‘League of Legends’ has announced a new champion to their ranks: Ekko, “The Boy Who Shattered Time”. Fans of the indie platforming game ‘Braid’ will find Ekko’s battle concept familiar: he can rewind time in the middle of combat, taking back mistakes and gaining the edge over his opponents.
You can watch his jaw dropping trailer here – seriously, even if you know nothing about ‘League of Legends’ you should still watch this video, it’s fantastic:
As awesome as the trailer is, you’ll have to go to the ‘League of Legends’ website to find out Ekko’s ability details, including actual gameplay footage of him in action.
You might have inferred it from the trailer, but here’s specifically what Ekko is able to do in combat:
Ekko rewinds time, briefly turning untargetable and invulnerable before reappearing wherever he was a few seconds ago. Once he reappears, Ekko recovers a portion of the health he lost over those few seconds while dealing tons of damage to all nearby enemies.
Besides rewinding time, Ekko’s strengths rely on his mobility and crowd control capabilities, including his ability to slow and stun enemies. He isn’t particularly strong, so he’s built around the idea of whittling down his opponent’s health and maneuvering away from their attacks. And while he is capable of taking down enemies by himself, he is best as a support character.
Lore-wise, Ekko is “a smart guy who uses his wits to survive the streets of Zaun”, a steampunk city-state where a number of ‘League of Legends’ champions are from, including Urgot and Jinx.
Gypsylord, the character’s designer, says that this ‘street-smart-ness’ is essential to Ekko’s concept: “I wanted to reflect that in his gameplay by making him feel wily and clever, so I asked myself how we could make an assassin who doubles down on feeling smart. We already have a bunch of ways for players to feel skilled in League . . . Getting players to feel smart, on the other hand, is a trickier beast.”
‘League of Legends’ has not yet revealed when Ekko will be available.
