Yuumi - New League of Legends Champion Teaser and Leaks

A few days ago, some information appeared online regarding a potential leak of the soon-to-be-revealed League of Legends champion. 

Riot themselves have mentioned in a few of their developer updates, including the most recent Dev Diary video, that their next released champion will be a support mage (something that hasn’t been added to the game for a hot minute). 

The Cat's Out of the Bag

Yesterday, support main and once-challenger player Nasteey leaked an image for an upcoming video he’s been apparently working on. The image (below), shows the new support enchanter champion Yuumi -- who appears to be an actual cat) and the four icons for the character’s abilities. 

From speculative guessing based on this single image, Yuumi will most-likely be a Yordle-sized champion. Her ‘Q’ icon looks like some sort of spell, possibly a bind. The ‘W’ icon seems to be a leap of some kind. Yuumi’s ‘E’ ability is probably a heal (with the green glow), and her Ultimate ‘R’ very well could be a larger crowd-control ability. 

However, despite our guesses, another leaked image shows a screengrab of what is supposedly Yuumi’s abilities. 

During that previously mentioned Dev Diary video, Riot did hint that new mechanics could be introduced with the new champion and looking at the leaked abilities, Yuumi’s ‘W’ fits into that picture perfectly. 

This ability seems to run along the same lines as the common enchanter League of Legends Rune called Summon Aery, that gives the champion a companion summon that deals extra magic damage. The icon and form for the Summon Aery Rune is also that of a spectral feline-looking creature. Many have noted that Yuumi may be the “leader of the Aery creatures” or just the full physical manifestation of an Aery. 

These Aery creatures have also been a big part of the game lore, and are a crucial part of the Star Guardian expansion of lore and skins. 

Riot Teases

It turns out that Yuumi is coming sooner than we'd thought, or perhaps Riot is trying to get out in front of all the leak hype. Today, they released a teaser video that shows a magical book (which is apparently attached to, or part of Yuumi’s model) beings flipped through with adorably cute voice-over talking about the pages.

It’s called the Book of Thresholds, and the teaser begins with what looks like a Bard-inspired portal through terrain. Then the book flips to a page that looks to be displaying a mention of RuneTerra -- the latest land from Riot Games’ lore department -- before jumping to a Bilgewater page. Yuumi makes mention that she is looking for her “master” which definitely goes to further confirm the cat champion. 

The teaser ends with Yuumi looking at a void portal, saying “that looks powerful, we should check it out” in an excited voice, and then the camera (which we assume is POV) leaps into the page. 

When is Yuumi Coming? 

With the recently ended Cats vs Dogs event, the best window has already passed to release a cat champion, but there is a lot of hype surrounding a new support enchanter. 

That and every League fan the world over will be watching hours of gameplay during the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational that starts in a week.

It could be that Riot will officially announce the champion during MSI, and then release it close to or after the tournament concludes. 

Every leak and rumor that swirls online, especially within the League of Legends subreddit, puts more pressure on Riot Games to get ahead of it all. If things go the way they are now, their hand may be forced far sooner than they ever would have wanted. 

The teaser released today says that Yuumi will be coming to the PBE (test servers) soon. 

What do you think of the latest League of Legends champion?