seraphine could have easily been a siren from the lakes under mount targon, have amazing lore connections with nami but they didn’t really wasted potential

Kai'sa should have ptsd and self control issues. She gives off mary sue vibes. She lived in some hellish nightmare-scape and probably had to eat void things, is part voidling, and seems completely unphased, like she went back to her hometown from college.

I think narratively Sett kits serve his purpose in Ionia, his whole character is about not fiting in (not being accepted in Ionia as a son of an enemy Noxian, not being accepted by humans/vastyas as halfbreed between). So his kit does not fit the Ionian ideal of spirituality and fluidity but borrows the Noxian ideals of power and aggression, things that Ionia do not know or crave before the Noxian invasion.

Neeko has an excuse in my opinion because her lore expands the lore of Vastayan, who needed a bit more of it.

Seraphine is so different because they literally went "pop idols are popular so lets make one" so they made the champion outside League of legends, with her instagram and music, and then they tried to implement her in the game.

Yeah ngl before watching this I actually thought Samira was a scavenger/bounty hunter from shurima like sivir

Having looked more into Samira's background at the behest of several comments, I stand corrected in my assessment of her background and inclusion as a Noxian. While from a backstory stance my perspective has shifted, I still stand by my points about her overloaded kit in gameplay. Sett as well, I had him listed as a champion that felt inserted awkwardly into the game, but his background as a half noxian half Ionian makes a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things. And yes, Kled has a gun, though it's not really his main weapon of choice so much as it is just (as the name implies) a pocket pistol. Just wanted to apologize for my myopic stance on it at the time of making the video. I'll be sure to be more thorough next time!

I was super excited when we got the wind that Kassadin's daughter is making her champion debut, I thought to myself how would she look like after surviving in the void for so long, would she still be human but changed like Kassadin? or did she changed into a more grotesque monster like how Reksai and Kogmaw is, nope, just a hot chick with a tight skin suit that shoots void rockets from a floating shoulder cannon, needless to say, my dream of having a more diverse void champion died that day, and Riot doesn't like making monster champions.

This is why Lillia is praised for her kit. Its clear and to the point and didn't introduce anything new and insane.

To me the biggest problem with new champions is that they want to be everything. Usually champions excel at one thing and u could class them into 1 category, however a lot of recent champions go to much into other classes and that makes them very hard to balance. Take Aphelios for example, both an utility marksmen and a hypercarry marksmen, add some healing too, something that was a big no no in a marksmen kit. Then take a look at Yummi, usually enchanters have 1 big drawback, being easy to kill if they dont position right or if they get flanked, but Yummi doesnt need to think about that.

I remember when Lee Sin was added and we all thought he was like, the epitome of skill and had such an overloaded kit. Oh boy we never saw it coming.

Riot when designing virgo: - We will design a champion from shadow isles which is currupted Also riot: *Proceeds to release a champion that actually can corrupt the game* - totally within the character theme 👌

0:45 illaoi was complicated back then? Man things have changed

ehm sorry "Samira, only character in Nexus with a gun." no Kled has his shotgun.

Let me know when we stop getting anime protagonist looking champions and get something more grotesque and imperfect.

Neeko was literally designed as a fish out of water archetype, she's from a far away island no one from mainland Valoran has seen. She's designed to stick out on purpose.

At this point, Riot should really stop creating new champions for a while, it's too overcrowded and they are getting really weird and overloaded. They should, instead, rework all the champions that actually need it in order to bring them to the same standards new champions have. You know, better models, better skills, that sort of thing. Stoping champion creation will make for better reworks too, and they could also source some of these people for the skin team, since they are still creative oriented developers and can really boost the skin quality of ideas and such. With more people working on more skins, Riot makes more money, that they can divert into more skins and the rework efforts, possibly other things in the company too. Riot doesn't make as much money with champions as they do with skins, so it makes much more sense to update older champions in order to make their playerbase bigger, allow new skins to be produced and be easier to accomodate to those characters, and most importantly, whenever a new champion does show up, it will be a more refined champion, and probably have the benefit of hype with it.

Sett was one good release Super simple but sastisfying to play and unique, however his initial numbers was too high making him OP in his first days

One thing I'd like to add is that some of the new champs create the illusion of difficulty. At first glance and overloaded kit seems difficult, but upon closer inspection you realize that's surprisingly straight forward and the overloaded nature simply means the champs has a large amount of built in safety nets that save you from a poor play.

The problem with the new champions is that they usually have mechanics that remove their own counterplay and some of them straight up make some older champions obsolete. Like (no accurate number) 90% of champs released nowadays has some form of immunity, Yone can actually completely negate Malzahar R with his R (maybe even Q?), we have windwalls, shrouds, champion overtakings that make you immune etc. Usually you would think that you counter mobility with cc, but when mobility has the tools to remove its own counterplay that feels dumb and it is a problem imo. And Riot has pretty much thrown out the rule book when it comes to new champions, that's their problem.

6:43 that's a disgrace to Sailor Moon.

Do yourself a favor: just don't count Sera when talking about Region continuity. The heads of Riot saw how popular kda was and demanded the creative teams find a way to force a popstar rather than a bard with a kda release skin into. That's literally why she exists. Her original inception was not designed to add to Piltover or Zaun

One of the biggest dropped projects by RIOT was one that I really loved: the Darkin. In less than a year, we had Kayn released (7.12.17), Varus' lore update (11.30.17), and Aatrox's rework (6.21.18). Riot was following the storyline about them needing to find the 4th of 5 Darkin, located somewhere in Shurima. Then, nothing. There have been no updates on the storyline, no news articles, no decent AskRiot posts. Nothing. Only a mention of the Darkin in Vlad's new lore but nothing to progress or flesh out the story. If Riot wants to add a great champ to the story line, there is so much set up already done and a great theme that Riot initially set up as the base story line at the beginning of the game.

Ah the old passives : attack faster when attacking and walk faster when walking ..m

Honestly one of my favorite new releases has been Lillia. Her kit is interesting and thematically fits into her region. Her kit is also very simple and does take too much to under stand. She also kind of borrows abilities from other champions but has a different playstyle and twist to it so it doesnt feel copy pasted into her kit. her q is a darius q but is meant for kiteing. her ult borrows zoe's sleep mechanic in a simple way. her e is like the global ultimate with limitation. and her w is just less damage outside cone high damage inside. it all combines into a champion who is easy to understand and pick up while also having a lot of depth to her playstyle

“You can do way more with addition and subtraction than you can with calculus or differential equations” Every STEM person: “Nani?!”

I main Aphelios, he's honestly one of my all time favorite champions not only in league, but dare I say in the entire moba genre. I love that he forces you to adapt to what you are given, as you have to play around your weapon rotation and combos you can pull out. I even made a manual for lots of different weapon rotations you can do, and it got some praise on r/ApheliosMains (someone even claiming that my document was revolutionary). His lore isn't that bad, and there's something oddly satisfying about Aphelios being mute - maybe because I'm autistic myself, so we both share some form of disability.

This all makes perfect sense. The lore part actually hit me harder than the gameplay part.

While I agree with you on most points, I would like to point out that Zoe does fit in the lore with Targon, and how Bard finally got a actual aspect. Zoe's ability's also fit with Bard. Her gameplay is ass tho. Also Ornn fits into the Frejord's lord because he is one of the three demigods. Everything else I agree with.

At first I wanted to comnent that Samira comes from Shurima, so maybe he has some of her design from there, but then I realized that 7 of them are ancient tombmonster, and then Sivir and Taliyah left. So I cant really think of a theme similar tho Samira

Here’s the thing about Seraphine. I don’t think a piltie/zaunite musician as a concept is a miss, i just think the execution was bad. I don’t know why you don’t think the stage can be considered a gadget that gives piltover/zaun it’s identity. Maybe if she looked less pop idol-ish and more steampunk, or in zaun’s case, punk rock and instead of the stage they used a different gadget, she’d be fine imo

I think the champions that have been added recently seem so out of place or "wild" is because maybe Riot is setting up more story branches for even more characters to be introduced and further expand Runeterra.

I don't think complicated is a bad thing as long as it fits into the lore. Take bard for example, he is really hard to master but his design and character is wonderful for runeterra. Not everything has to be simple because it is super fulfilling when you finally master a really difficult champion.

10:59 Kled has a pocket pistol. That counts as a gun, right :) ?

i dont really agree with all the champion that you said feel out of the lore like samira or kai'sa and sett if you really read all the the lore you will see that they are inportant to link the regions between each others for example samira link shurimaand noxus and sett link ionia in a different way from kayn ps: sorry for my english

12:06 **puts on lore glasses** Well, actually...

Not gonna lie, without knowing the lore or anything, I assumed Samira was from Shurima.

I agree with a lot of these statements, but I gotta disagree on Samira, Neeko, and Sett. Other people have commented about Neeko and Samira, but Sett I feel is Ok in the game’s lore. He represents the dark side of Ionia, the fighting pits, which happened as a result of Noxus invasion. He wants to grow higher in the world to maybe confront his father about why he left the family. He’s half vastayan and half human which means he has a balance of both sides, Human’s dark nature and Vastayans wish for peace. Yeah, maybe he isn’t the BEST contender in story wise, but I think Sett is at least better than some characters like Seraphine. And I do agree about Kai’sa, although she ties to Kassadin’s story line, her lore doesn’t really make sense and it feels like that they designed her kit instead of designing her reason to be in the game in the first place.

10:46 wait...Samira is from Noxus??? That eyepatch had me thinking she was a pirate or something.

tbh dont u think Riot these day are just releasing human champion ? i missed champion like Ornn or Sol ;-;

fun fact garens ult is just kayle dropping a bigass sword

Most of the characters were designed before lore was even fleshed out or even created. The lore and the characters are extremely flexible and riot has no issues with retconning.

I agree with you about complex champs but I love exploring all the champs I can play against, understanding their mechanics and abilities (got into the game a month ago), finding their strengths, weaknesses, different strategies to counter them. For me it is a very important part of gameplay

The fire emblem 3 houses backround music 😍

They need more champions like Ezreal. He's practically a perfect champion because he has a relatively low skill floor and a high skill ceiling. I think giving every champion a high skill ceiling is completely fine, and probably even good for the game, but making a large amount of new champions with high skill floors isn't. Not to say they shouldn't be made at all, but, like you said, not everyone wants every new champ for their role require so much learning and memorization to even play somewhat correctly. This last year, we have had a good mix of both low and high skill floor champions; Sett, Volibear, and Seraphine had low skill floors, Fiddlesticks, Lillia, and Rell had medium skill floors, and Yone and Samira had high skill floors. Of course, we also have Viego, who is seeming to be another medium-ish skill floor champion. As for the lore segment, I do not actually mind having champions from certain regions be different from the thematics of that region, as long as the thematics of the new champion itself are well crafted, and I do not think they even really break the boundaries of the themes they make for each region, but more or less just stretch them to be more inclusive under a larger net theme. Samira still has a bit of ruthlessness and a lust for power (specifically just to show it off), but also included bits of roguishness and general badassery. I agreed with most of what you said, but I do not blame Riot for making champs that might seem unorthodox for their region. They most likely just want to keep the game fresh by making champs as unique as possible, even if it means breaking a few rules. Except for Seraphine, she is something completely different.

20:30 clip with Aurelion Sol champ presentation :D i remember

I personally think Zoe fits quite well! She's the aspect of things like chaos, twilight, and foretelling. She's giggly and annoying because she's literally chaos. The Aspects are usually just prissy uptight people (think Taric, he's kinda full of himself). While Zoe is definitely full of herself, she brings this unusual wholesomeness to leagues otherwise dark story, while also having some demons herself (Fiddlesticks key and the hidden details that she accidentally kills mortals a lot) Her sleep kinda feels in character for her too, at least to me. She's the type of person to prank a sleeping person by doodling on their face. Of course she'd wanna make someone go to sleep to give her an advantage!

I just started playing Qiyana, was a bit intimidated about her kit but after many games I love playing her. I think mastering a complicated character is part of the fun and gives you an advantage.

I wish they made Seraphine as a banshee. They could still fit her into K/DA if they wanted and I think she'll fit in the lore much better, I think.

Rell and Sylas both represent the negative aspects that come from their region, while Demacia discriminates against mages and wishes to suppress them Noxus wants to exploit their power for military advantage. Samira and Rell are in direct contrast to each other as Rell basically had her life ruined by the cutthroat society and pursuits of power that Noxus creates as she was trained to be a weapon from childhood, while Samira was able to use that same system as a way to provide for her family by being a soldier and later on a mercenary. Something that connects them is that Leblanc is watching both of them from the shadows.

I would love to see a full video on the champions and lore like the beginning part, it was so interesting!!

Much thanks for your thoughts! I do not know a whole lot about the lore of the world but dissecting the relations between the characters and why they have thier skills was super awesome to hear about!

Aatrox imo is one of the best champs gameplay-wise, he may need some balancing in strength, but the gameplay is fun, skill-expressive, it has counterplay etc.

I absolutely agree. It's a solid analysis. If they just took one year off of pumping out champs and just focused on putting care into the champs they already have the game would be much better.

what was the music used? (in the beginning part) I somehow remember that track... but I don't know what game it is from xD

Can someone tell me where the music from the start comes from? I know it from somewhere but I cant put my finger on it.

I don't want to be nitpicky but old Akali and old Irelia where just the same - no counterplay stat check dash on you and hit you machines. I hate the new ones too, but jsut wanted to mention that their "simple" kits back then, were just as dumb. Irelia - Q at someone, activate W Hiten Style for 75 on hit true dmg, point'n click E for slow, shoot R to heal a bit and hope your stats are high enough. Old Akali did basicly the same.

I disagree complex champions are hard to use or understand. Its about how that complexity is implemented sett, jhin, kled, all have long passives and abilities, yet you can understand what they are about after seeing someone playing them just once because most of the complexity is numeric, or does not significantly affect you understanding. Samira and especially aphelios on the other hand, are hard to understand because you can watch many games with them and still not completely grasp what they do. Even then, Samira is still pretty undestandable.

....can someone let me know what soundtracks he is using? I miss the times when youtubers put their in-video music tracks in the description.

I like that you put how I felt about new champs into words very well. All I knew was that I felt some champs didn't belong.

Honestly Im more hyped for reworks than new champions

*Sitting in my room with 18 Lunari Moonstone weapons* You rang?

I just got through binging your "why no one plays" videos, and this video straight up rocked! I'm really enjoying your content sir. Keep up the good work!

What is the music at the beginning? I have definitely heard it before. edit: nvm its fire emblem 3H

11:19 “There is almost nothing about Noxus within her.” Samira who's Shuriman: 👁️👄👁️

And then there is Viego from lore point he is great but from kit in game he really deserves the title ruined king or the new king of bugs. I mean at some point he was able to delete the game.

damn i have already forgotten about the places in the lore. it's actually quite cool, would love to see a video featuring all champs origin.

I really enjoy the simple but complex kits in the game. Stuff like oriana's multipurpose ball, tahm kench's eating stacks, ezreals's e blink, all of these make really fun things to base their kits around. Thats not to say complex kits don't have their place in the game, if done right they can be really fun to play with like lee sin. But the more abilities you add, the harder it is to balance the champion. Azir is probably a perfecf example, his kit is just overloaded, being able to poke, stay safe, have one of the best movement abilities in the game, and a game changing ult in team fights is just too much to put on one champion. It can make it feel like he has no counterplay or that he has an answer for everything you do. Thats something that I think they've mostly avoided since then, but samira and akali continue to question whether or not they actually learned.

This chanel freaking rules.

jax was not a easy camp to balance he was so broken after all that thy removed him form the game and reworked him almost completely.

Really well thought out video on this issue, glad I stumbled across it 💪🏼🔥

Great call out about the lore/region and champions, it makes a lot of sense on how they use to do things. But a lot has changed in the 11 years since the early league where champ releases were probably doubled or more than what they are now. I would like them to return to lore/region based champs but I love they can put more inspiration and creativity into champs. I mean Samaria literally is devil may cry, say what you will About the chaos she created on summoners rift. But you have to give them credit it was cool to see. I mean I would rather lose to her then master yi + Taric funnel. I would love to see you do a video on older champs, same energy possibly talking about champs that are stat sticks and how they are not good for the game on the same token. Either way great job on the video!

The thing about Seraphine is that I feel like they did the skin and then said "oh, why not a champion like this?" But didn't really get her out of K/DA Universe

samira is from shurima and her motives are really really thought out.Her story is really good and she fits PERFECTLY in the lore.I do agree with your main point of view but you should really do some research.

What song is being played during the opening?

What's the music at the beginning. It sounds so familiar

Nobody: Vars: Samirrra

I actually disagree with kai’sa and neeko, I think both of their lore is good and they fit in, not from the outside but once you read the lore it really fits. Imo

What song is in the background at the beginning?

You hit the nail on the head on how I feel about league since about season 5 ish. I don't care at all about the lore in multiplayer games, but all the rest pretty much perfectly encapsulates how I feel about it. One aspect I think you brushed over is the counterplay aspect. There are several of the newer champs and reworks where there is no inherent weakness whatsoever in their kits. The counterplay to these champions is simply to be better at the game than they are. This is a really stark contrast to the design of olden league, where almost all champion kits have clearly defined weaknesses you can exploit. Early days of league was more like a strategy game, while league the past few years have transitioned into more a quake 3 type of gameplay. Outplay is replacing counterplay at an accelerating rate, and champions without outplay tools become more and more obsolete.

"Champions only have one passive, one ultimate ability and so on" Champions now have passives on their abilities that are more and more powerful. And then you have viego, who has ALL the abilities...

11:01 kled has a gun but he isn’t a gun champion imo

I've been playing for 11 years and I agree with a lot of what u have said. But I think there is one more factor that runs paralel to ur points: The sheer lack of general ability in a vast percentage of the players only gets compounded or maginifed by increasingly diffuicult champs. I've watched bad players do stupid things with the simplest champ ... So when u add layers of difficulty then games spiral out of hand in mere minutes.

I've needed this video for ages, glad someone actually took the time to think through this and put out a solid script. Subbed.

Rito employee : so I had this really cool idea for a monster-like champ- Rito:imma stop you right there Other rito employee: so basically sona , but she's hot Rito:perfection

Can we a monster character again? Yuumi and lillia are not enough

By the way since Zaun is supposed to be filled with technological freaks, abomination and Rebels then what does a Wind elemental (Janna) fit in that 3 categories??

i like it made sense actually notice i play different role then i did before im more adc jungle support when i was top mid lil abit jungle.

They literally could've made seraphine into a singer who died and was revived through technology and is now a hologram of some sort that'll be so much better

"there are no gun champions in noxus" shows kled

Samira is from Shumira originally. She's a traveling bounty hunter who's skills are a combination or the hard Shumiraian desert and the cutthroat Noxian lifestyle. I don't think it's explained but we can assume she has the kickass sword and guns from her adventures across the lands. She even has a voice line where she goes "Born in Shumira, raised in Noxus, maybe ill die in Demacia" showing that she's fairly well traveled. I think her having the guns despite not being from Piltover makes sense

You forgot to point out that Ionian champions are for the most part very technical in nature alongside having unique gameplay patterns. Their gameplay reflects this a lot, with some of them being some of the most mechanicaly intensive champs in the game (Irelia, Zed, Akali, Yasuo, etc.)

"why do you think games like Minecraft, Mario, and Pokemon are so popular?" Yeha, about the pokemon part...

Small thing and I think I'm in the minority but I actually love Kaisa's look and I feel like it fits her narrative. I do agree that despite spending most of her life INSIDE the void she still looks /extremely/ human and if you take out the "void" name from her abilities, they could be put on anyone, but otherwise I think she's alright. The idea of developing a symbiotic relationship with a void creature, evolving her abilities with different items (like Kha and his R levels), fits really well.

Nice video. Always feels great, when someone expresses what you feel.

You are probably the most reasonable and better communicator out there! Keep the great work

For me, the only problem with Seraphine is that her clothes doesn't scream plitover/zaun. The stage does make her look stiff and all, but it is part of her lore. If you've read it, her platform doesn't only amplify her songs but is a form of transportation from plitover to zaun & vice versa, in order for her to perform in both cities. In game, we can see that her stage is also a form of transportation and where all her abilities come out, which basically ties her lore and gameplay. Just like Ezreal's gauntlet or Caitlyn's rifle, we can say that it is her weapon, a hextech powered stage that amplifies sounds.

Theres no "many of the new champions that dont make sense thematically" theres only one, thats seraphine

this music makes me wanna finish the black eagle house

Great vid you really summed up the feelings of a vast majority of the community on this.