League of Legends community vote opts for Udyr rework

Published at 03/02/2021 at 05:08 By David W. Duffy

The Spirit Walker is one of the oldest champions in League of Legends, dating back to December 2009. Now, more than eleven years later, Udyr is finally getting a rework.

League of Legends community vote opts for Udyr rework

Following the Dr. Mundo redesign coming to the League of Legends PBE in a few months, the next VGU subject has been decided.

Five champions were put to a community vote — Shyvana, Nocturne, Udyr, Quinn, and Skarner — and there was a sizeable victory for Udyr!

Shyvana, who was hugely popular in 2019 when Riot Games held their first reworks vote, missed out then to both Fiddlesticks and Volibear. Unfortunately, she can't catch a break, and misses out yet again.

Maybe it'll be third time lucky next year?

Udyr is one our oldest champions (2009?) and it's time he received his upgrade. He’s got tons of potential to be one of the coolest characters in the game, and I'm looking forward to exploring and figuring out what the best version of our bearded melee spirit shaman can be.

There are lots of things with him that are already working and we can just embellish on those characteristics, namely his ancient, primal nature vibes, doing something really cool with those different stances, and making sure he feels right at home in the Freljord.

Justin "RiotEarp" Albers, Concept Artist

We shouldn't expect this VGU to be complete before next year, but it will certainly be something to look forward to — with Riot's dev team having plenty of ideas for the evolution of a champion that has, surprisingly, seen a return to popularity and pro play in recent weeks.

The idea is also that — other than Dragon Oracle Udyr, which dates from August 2019 — all other skins for the champion will be revamped.

It'll be fascinating to see how they redesign Spirit Guard Udyr, the second Ultimate-quality skin to be released following Pulsefire Ezreal.

We can expect updates in future dev blogs, so stay tuned.

Skin vote sees Crime City Nightmare and Debonair 2.0 win out

Community voting concluded, with the Crime City Nightmare skin theme coming out on top globally, and China preferring Debonair 2.0. As a result, Riot plans to work on both!