First i want to clarify that mech skins dont count and also suck... Battlecast Urgot looks good id tap that.
Three.. Unless i overlooked one... And Viktor made himself into a robot, so thats really 1/2 a robot..
Considering that there is a crazy robot cult in the world of Runeterra it's weird that there aren't more robots. Piltover and Zaun can make robots? Terminator 2 is a cool movie.
Riot needs more robots and less anime boys.
Piltover and Zaun have alot of robots.
But you don't see them in the game, because a robot without conciousness doesn't really work for good story telling and their champions are supposed to tell a story. A robot without conciousness is just a tool for the person controlling them.
And as far as the lore goes, Blitzcrank and Orianna are the only robots with conciousness. Blitzcrank gained it when Viktor built hextech into him, while Orianna once has been a girl who replaced her entire body with hextech over time, but there is still some of her old personality left.
Viktor and Camille, while heavily augmented, are more cyborgs than robots. They are still partly human.
With this information, it makes sense that we have no more robot champions. Zaun and Piltover still have tons of other thematical niches to explore, tho.
Once a curious girl of flesh and blood, Orianna is now a technological marvel
Blitzcrank is the only OG i think they need to put them in the universe somehow as robots aren't particularly a thing
there are plenty that are super enhanced like victor and camille tho
I love me some robot characters. Some of my favourite in fiction are (Marvel's) Machine Man and The Fury, the latter especially.
While I agree with what Yamada is saying, I think it's not looking at all possibilities. Robots don't need consciousness, they need intelligence. This can come in many different forms and be limited. Story narrative doesn't also need to come from the champ created but the characters in the story overcoming the issue if the champ is the issue. The reason I love The Fury isn't only because an unstoppable killing machine that can't be reasoned with is far more of a threat than Doom or Magneto will ever be but because of how it highlights what a hero must overcome to defeat it.
Riot have luckily given themselves a get out of jail free card in creation that allows them to create more andriods, robots or whatever in the form of Bracken Crystals. Blitz lore states that he was fitted with a one, and over time, Blitz started to learn and adapt. The Bracken Crystals have intelligence in them as stored memories and energy. This allows Riot to create AI without actually having to create AI.
One of my own champ designs is for a rogue suit of armour with a big Bracken Crystal fitted in it. Originally it was design as a Piltoveran protection armoured suit to be warn by a decorated police officer to fight threats such as Jinx or Urgot but in an early mission he died (while in the suit) and the suit's own intelligence which was Bracken took over. Now it's just walking 'Projection Unit' with a corpse inside, projecting the community from anything and everything while trying to work out it's place in the world and work out why it can hear the 'songs' from other crystals.
Anywho, more AI is needed.
