Skin-crawling first look at new LoL champion Naafiri sends players into a frenzy

After weeks and weeks of speculating, the upcoming League of Legends assassin, Naafiri, is right around the corner. To celebrate the new champion, Riot Games released a skin-crawling trailer that has already got players excited to play her.

On June 21, Riot teased the release of Naafiri with a champion cinematic that will make your skin crawl. Without spoiling your first impression, I can tell you Riot gives us a couple of short glimpses of Naafiri’s silhouette, but the real stars of the teaser are her voracious hounds and their relentless need for the hunt.

Soon after the trailer released, fans gathered on League’s subreddit to discuss Easter eggs and share their overall excitement about how impressive this Darkin assassin looks.

“I’m shitting my pants this is so good. Can’t believe the previous monsters were like Lillia and Yuumi and shit lol,” one player said.

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“Holy shit this is so fucking cool, the animation is absolutely top notch. One of the best champ cinematics,” another player added.

But League players didn’t stop there. Just days before Naafiri is fully revealed and hits the PBE servers for players to test her, the community shared their thoughts on what Naafiri’s kit will entail:

“Hype as hell. My bet is the whole pack mechanic will most likely have to do with finding enemies, probably sending out her pack to reveal enemies and apply some CC or slow or something. She also seems to merge with them,” one player said.

Naafiri will have one unique assassin mechanic we haven’t seen in League before and it is supposed to make her kit and gameplay feel “more alive, dynamic, and decluttered,” according to Riot. But it’s safe to assume this mechanic will have something to do with the pack of hounds following her every step. 

Personally, I’d love to see Naafiri merge with her hounds. Although Naafiri lives for the hunt, the most intriguing part of the trailer, at least for me, was her saying that even the victim has a choice—either to run or to make a last stand. Hopefully, this will make it to the game and we’ll see the decisions of her enemies making an impact on her gameplay.

The exact release date of Naafiri still remains to be seen, but I’d say you can expect it any day now since champion cinematics and reveals are typically only days apart.