New Fiddlesticks VGU looks to instill fear and terror into the hearts of its opponents—and teammates

Riot developers gave the League of Legends community a first look at Fiddlesticks’ VGU today—and it’s horrifying.

Today’s Dev Corner post dives deep into the champion’s development and lore, while also sharing a sneak peek into Fiddlesticks’ new animations.

The devs initially discussed what faction or race the “new” Fiddlesticks would fall into. After struggling to place the Harbinger of Doom in a category, Rioters then looked at his name.

“A necromancer probably wouldn’t call their bloodthirsty new creation Fiddlesticks,” according to Riot. “‘Fiddlesticks’ is a name a child would coin; something you might invoke around a campfire to scare your friends.”

This allowed the champion’s origin story to spiral into an old wives’ tale and an “ancient malevolence with unclear origins.” It’s a myth used by parents to scare their misbehaved children and issue warnings about the dangers of the outside world. But this danger seems very real.

Fiddlesticks is inhuman. It has no organs, brain, or vocal cords, and its voice would be a projection or mimicry of people it’s killed.

Since the scarecrow is unnatural, its movements should be as well. To make the champion look more “eerie,” tech artists embodied demonic, ghostly, and puppet-like animations. And to further accentuate the horror, Fiddlesticks was given an elongated right arm that drags its claws on the ground while it walks.

While no set date on Fiddlesticks’ VGU launch has been revealed yet, fans may get more details in a Champion Roadmap slated to release later today.