LCS players design their ideal League of Legends champions

We’ve seen LCS players react to new champion reveals. We’ve seen them criticize and critique champions’ designs and kits. Now we are putting the players in the designer’s shoes and making them think of their perfect champion.

I did make Team Liquid do this shortly before the 2018 World Championship in Seoul. It went so well, despite the fact that the players looked at me like I was asking them to complete the world’s most difficult task, that I knew I had to ask other players to do the same.

Unlike last time, I handed the players my iPad with Procreate loaded up. I told them that they were free to use other colors, and there were no restrictions on what they had to come up with. I got a variety of answers and designs from everyone.

We’ve compiled all of the masterpieces we got from players during the third week of the 2019 Summer Split here:

Team Liquid mid laner Nicolaj Jensen looked as if I had asked him to kill one of his own teammates when I asked him to draw his ideal champion. After a pondering for a long time, he settled with this lovely shark. He noted that the champion is a mid laner, who gets movement speed bonuses while in the river.

“The passive is like, you run really fast in the water and you can actually go invisible in the water for an amount of time,” Jensen said. “The ultimate should be like, you eat them when they’re low. Kind of like a Fizz ult, you leap at them, and if you hit them, you execute them, if they’re under like 25 percent.”

“I have no idea what other abilities it would have because it would need to lane. One of the other abilities could be like, attacking with a bunch of fishes. You can send a bunch of fishes out so you can clear waves with it,” he added, also noting that he likes sharks, thus the idea for this exquisite champion.

When I told Cloud9’s AD carry, Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi what to do, he immediately got to work, drawing a Dota 2 champion he wishes were in League. Based off of Shadow Fiend, this is Scuderi’s iteration of the champion. We were told to note that the “hair” on his head is not actually hair, but fire. The champion (or maybe hero, in this case) is known for his ability that has differing ranges when you cast it, and cooldowns depending on how far you casted it.

You heard the man, Riot. Get Shadow Fiend in League of Legends.

Cloud9’s support, Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam, designed a champion based off of one of the team’s junglers: Robert “Blaber” Huang, who used to be known as “blaberfish2.” You can really see the inspiration behind the piece. Not only is the champion a fish, but it wields a bow and arrow, like Kindred, one of Huang’s notable champions from the 2018 World Championship.

For an ultimate, it would be like Rek’Sai’s, but it could go anywhere in the river.

Counter Logic Gaming AD carry Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes thought a bit about what to draw, but based it off of his favorite animal: a liger. Ligonya has a pounce, and a roar that fears his enemies. He also has an execute to chomp his enemies.

“He’s gonna pounce and then scratch you, so he leaves you bleeding, like ticking down. I’m trying not to copy Nidalee’s build, but something with an execute, like he chomps you. That can be the Q. The W could be running really fast, and if you hit them, it’ll make them bleed,” Hayes explained. “Wait, no, the bleed has to be on the E. Okay, the E is the scratch that’ll make them bleed. And let’s see ... the ulti will be ‘The Liger Summons Its Cubs,’ and she’ll summon cubs and run at them. I don’t know what it’ll do, but they’ll run.”

Throughout the design process, Hayes was doing work into liger research, noting that the oldest liger lived to be a whopping 24 years old. Note that neither a tiger’s nor lion’s lifespan is even close to this. Ligonya is truly a champion for the ages.

Echo Fox’s AD carry, Apollo Price, drew a painter champion. He put some serious work into the paint brush, taking his time to redraw the concept until he got it right. The orange hair was added as flair to represent Echo Fox.

Price said for an ultimate ability, “he puts them into a painting and CCs them.” Simple. Beautiful.

As he worked hard on his piece, Echo Fox’s top laner, Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon, cackled as he noted how hard it is to draw. Heo proudly announced that his design is the first League champion to use a knife and a gun at the same time. It’s a flex role and its ultimate will let you switch between weapons, changing the entire kit, like Jayce, Elise, or Nidalee.

Heo’s design is innovative, incredible. Everyone could play it.

Clutch Gaming ADC Cody Sun designed a marksman who throws abs to people. Originally set to be a cat with a tail, the tail ended up turning into a leaf-like design. When asked if he knew about the tanuki, a Japanese raccoon dog that is known for imagery with leaves, he said no.

Sometimes accidents make things even better.

Optic’s jungler, William “Meteos” Hartman, initially began to draw an orange man with a pointy head but then asked for a redo. He then presented this beautiful alligator. For an ultimate, he would eat somebody and pull them into the ground into a stasis, similar to a Tahm Kench or Rek’Sai ultimate put together.

“Maybe when he gets out of the river, he moves faster or some shit,” Hartman said when presenting his drawing.

When asked why he drew an alligator, he notes that he doesn’t particularly even like alligators, but it’s the one thing he knows how to draw decently.

I completely forgot that we do have a crocodile champion existing in League already, but the refined traits of Hartman’s alligator tops Renekton, easily.

FlyQuest’s ADC, Jason “WildTurtle” Tran drew Cutter, his sword champion, extremely quickly. Almost before I could finish explaining the task to him, he presented me with a floating sword. Cutter is a melee jungler who “cuts through all the monsters.” When asked about the ultimate ability for Cutter, Tran laughed and said, “He cuts a lot. He cuts 12 times.” So precise! So original! It’s wonderful.