 5.4 (in a month).

Today, we'll make educated guesses about which new champions will probably come to Runeterra, based on the information we have so far (which Riot itself showed us).

Please keep in mind, this article is purely speculative, and we're just trying to create healthy discussions about the subject. For this exact reason, tell us in the comment section which champions do you think we'll get in LoR in a month!

We got a mini teaser for the next 3 champions we'll get in Runeterra: emojis on a Twitter post made by the official LoR account.

So, we can speculate the next set will still follow the same pattern of releasing only 3 champions, just like the last sets, considering each emoji presented possibly represents a champion.

It is possible that, among the new champions, we'll have a Bandlecity champion, considering this region didn't get a new champion in 2023.

For now, Corki, Vex, and Amumu (Amumu was recently made a Yordle in canon by the latest Riot Forge title, Bandle Tale) are the Bandlecity champions that still haven't been released in LoR.

Another region that is on players' radars is Ionia. This region was the star of the Glory in Navori set in early 2023, and ever since then its last champion was Sett. Ionia is one of the regions which have been the longest without a champion, considering Sett was released in March 2023, and we're already in March 2024.

However, certainly, the most important piece of information we have is that "Riot Dave Tron", in an interview during the 2023 LoR World Championship, told us we'll have, right in the first set of 2024, a 2.0 version of a champion that already exists in the game.

"I worked really hard on this champion." - This was one of the things "Dave Tron" told us. He also made it clear that this "2.0" champion is a classic champion, and was released in one of the first LoR sets.

Even I, in my article about which champions could come to LoR in 2024, mention how, probably, this champion "Dave Tron" mentioned in his interview is Twisted Fate.

However, as we'll see soon, Twisted Fate will certainly not get a 2.0 version in the game any time soon; instead, it will most likely be a champion beloved by Control players.

We'll discuss each emoji and give you our guesses about which champions they represent.

We'll start with the easiest one:

The Black Heart

This is the easiest one because usually the black heart emoji represents gothic and/or dark themes. And the only champion that matches this style, and also matches all the information we have, is Vex.

Many thought Corki would be the next Bandlecity champion because he would probably be a mono Bandlecity champion, and not a multiregional one, and would also interact with Mech-Yordles in some way.

We didn't get any tips of what this region could focus on in 2024 because the cards released in 2023 didn't give us any clues about the identity it would have throughout the year.

Actually, Bandlecity was a support region all throughout 2023, and was practically only used because of Norra's Portals and because of some interactions it had with the Elder Dragon.

Norra is tired of carrying this region on her back all alone, and needs a break. For this reason, a new champion, a "mono-Bandlecity" champion like Corki, makes a lot of sense.

Another argument is that we recently got a Shadow Isles champion, Mordekaiser, which is also a multiregion champion, just like Vex would be. This way, we'd have two champions from the same region being released one after another, which is incredibly odd and only happened once before with Jack and Nilah in 2023, which were released six months apart (and we never got two champions from the same region being released one set after the other).

But, as it appears, this could happen again, considering Vex really matches the theme of the black heart emoji on Riot's tweet.

Sleepy Emoji and Stars/Sparkle Emoji

The "sleepy" emoji is where things start to be a bit difficult to understand.

We know that only two champions in the entire League of Legends universe have something to do with "sleeping": Zoe and Lillia.

As Zoe is already in LoR, Lillia is the only one left. But, as we've already discussed, it can be Zoe because we'll get a 2.0 version of a classic, already existing champion in this set. And, as Zoe is quite classic, it can be her.

However, Targon also got a champion recently, so the likelihood of us getting a champion for this region is a bit smaller.

And we have another problem: the next emoji on the tweet are some stars, or sparkles.

This is quite vague because many champions can be represented by sparkles or stars.

The current state of the game is centered around the Curse mechanic, which we got with Morgana. One of the cards that stood out the most was Suppression, which teases Sylas, another Demacian champion.

So, some players thought he would be the next Demacian champion in 2024 (and still do).

But, as we can see, Sylas doesn't really match any of the emojis in the teaser. So, all we're left with is Lux, a classic champion from the Foundations set which really matches sparkles or star emojis.

Additionally, if we consider Morgana, mechanically, matches Targon much more than Demacia, the likelihood we'll get a 2.0 version of a Demacia champion can be considered bigger than the likelihood of us getting a 2.0 version of a Targon champion.

Considering all of this, we can assume these champions - Lux, Lillia, Vex, and Zoe - are the most likely to come in the next LoR set.

We'll briefly go over the two hypothesis we have about the new champions.

Supposedly:

Black Heart = Vex.

"ZzZ" = Lillia.

Sparkles or Stars = Zoe 2.0.

Vex would be the Bandlecity champion, Lillia would be released in Ionia, and Zoe would get her 2.0 version in Targon.

The second hypothesis is:

Black Heart = Vex.

"ZzZ" = Lillia.

Sparkles or Stars = Lux 2.0.

This is almost the same hypothesis as above, but the champion represented by the sparkles or stars in this guess is Lux, who will probably reinforce Demacia's identity as a Curse region, and will most likely bring new mechanics. It is likely this new version will transform Demacia into a spell region again.

If you read this far, thank you. I hope you enjoyed reading this article!

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