Here's How League of Legends Champions' Dances Are Chosen

Each League of Legends champion has a dance that's unique to their character, and when it comes to picking which dance each champion will have, Riot Games has revealed some of their criteria that they look to during the decision-making process.

Whether it's a goofy dance or one that fits the champion's theme well, each dance is hand-picked for the champions in question. While the process applies to dances, the points below that were outlined by RiotLamz are also used when choosing the rest of a champion's emotes such as their laugh, taunt, and joke.

• What's the size, shape, and silhouette of the character?
• Is the character's tone more humorous or serious? (Dances can sometimes be a moment to break a character, similar to the joke animations, so it can be fun to test something a little different.)
• Does the character's design immediately pop out as something similar to what we reference in pop culture? An example: Warwick and the Thriller werewolf dance were a great match.

And with so many champions now in the game, Riot is also careful to make sure that a new champion's dance doesn't infringe too much on an older moveset. They're also not blind to how many players prefer to use the dances through quick actions while walking around or repeated spamming of the dance. Take Evelyn's new dance for example that causes her to spin around quite fast when spammed and you have an example of one of the areas Riot considers.

"We also want to try bring new dances into the game with new champs, so we're mindful not to create a dance that's too similar to the ones that already exist. In general, most players tend to enjoy quick loops for dances—something they can do fast as they move around, almost like a quick taunt—so we also keep that in mind."

Of course, there are some dances that just make sense depending on champions' relationships with other champions or parts of their kit. Rakan and Xayah is an obvious one that was mentioned, and the example of Ivern and Daisy as well as Illaoi and her tentacles are other examples of coordinated dances that just work well together.