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Irelia’s major, Swain-sized update is nearly here, and today, her new splash art and log-in music were teased on Riot Germany’s Twitter account ahead of her official reveal.
Yesterday, Riot revealed a small teaser of the new Irelia, but it didn’t contain many details about the rework outside of a bit of her backstory, which she narrated. The splash art, however, holds some clues.
For starters, her weapons are nothing like her old design. In yesterday’s teaser, it seemed like they might be the same, just with a different look. In the splash art, however, it’s clear that there are a ton more blades to work with, and as a slightly less important fact, they glow blue.
The sheer amount of blades opens up a ton of possibilities with her kit, especially if they constantly levitate around her like her old design. Imagine getting pelted with a hundred tiny, floating knives. Yeah, we don’t want to, either.
Secondly, her hair, outfit, and entire persona look to be totally new, too. For the past year, major updates have preserved, more or less, what the champion looks like. Instead, they just result in shined and sparkled versions of the same champion, with the exception of Galio. The new Irelia appears to be nothing like her old design aside from the fact that she’s a girl with a bunch of floating blades.
Judging from the music, yesterday’s teaser, and her design today, it seems that Riot is going all-in on a very traditional, eastern-style identity for the new Irelia—which is great, because there are only a few of that type of champion in the game.
