With Kayn already out on the Rift and Urgot, Evelynn, Aatrox, and now even Swain on the horizon for massive updates, League of Legends seems to be dishing out new champion content faster than players can keep track of. On top of all of that, the next new champion has also been teased in the Champion Roadmap discussion, a Vanguard from Freljord that’s expected to be a force to be reckoned with when it comes to initiating fights with the enemy team.
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With the most recent champion being Kayn, a jungler, and the two before him being Xayah and Rakan, an ADC and support, respectively, it seems like appropriate timing to have the next new champion be a tankier addition to the lineup. We don’t have a name yet for who the newest champion will be – one of the only visual details we were provided was the image pictured above – but we do know a bit about what we can expect from him.
A Refresher On The Vanguards
With all the recent classes and subclasses that have been redefined and updated, champions have been moved around to different categories as they’ve been reworked and better suited for other positions. To understand what kind of champion this next one will be, it helps to know what all a Vanguard entails. While the counterparts to Vanguards know as Wardens consist of champions such as Shen and Tahm Kench who stick by their carries and provide peel, these Vanguards prefer to be in the middle of the enemy team, disrupting plans and causing mayhem.
Below is a list of every Vanguard in the game right now to give you an idea of what this new champion’s job will be:
- Alistar
- Amumu
- Mega Gnar
- Gragas
- Leona
- Malphite
- Maokai
- Nautilus
- Rammus
- Sejuani
- Sion
- Zac
What We Can Expect From The New Vanguard
As far as this new Vanguard is concerned, lead champion designer Reav3 spoke about what kind of direction they’re taking for the new champion. Strong initiations and a creative passive ability seem to be two components that we can look forward to.
“One of the key traits of a Vanguard is that they can choose when and where to start a fight,” Reav3 said in his announcement. “With that in mind, we wanted to make a new playmaking Vanguard that charged headfirst into tough situations and made the enemy team fight on their terms. We also really wanted to make a very self-reliant champion; expect to see a unique new passive that helps them build more than just character.”
Who’s Designing The Vanguard?
While each champion is completely different from another, looking at the track record of champion designers can definitely lead to some preconceived notions about whether you’ll look forward to a new champ or whether you’ll be adding it to your must-ban list. Depending on what you thought about a recent leafy jungler, you might already have your mind made up.
Next new champ is mine!
— Blake Smith (@Squad5lol) July 18, 2017
The above tweet comes from Blake Smith, also known by his Riot name, Squad5, a champion designer who was responsible for the creation of Ivern. While the support-oriented jungler could be quite frustrating to play against when released, his concept and kit was extremely unique, and as far as that’s concerned, it’s a promising start for the next champion.
Smith’s first fully-designed champion was Ivern, but he’s also worked on both Jinx and Jhin in the past.
The Freljord Vanguard Could Be A Fire-Based Champion
While not talking specifically about what kinds of abilities the new Vanguard might have aside from the brief teaser about the champions’ passive that sounds like it’ll be pretty unique, it was also indirectly revealed that the champion would be from Freljord, and it might even be a fiery champ as opposed to the icy counterparts from that region.
“Look out for the newest Vanguard, who’ll be heating up one of the coldest regions in Runeterra,” a closing line said about the new champion, a sentence with some wording that sounds fairly intentional.
There’s always the chance that this champion won’t be fire-based at all, but having a champion who’s from Freljord but uses fire would definitely be a unique twist. We don’t have many fire-centered champions in League anyway – Annie, Brand, and Shyvana and Rumble to an extent come to mind – so a new, tanky one would certainly be welcome.
The tentative timeline put out by Riot recently set up a new system that alternates between new champions and reworks, so while we don’t know much about this new champ’s kit or whether or not he does dish out fiery initiations, more details about what the champion might be like, as well as its abilities, will likely come soon.
