Riot Games announces Naafiri as the newest League of Legends champion

Jordan Marney

Jordan Marney

Here is a first look into the newest League of Legends champion!

Riot Games has today released the cinematic for their latest League of Legends champion, Naafiri. The announcement was first posted on the official LoL Twitter page earlier this morning, giving fans an insight into the newest League of Legends champion. Following the release of Milio, Naafiri is the second champion to be released in Season 13.

From the trailer, Naafiri has a strong bond with her pack of hounds, which suggests they will play a big part in her kit. Naafiri will be a new creature champion, as confirmed by Riot Games in Dev Update posted on April 28. According to Riot, Naafiri is a champion for players that love "dark and scary monsters". As confirmed by Riot, Naafiri will be part of the assassin class and will be "easy to pick up", or as Ryan 'Reav3' Mireles put it "a pack of assassins".

Naafiri inspired by an old Omen concept?

One interesting point from the Naafiri announcement was by LCS analyst and caster Barento "Raz" Mohammed. Raz pointed out on Twitter that Naafiri's character model resembles that of Omen. No not the Phantom character from VALORANT, Omen did not make it to League of Legends after being scrapped during his development cycle.

Omen's character development cycle saw multiple problems, including a lack of direction in regard to the champion being a melee or ranged DPS champion. This combined with the lack of excitement for Omen saw the champion shelved permanently. Riven replaced Omen as the next released champion in League of Legends.

What is Naafiri's release date?

Riot has not set a release date for their newest League of Legends champion currently. Naafiri should be reaching the Public Beta Environment (PBE) in the near future. As stated in the Dev Update above, Riot is "ready" to bring Naafiri onto Summoners Rift.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest League of Legends news and updates.