League of Legends’ official splash art for Pyke includes more than a few references to other champions and skins that are hardly noticeable at a first glance.
Pyke’s menacing champion splash comes from Victor Maury, a splash artist with Riot Games. Maury shared the splash art on his ArtStation page while pointing out that this was actually his first Bilgewater character as well as his first splash art for a new champion, not one that’s been reworked.
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“Been looking forward to this splash a looong time, I’ve always wanted to do a Bilgewater character!!” Maury said through Pyke project page on ArtStation. “Someone pointed out that this is my first New Champion splash (the others were skins and reworks). It is therefore my great pleasure to introduce Pyke, the assassin support!”
For artists who want to see how others go about creating their work or League of Legends players who’ve already decided to main Pyke, the project page shares tons of looks at the artwork’s creation process. Among images that show Pyke jumping out of the water and hunting down those who are on his list and a gif that shows the beginning-to-end process of creating the splash, Maury also shared another image that highlights all the hidden Easter eggs.
Referring to the inclusion of the champion and skin references as “a bit of fun and self-indulgence,” Maury called the bits and pieces scattered on Pyke’s table and around the champion “hyper specific cameo trinkets” from past splash arts. Some of the references like the dead Gangplank in the back may be easy to spot, but the other ones aren’t nearly as easy and would require some serious attention to detail and knowledge of a range of champion and skin splash arts. It’s also worth pointing out that Maury’s Gangplank inclusion is a reference to his fanart for the pre-rework champion, so Pyke is technically still his first official Bilgewater champ.
If you find yourself stuck after recognizing the more obvious ones like Swain and Galio, a list has already been compiled that shows what each of these trinkets are referencing.
Commentfrom discussion Pyke’s splash art contains “easter egg” trinkets.
Pyke isn’t out just yet, but you can test him now on the PBE as we approach his release that should come with the next League of Legends patch.
