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Writers on the champions

Spideraxe··18 votes·6,716 views

Hi all, some of you may know me as the guy who created the massive post the listed who the designers are on the champions team and what they're currently working. Now this isn't the entire lore team at Riot, these are only the people who work side by side designers and artists on champs, there are plenty more writers on the Worldbuilding team and people can swap teams. Today I'd like to spend some time chatting about the writers on the champions team, they are in charge of the narrative direction of League's new champs and VGUs. But what exactly do they do? For starters they write the champion's biography and color story as well as their VOs, and essentially think of how a champion might behave and act, they can go pretty in depth. To my knowledge there are currently 5 writers on the champions team and some of their works:

John "JohnODyin" O'Bryan. He was the writer Galio, Yorick, Poppy, Evelynn, Ryze and is working on Irelia's lore. He also was a writer on Avatar the Last Airbender, Motorcity and Randy Cunningham 9th grade Ninja

Michael "CoolRadius" McCarthy. He has only written for Kayn and Rhaast so far. But he's had experience as a writer at EA on the Medal of Honor series

Matt "FauxSchizzle" Dunn. He's the writer Xayah, Ornn, Ivern, Kindred, Ekko, and Aurelion Sol.

Ariel "ThermalKittens" Lawrence. She's the writer on Camille, Taliyah, Lee Sin, and the Star Guardians and PROJECT skin stories

Odin "WAAAARGHbobo" Austin Shafer. Writer Illaoi, Tahm Kench, Jhin, Kled, Rakan and Zoe and currently writing some stuff for Aatrox.

And David "Interlocutioner" Slagle. Writer on Warwick, Swain, Urgot, and some scrapped Singed lore.

35 Comments

RiotReav317 votes

FYI - CoolRadius is also the writer on the upcoming Marksmen as well as the Akali VGU

Octavia1 votes

{quoted}

FYI - CoolRadius is also the writer on the upcoming Marksmen as well as the Akali VGU

can you fix the Quinn ult so it actually does dmg 100% of the time instead of 50% of the time for no reason at all so she is actually playable? How can you leave this so broken for 4 months?

Saucy Sells13 votes

You’re being “that guy” right now.

Octavia1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Saucy Sells,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=xN9lzmPg,comment-id=000200000000,timestamp=2018-02-16T08:43:54.305+0000)

You’re being “that guy” right now.

Riot is being "that guy" by ignoring all reports of this game breaking bug which has been in the game for months.

Baron of Bread4 votes

Go to the bug boards section.

Octavia1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Baron of Bread,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=xN9lzmPg,comment-id=000200000001,timestamp=2018-02-16T23:33:09.601+0000)

Go to the bug boards section.

Already did months ago, not fixed.

Chromatic Eagle3 votes

Then why would you think that a narrative person will do anything?

Octavia1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Chromatic Eagle,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=xN9lzmPg,comment-id=00020000000100000000,timestamp=2018-02-18T00:31:50.528+0000)

Then why would you think that a narrative person will do anything?

its not like anyone else does anything, may as well go call macron because there is about as much chance of him fixing it than riot

Lord Phazanor 1 votes

{quoted}

Marksmen

So dual character confirmed (à la Kayn/Rhaast or Kindred)?

Valor Bot1 votes

I think it’s just easy to confuse marksman with marksmen. :) I do it all the time too lol, unless Reav3 is being sneaky here and throwing us hints

Spideraxe1 votes

Oh sweet McCarthy's next project

RiotInterlocutioner9 votes

You're so close to completing this quest line Spideraxe. The good news is there's still XP out there for you to earn.

First, you have to recover Thermal Kitten's Verse... I'd suggest starting the search in Shurima.

Sexy Jack Rabbit1 votes

{quoted}

You're so close to completing this quest line Spideraxe. The good news is there's still XP out there for you to earn.

First, you have to recover Thermal Kitten's Verse... I'd suggest starting the search in Shurima.

Wait so who did Taliyah's lore? They posted on the boards some time back asking a tonne of questions.

RiotRiotJaredan3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sexy Jack Rabbit,realm=OCE,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=xN9lzmPg,comment-id=00030000,timestamp=2018-02-16T08:05:40.581+0000)

Wait so who did Taliyah's lore? They posted on the boards some time back asking a tonne of questions.

Thermal Kitten (Ariel Lawrence).

Electro5221 votes

Jaredan! Welcome back to the boards, it's been awhile! Where've you been?

RiotRiotJaredan3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Paleo Electro,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=xN9lzmPg,comment-id=0003000000000000,timestamp=2018-02-17T20:16:13.793+0000)

Jaredan! Welcome back to the boards, it's been awhile! Where've you been?

Hi, Paleo! I'm off in a new corner of Riot working on... something. I browse the boards here and there, but Scathlocke and Thermal Kitten, along with the rest of the League and Cdev crew, are much better for answering questions here than this old git! It's great to see where things are headed. Lots of exciting stuff coming down the pipe from the teams. And it'll be all the better with Ariel and Laurie's attention!

TerraRising1 votes

{quoted}

Hi, Paleo! I'm off in a new corner of Riot working on... something. I browse the boards here and there, but Scathlocke and Thermal Kitten, along with the rest of the League and Cdev crew, are much better for answering questions here than this old git! It's great to see where things are headed. Lots of exciting stuff coming down the pipe from the teams. And it'll be all the better with Ariel and Laurie's attention!

So, the Reign of Jaradan is over? I guess it's time to figure out what your legacy is, isn't it?

Spideraxe2 votes

Nearly forgot about TK, editing her in now

Spideraxe1 votes

Oh yeah wanted to ask you since I forgot during the AMA is Swain still canonically a fan of Sona's music like old lore

Whyte Lyon6 votes

[World Building Lead] ANT IN OZ- Anthony Reynolds Lenne

[Senior Writers] DINOPAWZ- Grahm McNeill THERMAL KITTEN- Ariel Lawrence REVEREND ANTHONY- Anthony Burch

[Narrative] WAAARGHHBOBO- Odin Austin Shafer JELLBUG- Rayla Heide FAUXSCHIZZLE- Mathew Dunn INTERLOCUTIONER- David Slagle JOHN O'DYIN- John O'Bryan COOL RADIUS- Michael McCarthy

[A mysterious new duo] RED TRINITY- MCHAO-

Warlord Dienekes2 votes

Huh, some of those are surprising.

RiotFauxSchizzle2 votes

I am not the writer on Pantheon, Diana, or Leona.

Also, Odin wrote Rakan! Don't forget that!

Spideraxe1 votes

My b fixing it

NineTailedMystic1 votes

Jellbug did the new stuff for Ahri back in the Vastaya Update.

AmazoX1 votes

They all are pretty impressive writers..

Lord Phazanor 1 votes

Isn't DyQuill a champion writer too?

Spideraxe1 votes

Naw he's on worldbuilding with Dinopawz iirc

Lord Phazanor 1 votes

{quoted}

Naw he's on worldbuilding with Dinopawz iirc

Oh okay. Is there a reason as to why he was on damage control for the Varus lore update or why Dinopawz and him were on its AMA?
Was it considered world building or did they work on it as an exception?

Spideraxe1 votes

The Varus update was a worldbuilding team thing, technically all new champion lore contributes to world building, including the writers on my list, but what separates them from the champions team is that the champions team writers write the entire narrative direction of new and VGUed champs and work with designers and artists on them, worldbuilding mainly just tackles updating lore

Lord Phazanor 1 votes

{quoted}

The Varus update was a worldbuilding team thing, technically all new champion lore contributes to world building, including the writers on my list, but what separates them from the champions team is that the champions team writers write the entire narrative direction of new and VGUed champs and work with designers and artists on them, worldbuilding mainly just tackles updating lore

Okay! Thanks.

Raxistaicho1 votes

John "JohnODyin" O'Bryan. He was the writer Galio, Yorick, Poppy, Evelynn, Ryze and is working on Irelia's lore. He also was a writer on Avatar the Last Airbender, Motorcity and Randy Cunningham 9th grade Ninja

Irelia's in good hands :D

ScaryWaffleMan1 votes

you guys cmon stop saying champs are broken just becuase u got smashed by them once

Kitty Pix1 votes

Faux, Thermal, and Waaaargh I think are my favorite's. They're academic without being too wordy and remaining relateable. The others are good in their own rights, just definitely not styles I find flow as easily in my mind. Super interesting to know who wrote what, thanks for this!

Kitty Pix1 votes

Honestly I could use a post like this relating all of the gameplay designer names to their respective champions lol!

Jackom11 votes

Interlocutioner: writer on warwick, swain, urgot

I don't know about the others, but he's definitely crawling in my skin.

Jokes aside, I love those champs, their VGUs, and love their stories.

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