With Riot announcing new details on the upcoming LoL champion, here’s everything you need to know about Hwei, the artistic mid laner.

Image Credit: Riot Games

Hwei – The upcoming LoL mid laner

Lead Champion Producer Alexia “Riot Lexical” Gao revealed that Hwei will be the next champion coming to League of Legends. The mid laner will be the last champion released in 2023, following the Milio, Briar, and Naafiri.

While Riot has decreased the number of new champions released per year, there is always big excitement when a new character is announced. And this time around, there is something really intriguing about the “artistic” mid laner. With that in mind, let’s find out what we know so far about the Hwei, and what we can expect before LoL season 13 rounds off at the end of the year.

Hwei will be a “high-complexity” champion

According to Riot Lexical, the team is still missing a “high-complexity” champion, after shipping a “simple” Naafiri and Millio and Briar, who are on the medium end. As a result, Hwei plans to fill that missing piece. “An artist’s journey usually can be summarized in three stages,” said the Rioter. “First, they must follow the principles of masters before them, learning the rules and intricacies. Then, they can diverge, explore, and break principles to find their own path. And finally, only after exhausting the exploration of their craft can they transcend to a new level of artistry.”

The rioter added that there are three specific subjects Hwei is interested in expressing and that the use “of deeply complex artistic tools and styles should lend mage lovers a blueprint to their big moment with finesse and tact”.

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What will Hwei’s kit look like in LoL?

Unfortunately, Hwei’s abilities are still a mystery, a bit like the entire champion’s concept. All we know for now is that he’s going to be a mid lane mage and that given Riot’s intention to push out a high-complexity champion, he might be one of those mechanically intensive champions, similar to when Aphelios was released.

What we should expect is a much harder kit to play and pilot, which will likely require more time to learn and master. Moreover, the fact that he’s interested in three subjects might potentially hint at the fact that his kit will revolve around this number in some way. This is a recurring design philosophy and approach seen in a lot of other champions, as many have three-hit passives or effects. Could this be the first champion to have different forms, and maybe more than two? It will be up to Riot to surprise us this time around.

For now, all we have on our hands is a fantastic “art piece” with vivid colors that flow and mesh together into various patterns. As more information comes out, we will be making sure to update you with the latest information as soon as possible.

Do we have a release date for Hwei?

Currently, there is no confirmed release date. That said, we should expect him to be out before the end of the season, which means the champion should be out before the end of December unless delays occur.

There have been a few delays in the past, as sometimes the Riot dev team might struggle in the development process until they find something they are satisfied with. This is something we have seen with Skarner VGU, which has been pushed back a couple of times. Luckily, fans have also gotten more information on him, as we got a preview of what his new kit might look like.

Additionally, Riot also teased two upcoming champions in the work: the first will be a monster champion while the other is going to be a Vastayan solo laner. While we don’t have much more info on them, players are going to see them on the Rift in 2024.

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