So what are we thinking on roster? I am thinking close to 30 (probably somewhere like 24-28) especially with it being tag based and them taking their sweet time.
My guess on roster outside of the already confirmed:
Ezrael
Ashe
Fiora
Lee Sin
Yasuo
Akali
Riven
Draven
Miss Fortune
Sion
Twisted Fate
Pyke
Kai'Sa
Irelia
Zed
Sivir
Lux
Lucian
Teemo
Tryndamere
Thresh
Blitzcrank
Garen
Pantheon
24 champs is really the absolute upper limit for the initial roster for me. That's how many Legends of Runterra was shown off with, and I'm willing to bet it's a lot easier to design the champions and followers for that game than it is to design, model, and animate a fighting game character. I'm expecting honestly like 12-20 fully functional fighters but 24 might be possible. The game is F2P and they'll be releasing more champs later, the initial roster doesn't need to be sky-high and there's been plenty of recent tag fighters that have released with less. DBFZ had 24 and that was a 3v3 game with seemingly much more homogenized designs than Project L will end up with. (At least as far as the initial roster goes)
For the champs, it's mostly a ton of really obvious safe picks which is to say it's close to what I would come up with. I'm going to assume Vi is left off because you assume she's practically confirmed, cuz if not then yeah she really needs to be on there. For picks that seem a bit less likely Sivir and Sion are probably the ones that stick out the most. Sivir isn't that popular and I think there's much more obvious picks to represent Shurima, and for Sion I'm wondering how they would implement his passive in a genre where there has to be one clear winner and loser because he still dies after triggering it. I also don't know if they'll have MF and Lucian in the initial roster cuz they both fight by dual wielding pistols, one's almost guaranteed but maybe not both. Kai'Sa and Pyke are both very recent additions to the League universe and while they are both pretty popular (Pyke being the standout of the two IMO) I don't know how willing Riot'll be to have champs that are that new in the game because I imagine a lot of the target demo for this game will be people who played half a decade ago and they won't want many new champs on their roster. That being said, this game is coming out in 2023 at the earliest so by then Kai'Sa and Pyke are going to be around 5 years old by then so maybe they might be fine.
Ones I think are also likely:
> Azir is the face of Shurima, his design is awesome, and sand soldiers is an incredible gimmick to build a fighting game kit around. Seems like a slam dunk
> While I do think that people go overboard on suggesting extremely unlikely monster champs, I think that there is going to be some in the roster. More specifically, I think that there is very likely going to be a Void champ on the initial roster. (and by Void I don't mean supermodel in a purple outfit) The two most obvious picks are Cho'Gath and Kha'Zix, Kha in particular it could be cool to see how they integrate his evolving stuff and his design is better anyway so I'd say him.
> Braum is Braum. He's so great they had to find a way to crowbar him into the Ruined King RPG, he's super likely here.
> I think that if they don't go for my theory of having support characters that don't fight as your second character, they're still going to have some that work as fighters. Of those I think Lulu is the most obvious pick, controlling Pix could be a cool gimmick and she's just a fun character with a unique personality.
> He's boring as hell but Riot uses him a lot for crap so I think Malphite is also very likely.
More ambitious picks that I want to say now that they're likely so I can say later I called it:
> Shyvana is an awesome as hell character conceptually, she's playable in Wild Rift and LoR, she was featured heavily in the Ruination marketing. I think that the idea is solid it's just her execution in League is subpar which is why she's not more popular.
> Karma is another pick that I think is solid, again used a lot in the Ruination and she's got a cool design and it would be cool if she had EX special moves like her League ult.
> Zoe would definitely get people's attention, (for better or worse) also her portals could make for a cool as hell fighter.
> Other potential yordles for me are Poppy and Ziggs. Poppy I want to say is the 3rd most popular yordle now behind Teemo and Lulu, and Ziggs is just an obviously good concept.
> Viktor's design is great, he's getting a massive boost due to Arcane, and his cyborg design is fairly unique among League champs.
> Lastly, my spiciest take is Yuumi. She has the issue of being too new, but I think her odds are good eventually. Firstly, she's one of the most popular characters in the game in terms of play rate and IMO her appeal is obvious. Secondly, as I mentioned in previous posts I think it's likely that they might have the option to choose secondary characters that don't directly fight, and the first champ that jumps to everyone's mind with that is Yuumi. Third, it would make League players hella fucking salty and I want to see that shit.
