Riot Games shared a preview of League of Legends’ 10th season this week that previewed what’s to come throughout the year. Amid promises of discussions about new game modes like Clash and other features, there was a brief glimpse in the trailer above of Volibear, one of the champions that Riot is currently updating. The new concept art for the champion brings out his beastly god-like traits more and serves as a precursor for a larger reveal at a later date.
The artwork found below was shown in the Season 2020 teaser above around 30 seconds into the video. Riot’s Joe “New001” Tung, the lead producer on League, said Riot would be sharing updates this year on some of the game’s latest champion updates as well as totally new champions.
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It’s then that we see a glimpse at Volibear in two different positions, one of which appears to be a default upright stance while the other is likely him when using his Rolling Thunder ability.
Nathan “Riot Lutzburg” Lutz, the gameplay designer at Riot who’s serving as the gameplay designer for Volibear’s rework, took to Reddit to address some of the early concerns about Volibear’s new look. The Rioter explained what this type of concept art that was shown in the video would be used for and said “it’s not the in-game model.” He also agreed with some people who pointed out that the hunched depiction of Volibear looked a bit off.
“I agree that in this particular image, the four-legged version looks a little weird,” Riot Lutzburg said. “I promise he looks badass in his four-legged run animation.”
More artwork that’ll show off another look at Volibear’s rework will be shared in the game’s next Champion Roadmap video, according to the Rioter. It’s said that the video will be shared later this month, though a more exact time hasn’t been announced.
Riot Games first announced last year that they’d be updating both Fiddlesticks and Volibear after the two champions scored high on a player-facing poll about which champion should be update. According to Riot’s schedule which details when champion updates will happen, Fiddlesticks’ update is planned first while Volibear’s will come afterwards. Both reworks are Visual and Gameplay Updates which means the champions’ appearances and abilities will all get reworked.
