New free champion rotation: Blitzcrank, Gnar, Lee Sin and more!

Riot·Jan 2, 2017·4 votes·27,980 views

Greetings Summoners!

Here are this week's free champions:

Blitzcrank - the Great Steam Golem

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Tank

Secondary Role Fighter

Gnar - the Missing Link

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Fighter

Secondary Role Tank

Lee Sin - the Blind Monk

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Fighter

Secondary Role Assassin

Miss Fortune - the Bounty Hunter

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Marksman

Sejuani - the Winter's Wrath

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Tank

Secondary Role Fighter

Sion - The Undead Juggernaut

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Tank

Secondary Role Fighter

Sona - Maven of the Strings

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Support

Secondary Role Mage

Twisted Fate - the Card Master

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Mage

Twitch - the Plague Rat

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Marksman

Secondary Role Assassin

Yasuo - the Unforgiven

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Fighter

Secondary Role Assassin

Wondering how we picked this week's free champions? Read up on it HERE.

See you on the Fields of Justice!

81 Comments

King DellronJan 2, 201731 votes

#A Corporate Matter Episode: I For One, Like The Prequels

A long time ago in a corporation not so far away...

Tryndamere "Well we did it, League of legends is a success. The cash is pouring in as we speak."

Ryze "Yes, but I feel we can make even more. I have an idea. What if we put different champions and skins on sale every week."

Tryndamere "Splendid idea! But, we are both so busy. Who could possibly take the task of assigning the sales every week."

Ryze "We will have to hire our first real employee."

Tryndamere "That should be easy enough."

Many failed interviews and days later:

Tryndamere "I take it back, I take it all back. This is not easy. Why is everyone such idiots."

Ryze "Okay, this guy is literally the last person in Runeterra that applied. Let's hope he actually has some brains."

DrMundo "Hello, me Dr. Mundo. Hoping become Corporate Mundo. Get new job, make many moneys."

Tryndamere "Just kill me now."

Ryze "Wait, maybe we have been going about this all wrong. Instead of seeing if he is at all qualified for the job at hand. How about we send him on some important mission. And if he succeeds, he gets the job."

Tryndamere "Well, my undying rage won't let me kill myself. So sure, that works. And I have the perfect idea. There is a new threat to our great game. It's called Dawngate, we believe it has the power to destroy all we hold dear. We however, know it's creator has installed a fatal flaw. But we don't know where it is. We shall send you to get the Dawngate plans. Return with them and the job is yours."

DrMundo "Mundo do good, Mundo impress CEO and CMO. But Mundo no know where to look."

Ryze "Talk to Princess Ireleia, she will know what to do."

Some time later:

DrMundo "You Princess Ireleia?"

Yorick "What? No."

DrMundo "You Princess Ireleia?"

Katarina "I wish. Wait, you really think I look like her?"

DrMundo "No. You Princess Ireleia?"

Nasus "Really? Do I look like a Princess? I don't think I like your attitude there buddy. You trying to say something?"

Irelia "Woah there, back off Nasus. I got this. I am Princess Ireleia. What do you require of me."

DrMundo "Me sent to get Dawngate plans. Need you. Mundo want new job."

Irelia "Ah yes, I was told you would be coming. But I was losing hope, it's been a week since they said you were on the way."

DrMundo "Mundo stop to torture Badger. Me hates badgers. Then me get tacos."

Irelia "Well, at least you are here now. Come, we are going to need a ship. And I know the perfect guy."

Ezreal "No, don't put that, no over, ugh! I can't deal with this right now. Take five everyone."

Irelia "Ezreal the Fabulous. I need your help."

Ezreal "Ah, Princess Ireleia, it is so good to see you. How may I be of service."

Irelia "We have a very important top secret mission to do. But we need ourselves a Gameship. Would you be any chance have one?"

Ezreal "It just so happens I know where the perfect one is. But I doubt the two of us can do this ourselves. Good thing I have something that maybe resembles a crew. We have the sassy robot.

Blitzcrank "Oh, thats funny coming from you."

Ezreal "So sassy. We got some handicapped hobos I picked up off the street."

LeeSin "We are not hobos."

Graves "Yeah, we did have a home. UNTIL EA STRUCK!"

Ezreal "Add you and me and all we need is a mentally challenged helper."

DrMundo "Yes, Mundo heard someone call him."

Ezreal "Perfect! But, where did he come from?"

DrMundo "Me was given this mission, to save league legends and get new job."

Ezreal "Oh honey, hiring you was an even worse decision than letting Mariah Carey sing right before the ball drops. Well, at least you seem slightly more coherent than she was."

Irelia "Lets just get going."

Ezreal "Right this way then."

A few minutes later:

Vladimir "Hey, I'm detecting an engine starting up. Is someone in that ship?"

Ezreal "Okay, so I forgot to mention something. This ship isn't allowed to leave under any circumstances."

Irelia "Well, we are going to have to lie to him long enough to take off."

DrMundo "This is pilot speaking. We are on mission to save everything."

Vladimir "Mission, what mission? What's your call sign pilot?"

Ezreal "Ooooh, um tell him. It's Vogue, Vogue One Hundred."

Irelia "What, why Vogue One Hundred?"

Ezreal "Because this is the fashion show baby. And theres a hundred and one reasons why we are the best."

DrMundo "We Vogue One Hundred. Mundo taking off now, bye."

Blitzcrank "Oh, I hope this mission doesn't end in all of us dying horribly painful deaths."

To be continued next week, in the season four finale of A Corporate Matter.

Impulse27Jan 2, 20173 votes

Nice, you do a great job at these...

Fondling GemsJan 2, 20175 votes

The fabulous Ezreal made me happy.

Impulse27Jan 2, 20174 votes

LOL on the DrMundo torturing Teemo badgers

EvilUnicornLordJan 3, 20172 votes

Lux would agree.

Fondling GemsJan 4, 20171 votes

Hisssssss get that poacher away from my darling.

EvilUnicornLordJan 4, 20172 votes

You can't deny the lore... It's in your very soul.

Fondling GemsJan 4, 20171 votes

#Denied

Come at me bruh.

EvilUnicornLordJan 4, 2017

Alright, if you say so.

LolWiki is nothing short of impossible to navigate on a phone, so you're gonna have to do it since I can't send a direct link to the specific file.

Go to the search bar and look up "Taric/Quotes".

When you reach that page, scroll down until you see his taunts to Diana.

Shot 1 fired.

Read list thoroughly and find no taunts, jokes, or interactions in general to Ezreal.

Shot 2 fired.

Need I continue?

Fondling GemsJan 4, 20171 votes

Ahem, easily explained.

Diana is quite beautiful, Taric of course approves of beauty. I know plenty of beautiful people that I feel no sexual attraction towards. Also by his other quote to her "Own your destiny or it will own you" one can see that he is giving advice, rather than attempting to woo. Clearly he finds her beautiful, but beauty means a lot of things. I find my mother beautiful, I have 0 interest in incest or anything like that. She is quite beautiful in a number of ways however, and I have no issue saying so, it is even one of my usual compliments towards her since I know she spends a lot of time on her looks.

As you can see calling someone beautiful is no direct indication of their sexual orientation or whether or not they find them sexually appealing. Based on the fact that he also gives her warning and advice in such a way as to be quite far from wooing we can assume there is nothing going on there.

Have you met the LoL community? For the most part we are pretty kind towards homosexuality and all that jazz, but that doesn't mean there is any reason to fan the flames needlessly. I know plenty of people that are afraid to admit their sexuality to the world, and while Taric does not strike me as that type of person, Ezreal might very well be and Taric is nothing if not considerate of others.
On the other hand we can clearly see Ezreal showing up in Taric's 5th age splash, a clear hint as to the fact that they spend time together.

Now the community is clearly on my side with this too. There is a reason why if you search "Ezreal" in google images the first champion listed on the recommendation list is Taric. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ka7n89v_2xR2JyVkh5Qm1ycjA/view?usp=sharing The same is true for Taric with Ezreal being first on the list. (screenshots are hard ok man?)

Now some people might be going around saying that Lux and Ezreal are a couple. This was briefly supported by Riot but they are clearly trying to quietly ret-con it. Notice how in his new lore Taric is from Demacia. In fact he lived there until fairly recently as far as we can tell. Now who else lives in Demacia? Lux. Who is Lux's brother? Garen. Who is Garen's good friend and ally? Taric.

Clearly pretending to have a thing for Lux was just an excuse to get time with Taric. However for all we know Lux might have started to develop a crush on Ezreal, I mean have you seen that face? https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/8c/08/3b/8c083b056e3b6ca143aebb7cebbf58b6.jpg Looks like the face of a Yandere to me.

Anyways Taric is all about duty is he not? He couldn't simply leave Demacia. So instead he begins to uphold his own personal code over Demacia's, eventually causing him to be banished. Still duty bound he feels committed to complete his punishment of climbing Targon, and from there goes on to join the League to spend more time with Ezreal.

Anyways that is the story that runs through my mind. Perhaps it is wrong in areas, but there is no doubt to me that Taric and Ezreal are a perfect match for each other.

EvilUnicornLordJan 4, 2017

Alright, so if Taric and Ezreal are a couple like you constantly say they are, they'd be listed as "friends" on eachother's pages ("friends" does not necessarily mean simple comrades, but rather governs a more broad spectrum including spouses, allied champions, and more, so they would be listed there.)

But, alas, Taric is not there. But... Lux is... I wonder why.

And, while Ezreal does appear in the corner of Armor of the Fifth Age Taric splash, so does Riot Girl Tristana, DJ Sona, and Arcade Miss Fortune. So this is nothing more than a coincidence at a party.

Google Image searches are great at conceiving accurate results, for instance, I type in "Maokai" and I get Kog'Maw in one or two pictures. Or, you can stop trying to use a image search engine that has about nothing to do with League to prove a broken point.

That, all that stuff about Lux being Yandere and Ezreal using her, sounds nothing like lore, just bad fanfiction.

Fondling GemsJan 4, 20171 votes

Hey man, never underestimate the power ~~of the scouts code~~ of bad fanfiction.

Also are we really going with those outdated pages no one updates anymore?

"I defy logic, not because I am illogical, though I can be, but because the world is more fun that way." -Me

See, your mistake is thinking I need evidence to ship, I do not. All I need are personal convictions, of which I have plenty. When you have custom animated computer backgrounds, 5th age background on your phone, changed your online nickname to reflect them, main them, have a custom phone case shipping them and another champion that you used to main a long time ago, and give 0 fucks about the logic against it, you can ship that champion as much as you want.

http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/52cc7f356bb3f7285be6116e-1190-625/9-bizarre-sentences-that-are-perfectly-accurate.jpg

I choose to ship, no one can stop me. ######Disclaimer: There are a number of ways to stop me including death, breaking my mind, brainwashing, and various other methods if it annoys you that much.

TyrekGoldenspearJan 4, 20174 votes

Reads entire comment chain

[slayer-pantheon-popcorn]

All I have to say to you two is

"Shine on, you crazy diamonds." Taric

lnstrumentsJan 4, 20171 votes

Irelia Amazing spelling, you make goldbay99 proud

FlameHalbrdOkidoJan 5, 20171 votes

U creative genius, u must use a mini gun for all the shots fired in this one!!

The Last ZicaJan 2, 201711 votes

[slayer-jinx-unamused] I remain very disappointed we're back to no additional Supports; only 2 just isn't enough for good team compositions with the playerbase League of Legends has, ESPECIALLY WITH AUTOFILL ENABLED. While Brand and Blitzcrank were bad picks for the list, the rest of the list was pretty solid and made for better games IMO, especially Sona Sona and Taric Taric which are relatively new-player-friendly and don't lend themselves to stealing CS. While a full extra 10 isn't necessary, I think at least 2-6 extra slots to provide a better variety of Supports and account for the ever-increasing number of champions is a really good idea that should be implemented permanently.

I think simply fixing the # of champions in the free rotation at 10% rounding up of the number of total champions would strike a good balance going forward. 14 for now with 6 of the slots dedicated to serious Supports, rising to 15 sometime in 2017-2018 when champion 141 comes out. Probably keeping the % of Support slots roughly proportional... around 3/8ths perhaps? Attention should probably be given to ensuring there's always a tank Support, a heal-ally Support, a strong shield-ally Support, and a Crowd Control-heavy Support (it usually won't take 4 champions to fill all these slots since there's a fair bit of overlap, such as with Morgana being strong in both CC and shielding,) and that at least 2 of the 6 Support champions are highly new-player-friendly.

I believe this will strike a fair balance between consistently giving users enough options to play Support when they get Autofilled while still selling Support champions to people who grow attached to them. That's the main reason I'm not suggesting keeping the rotation at 10 Supports long-term (though I'd be OK with that) - there aren't really enough Support champions to fulfill quite so many without severely devaluing buying any of them. That is something however that needs addressing itself - there need to be more good Support champions in the next few new champions released! I do definitely want to see the rotation permanently raised at least a little from the previous 10 total to fit a greater variety of Support champions in and improve the average team comp. Either that or Autofill absolutely needs to be turned off, permanently, because attempting to force people to play Support when they'll just dodge because they have no good options handy and have no desire to spend IP/RP on buying any when they don't want to play Support in the first place is CLEARLY NOT WORKING and only further increases queue times due to dodges. The bottom-line is Riot needs to encourage people to want to play Support, not try to force them to. Autofill does not work, especially not without a lot of free Supports. Either the number of free Supports must be raised again or Autofill has GOT to go. At least some of the Supports should also be made available in Ranked unless Autofill is removed, too. Sooner or later Riot's going to have to address these issues, even though they decided to largely ignore it through the end of 2016.

I will also note there is only a single Support-tagged champ in this rotation! Granted, it's one of the best - Sona, but regardless of which of Blitz, Gnar or Sej they're trying to count as the 2nd, they're not all that great as a Support in the hands of new players. Or are we calling MF an official all-around Support now, even with Zyra not in? Seriously? This is a particularly poorly-composed rotation and I encourage everyone to downvote the rotation thread, visible for voting here and upvote this reply so we can get some improvement in the future.

Immortal BrandJan 2, 20174 votes

Are you just going to post the same thing every week?

Also, if blitz isn't great as a support. I'm not sure what role you think he is.

PureSilvrrJan 2, 20175 votes

Blitz is only a support because of the hook, remove that and he would be played top or jungle

grarrrgJan 3, 20172 votes

Two counter points. You could say that about most of the 'semi-supports' though: "[Champ] is only a support because of [thing], remove that and...".

He also offers some hard CC with the knock up, and some Silence (even if the duration is low, it can still mess up a burst).

PureSilvrrJan 3, 20174 votes

Still, if blitz still qualifies as a support is one cc or status effect(silence) make everybody a support so are XinZhao Nocturne Yasuo RekSai Supports?

grarrrgJan 3, 20174 votes

But Blitz has 3 forms of CC, Hook Grab + Knockup + Silence. That's 2 more than some of those you listed. Xin Zhao does have 3 (but the R would be tricky as a support-move).

The main point is that the "Riot approved" labels are a bit meaningless at times.

The Last ZicaJan 3, 20174 votes

Actually Blitz's qualification as a Support has nothing to do with why I say he was a bad choice.

That was purely based on the fact that people get tired of him real fast because his hook is so binary and play-breaking. That's not really the kind of Support you want on rot for 4 weeks, so he was a poor choice for a 4 week list, and he'd be a poor choice for frequent inclusion in general. I think it would be best if he were included in the Support part of the rotation, but considerably less often than champions like Sona and Taric.

I do consider him a legit Support - just a very special kind shared mostly just with Thresh, and even Thresh is... not so easy to become tired of facing. Blitz has reasons he gets banned so much.

Impulse27Jan 2, 20176 votes

He says it every wk. to make a point and I wholeheartedly agree... [slayer-jinx-wink]

The Last ZicaJan 3, 20174 votes

It's actually not the same thing. I update it as appropriate. And until the issue it's addressing is in turn addressed by Riot... yes, I fully think it NEEDS to be posted in reply to every rotation that continues to fail without Riot so much as acknowledging how they feel the test went.

I want, at a minimum, an "OK, that failed, here's what we're going to try next." I'd be happier with a "OK, that accomplished something good, so here's some more of it modified by what we learned, and we're also going to continue to improve peoples' average desire to play Support in other ways as well."

The silence is not cool.

grarrrgJan 3, 20172 votes

"I will also note there is only a single Support-tagged champ in this rotation!" You do realize that the tags are sometimes haphazardly tossed onto champs right? And that they aren't necessarily the best indicator of what that champ can actually/ideally do? Examples: Wukong is a Tank. Poppy is an Assassin. Fiddlesticks is a Support.

PureSilvrrJan 3, 20174 votes

Poppy is not an assassin primary or secondary, and fiddle isn't support primary

grarrrgJan 3, 20172 votes

Poppy is partially my bad, but not entirely my fault. Load up the game. Go to the Store>Champs. Click the "Assassin" box. See who appears. (this -might- be an inside joke and not just a bug)

As for Fiddlesticks, he's still tagged it, primary or not. Syndra is also tagged Support, while Brand is not, despite the fact that Syndra is not considered a support while Brand routinely is.

The Last ZicaJan 3, 20174 votes

That just suggests another area for improvement for Riot, doesn't it? Getting the tags to make more sense? If they're choosing who is Support in contradiction to their own tags, perhaps it's time to update those tags at the same time they include them in a rot as something they're not tagged as...

grarrrgJan 4, 20173 votes

One other thing to note on this is that "Support"(champ tag) does not -strictly- mean "Support"(goes in bottom lane). To elaborate: There is no "Jungler" champ tag, there is no "Mid" champ tag. The Support champ tag is likely referring to those who have abilities that function/interact well with allies.

A lesser issue is that each champ gets at most 2 tags, when some could very well qualify for 3 (if not more). Blitzcrank is very much playable as a support(bot lane) even if he is not a support(tag).

Calamity135Jan 3, 20172 votes

Have you ever heard of support MF and support Sion? If so that adds more supports.[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

The Last ZicaJan 3, 20173 votes

I brought up MF in the post. She's extremely situational and more often misused, so she doesn't count as a Support, especially since Zyra isn't in this one. And Sion is designed to stack off kills... it's likely easier to make a case for TF Support.

Winged FontJan 6, 20172 votes

Actually, Sion is (statistically speaking) a very strong support champion. According to champion.gg he has had the highest support winrate for several patches now :)

The Last ZicaJan 9, 20173 votes

He's also one of the most unpopular support champions, probably because very few people can actually play him well as Support, and most of those are in Master+ (which in turn leads to the few who do play him Support having much higher winrates doing it than the average player would.) The rotation should be oriented towards the bot and unranked normals games it can be used in, not how a champ plays in Ranked where the rotation cannot be used.

InklingsAreLegalJan 8, 20174 votes

Upvote every chance I get

The Last ZicaJan 9, 20173 votes

Thanks for your support re:Supports!

NorthwakeJan 2, 20177 votes

- 20% more matches made in heaven with Blitzcrank's darting service Gnar - 40% more prehistoric yordle gibberish LeeSin - 30% more Teemo's blinding an already blind man MissFortune - 50% more "WTF Her q did half my health" Sejuani - 40% more people remembering this champion existed Sion - 100% more NOXUSSSSSSS Sona - 10% less talking on the rift TwistedFate - 70% more dates with destiny Twitch - 60% more requests for pest control Yasuo - 200% more Yasuos, make it stop

Good luck on the rift [slayer-jinx-wink]

IHonkForYordlesJan 2, 20176 votes

Gnar Shugi shugi shugi! Haygo vaygo!!!

grarrrgJan 4, 20176 votes

DEMAGLIO!

DentenJan 2, 20176 votes

Blitzcrank YOINK! Gnar Aww so cute! (7 minutes later) WTF I CANT MOVE LeeSin Oh god. MissFortune 1 billion damage on lvl 1 ult. Seems balanced. Sejuani I. Cant. Move. Sion WHY. WONT. YOU. DIE? Sona Where did my health go TwistedFate See you EVERY SINGLE GAME! Twitch And you thought teemo was cancer Yasuo (Refer back to what i wrote for lee)

BubblandstuffJan 2, 20175 votes

Incoming Yasuo hate

Impulse27Jan 2, 20172 votes

Almost no one wants Yasuo free, those that hate him will ban him every game, those that play him will have him banned every game,

And blind pick, LOL

The Last ZicaJan 2, 20176 votes

Actually, I don't mind it at all, and I almost never ban him outside One for All. Why? Because most Yasuos are terrible and thus make for easy wins. There are far more kids who don't know how to play him maining him anyways than the few actually good Yas mains. I'm much more concerned about Teemo and Lux, who can do a lot more damage in the hands of an unskilled player, and were on rot at the same time last week. Generally speaking, Yas and Riven are only much of a problem if they're A. on your team (because bad ones feed hard) or B. you don't mute them when they start flaming.

Now, Teemo? Teemo is Satan. Teemo has well-earned his reputation as Satan. Yasuo is mostly just an ill-mannered punk. You dunk him and move on.

EvilUnicornLordJan 3, 20173 votes

I only don't mind Yasuo because I main Poppy . I'm actually kind of dissapointed that's there's only Darius, Gangplank, and Quinn whenever I pick Poppy top and never Yasuo or Riven.

sznd octopusJan 2, 20174 votes

Since Yasuo is free this week, I'm gonna play Teemo all week and force everyone to feel the pain of a level 6 mastery Teemo.

FrosttzJan 2, 20174 votes

Maybe now Riot will see that Gnar really needs a buff.

plz rito

YaJpTpOg4CJan 3, 20174 votes

I Googled synonyms for 'Autofill' and 'Support' popped up, try it guys wtf

DarthWatermeloneJan 2, 20172 votes

Finally!!!! Sion is free after all these months!!

grarrrgJan 3, 20173 votes

Sion is finally off the list (for now), who's next? Taliyah > ~30 weeks since last free Shen > ~25 weeks Xin Zhao > ~23 weeks And, as usual, honorable mentions to Tristana and Alistar