It has now been three months since Renata came out. Normally, the next character here Bel'Veth should arrive in the coming weeks according to Riot Games' schedule. However, the studio is quite stingy with news about the champion, of whom the public has little news even though he has been expected and teased for more than a year (date on which a jungler with a Nether origin was mentioned by Riot Games teams).
A question of timing?
Let it be said, League of Legends news is not calm at the moment. Between the end of the regional league playoffs, with matches delayed due to the pandemic (especially in LPL whose season ended later than initially planned due to late matches), and the start of the MSI, it is difficult to be on two fronts at the same time. Although the Mid Season Invitational does not necessarily interest all players, it occupies a prominent place in the current game, whose home screen has been redecorated in the colors of the event. In addition, other events are also in progress, and ultimately leave little room for Bel'Veth. The new champion deserves a more spectacular arrival than a simple teasing between two spankings from T1, G2 or RNG.
It wouldn't be surprising if a presentation video was shown just before or after the MSI final. This is a fairly common practice, where publishers take advantage of the end of a flagship esports event for their title to announce future novelties. At this time, the public's attention is maximum and above all, a certain hype emerges. Who has never wanted to restart a game after watching a frenzied match? For these reasons, it would not be impossible for Bel'Veth to be teased just after the MSI. Unfortunately, this does not give an idea of its release date, with some publishers choosing to integrate new features directly after the event (Dragon Ball FighterZ holds the record, launching its new seasons with balancing patch literally 10 minutes after the finals of the World Tour) or to wait a few weeks, especially in the case of a launch event, as Riot Games has done in the past.
A political choice?
Following recent crunch scandals in video games, Riot Games has announced that it has taken steps to prevent this. Technically their teams are supposed to have the time it takes to prepare a novelty, so as not to force them to work more than necessary. This is reminiscent of old statements from another famous publisher: Blizzard. Well before the takeover by Activision, when players were waiting for Warcraft 3 with growing impatience (the game had some development delays), the publisher responded to their requests for an announcement of a release date: "When it's done. (literally: when it's ready)". Even if this phrase hasn't necessarily aged well, it illustrates a desire to release a perfectly functional finished and finished product, rather than release an unfinished piece of work.
This means that Riot Games will not hesitate to postpone the release of Bel'Veth as much as they deem necessary to make everything perfect. It is therefore not impossible that Bel Veth will arrive even later than expected, perhaps even during the summer. However, players can be reassured, if Riot Games has already announced that this creature will be the next champion, then that means that its development is very advanced. If you have to wait, it's more likely to give the teams time to prepare a nice launch event, rather than to finish the champion.
Shuntaro Furukawa recently gave us more info about what's coming for the Paid Subscription of the Nintendo Switch
