There are now rumors that the Project L roster has leaked. The source was a League of Legends customer survey revealed online by YouTuber Innovate Gaming, and many in the early Project L community were excited about the potential option. However, it pays to take “roster leaks” with a grain of salt.
This customer survey was recently shown to the world by Innovate Gaming, but was first filled out in June 2022, and it lists 22 League of Legends characters. For each character, the video shows the question “How would you describe your relationship to the champion below?” Innovate Gaming also claims that the survey asked about the characteristics of certain characters and what makes them memorable. If this is a real customer survey, it appears to be related to Project L.
Part of the early Project L community believed this had a future role for several reasons. First, each of the six characters we’ve already seen in Project L exists. Second, the questions surrounding hero traits and memorable aspects align with the core character design goals established by the Project L team, as shown in Illaoi’s concept blog post.
Aside from the fact that we know the Project L team is going deep into hero development mode right now, these seem to be enough to cause some hype on the list. However, it’s worth keeping your cool and taking the information revealed in Innovate Gaming’s customer survey with a grain of salt.
It is worth emphasizing that information is not “leaked”. It didn’t come from internal documents, employee words, hacking, or accidental leaks. This comes from a survey that was sent to League of Legends players to fill out. You have to ask, why would Riot Games deliberately include an entire list of upcoming games in public polls that people could send to their friends or followers online? Why would they shoot themselves in the foot like this?
Also, why would Riot Games ask for feedback from the community on the heroes they’ve locked down? For example, if everyone surveyed said they didn’t like Teemo and said the most memorable part of his outfit was his mushrooms and people hated him, it’s unlikely the team would blindly take that into account . The game doesn’t even have a release date yet, nor does it have any concrete plans for a competitive format.
It’s more likely, at least in my opinion, that they purposely use Project L characters they know work in-game as a point of comparison for a potential addition to the roster. Once Jinx appeared as a zoner, they could gather community feedback for her and put it next to the feedback on Lux. With this, they can see what’s similar and what’s different, and figure out how to transfer players’ fondness for Lux into an actual fighting game character. They might even have some red herring in it on purpose – who knows!
If I were a gambler (which I am), I’d expect several of the champions featured in this survey to get in, but not all. Innovate Gaming allegedly filled out a survey in June, just before we heard development on Illaoi began.Combine this with their facts Continuing their hiring spree in July
Do your research to find out what it is, an information gathering business. Maybe I’m wrong, the survey did include Project L’s actual final release list. If so, I’ll take my opinion, but I’m also absolutely amazed that Riot Games let it slide out and hype train from the pre-launch Project L.
But what do you think? Do you view the investigation as corroborating evidence? Let us know below!
For more on Project L, check out our live chat with League of Legends fans at this year’s LEC finals and whether they care about Project L right now.