Here's everything we know about League of Legends fighting game 'Project L' as Evo 2021 approaches
Riot Games officially unveiled their League of Legends fighting game, currently known as Project L, all the way back in October of 2019. Though the presentation sent the fighting game community into a frenzy of hype, it was made expressly clear that development was not very far along and that we shouldn't expect much more for a good while.
Here we are nearly two years later in 2021 with Evo, (the major yearly event co-created by one of Project L's head developers Tom Cannon) less than a month away. The FGC is naturally suspecting some new developments might be revealed at this year's big dance, but it may not be such a great idea to hold our breath for them.
To help set the stage just a bit, Tom Cannon is the Founder and CEO of Radiant Entertainment, which was acquired by Riot (the creators of League of Legends) back in March of 2016 so they could begin developing a then-fully veiled new fighting game.
We can start by setting the stage with Cannon's words following the 2019 Project L reveal: While we're a good ways towards making something that we think is really cool, we still have a long way to go," he said. "We're going to go dark for awhile after this, so please don't expect anything soon, but know that we're here working hard for you.
Pair that sentiment with the fact that the world was hit by COVID-19 in 2020 and it becomes quickly understandable if we're still not too close to a launch date. We did get a Twitter update from Cannon back in early May of this year that let us know things were still moving forward and that a developer update was en route, but not to expect to see a playable beta before 2022.
We're planning a dev update for around the end of this year to share more about the game. Until then, sit tight!
— Tom Cannon (@ProtomCannon) May 3, 2021
Seeing early to mid August (Evo is set to play out Aug 6–8 and 13–16) as the end of the year is a bit of a stretch, but with as many eyes that will be glued to Evo streams, it's hard for any serious fighting game development team to pass up the opportunity to incite a bit of hype via reveals, releases, or major announcements. While it's surely possible, it's relatively hard to imagine Evo 2021 going by without Project L's development team giving us some kind of update.
The initial reveal was fairly bare bones and showed off just four League of Legends combatants: Jinx, Darius, Ahri, and Katarina. Even here, we saw very little action and would be more than joyed to see even just a bit more gameplay from them. A few additional characters, perhaps a few stages, really anything with some new footage, would likely feel satisfying for fans at a juncture like Evo.
Click images for larger versions
It's worth noting that we also saw Ryze, a powerful LoL sorcerer, in concept art via that final image above. Perhaps he's gotten himself a working Project L character model by this point?
From the relatively little we have seen, we do know a decent bit about about Project L. We've seen basic fighting game staples such as health bars and a timer, meter for special versions of attacks, combo counters with an additional "juggles" counter beneath them, and character-specific meters.
We've also noted dashes, back roll recovery, air recovery, and counter hits in the limited amount of footage shown thus far. You can view said footage via the time-stamped embed here:
We'll be keeping a keen eye and ear out for any and all Project L updates and announcements around Evo weekends next month, so be sure to check back here on EventHubs to stay up to date.
While we twiddle our thumbs in anticipation, what do you think, if anything, might be coming down the pike for the League of Legends fighter next month? Chime into the comments to let us know.
