why are they called champions?

Back when the institute of war was canon they were representing city states so I guess it comes from championing a cause.

Well one definition of champion is: "a person who vigorously supports or defends a person or cause."

Which I'm pretty sure applies to every single champion we have in some way, be it from supporting their nation , families , the universe or their insatiable gullets .

I'd rather they be called legends, since a lot of the new lore seems to imply that.

Better than to call them as '' characters ''.

It is like hero, it is just there to descript the characters without making it too generic/basic.

Its an outdated term from the old lore of League of Legends, now the term champion has no relevance in the lore and its only used for terms of Gameplay, used to reffer to the characters that are used by the players..

It's just a catch-all terms. You could call them 'legends' or 'paragons' or whatever. Champions is just what we're sticking with. It's just to identify them as above-and-beyond the norm of Runeterra.

After the retconing of the summoners, I feel they are a way to define a person without associating anything to them... is a champion: of noxus is a champion:of the void

Heros of the storm.... Diablo is a hero... wut...

Champions are also people who fight for a cause, something they champion.

how long have you even played the game? this is from the old lore its still used (im not complaining) i actually love calling them champions