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Tryndamere

"Rage is my weapon"

Fueled by unbridled fury and rage, Tryndamere once carved his way through the Freljord, openly challenging the greatest warriors of the north to prepare himself for even darker days ahead. The wrathful barbarian has long sought revenge for the annihilation of his clan, though more recently he has found companionship with Ashe, the Avarosan warmother, and a home with her people. His almost inhuman strength and fortitude is legendary, and has delivered him and his new allies countless victories against the greatest of odds.

The Barbarian King

With Tryndamere, we wanted to fulfill the berserker fantasy, the warrior who pushes beyond pain and uses it to fuel his power. In some ways, this is directly sourced from the character’s namesake: Riot co-founder and president Marc “Tryndamere” Merrill.

My blade calls, you will answer!

Runeterra is completely unrelated to the Earth that League players call home, but sometimes we like to suggest relationships between champions that pull from real-world analogues. We already had a Roman-style warrior with Pantheon; Tryndamere is designed to be the sort of champion that a real Roman legionnaire would fear. He’s a bloodthirsty barbarian from the frigid north, and he has no respect for societal conventions.

Vi

The piltover enforcer

Vi’s gauntlets are an example of something our artists call “hextech,” a fusion of magic and technology that harnesses the power of both. Vi’s gauntlets not only pack a punch in that they’re giant and heavy; they also increase her dexterity and her strength. Hextech levels the playing field so regular humans can challenge mages, monsters, or whatever might creep from the Void. Jayce’s hammer, Heimerdinger’s gadgets and Ziggs’s “hexplosives” are all examples of what a little hextech can do.

Punch First!

"Ask Questions while punching"

One of the first things I saw as a new member of Riot’s champion design team was an illustration of Vi hanging up on the wall in the office. She was so punk-rock, and the lollipop hanging out of her mouth perfectly communicated her doesn’t-give-a-damn attitude. I saw it and knew I had to make her into a character in the game.

Here Comes the punch line

Art can let us into a character’s life in a way the game can’t. This illustration is an exploration of what Vi might look like after a long day of punching her way through Piltover’s criminals. In it, we see Vi as a human, not a superhero. There’s an internal cost and pain to her work that wears on more than her knuckles.