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The first new League of Legends champion of 2022 has been revealed – the ‘hyper’ ADC with electrifying powers known as Zeri, the Spark of Zaun.
Riot had previously spoken about this new 2022 electric marksman champion, but today revealed her splash art and a brief biography.
Zeri appeared in a champion post on the League of Legends website today, which has now been removed.
Riot later released a champion trailer and spotlight for Zeri, with the character dropping in patch 12.2:
The blurb on the League of Legends website read: “A headstrong, spirited young woman from Zaun’s working-class, Zeri channels her electric magic to charge herself and her custom-crafted gun.
“Her volatile power mirrors her emotions, its sparks reflecting her lightning-fast approach to life. Deeply compassionate toward others, Zeri carries the love of her family and her home into every fight.
“Though her eagerness to help can sometimes backfire, Zeri believes one truth to be certain: stand up for your community, and it will stand up with you.”
The ‘lightning-fast’ wording makes it clear – this is the electric-themed ADC Riot previously mentioned would be arriving in early 2022. The page also said that Zeri is from Zaun and Ekko is a champion related to her.
Zeri abilities:
Passive – Living Battery
Zeri gains Move Speed whenever she receives a shield. When she damages an enemy shield she absorbs its energy, shielding herself.
Q – Burst Fire
Passive: Zeri’s basic attack deals magic damage, scales with AP, and is treated as an ability. Moving and casting Burst Fire stores up energy in Zeri’s Sparkpack. When fully charged, her next basic attack will slow and deal bonus damage.
Active: Burst Fire shoots a burst of 7 rounds that deal physical damage to the first enemy hit.
Burst Fire scales with AD and is treated like an attack, with the first round applying on-hit effects. Its cooldown matches Zeri’s basic attack timer.
W – Ultrashock Laser
Zeri fires an electric pulse that slows and damages the first enemy hit. If the pulse hits a wall it fires a long range laser from the point of impact.
E – Spark Surge
Zeri dashes a short distance and energizes her next 3 casts of Burst Fire, causing them to pierce through enemies. She will vault over or grind along any terrain she dashes into, depending on the angle. Hitting a champion with an attack or ability reduces Spark Surge’s cooldown.
R – Lightning Crash
Zeri discharges a nova of electricity, damaging nearby enemies, and overcharges herself for a moderate duration. While overcharged, Zeri gains increased damage, Attack Speed, and Move Speed. Attacking enemy champions refreshes the overcharge duration and adds another stack of Move Speed. While overcharged, Burst Fire’s damage concentrates into a faster triple shot that chains lightning between enemies.
Zeri skin: Withered Rose Zeri
Zeri also joins Elise in receiving a new Withered Rose skin, as part of Riot’s recent reveal of new Porcelain LoL skins and more.
Similarities with Valorant’s new agent
Some people in the League and Valorant communities have drawn comparisons between Zeri and the new agent in Riot’s shooter game Valorant, named Neon.
A separate, new, money-focused support champion is set to arrive in League of Legends a few patches after Zeri’s.
This account reported other info around Zeri and future champion reveals this year:
On the upcoming ADC, Riot’s lead champion producer Ryan ‘Reav3’ Mireles previously said: “We’ll have an electrifying start to 2022 with a brand new bot lane marksman who has been charging up and is rearing to finally get on the Rift.
“We wanted to create a kinetic marksman who’s always on the move, pulsing with sparky determination. A champ who plays the game at a machine gun pace and brings the feeling of a shooter game to the roster. We also really wanted to explore more unique basic attack concepts in League.”
The most recent new champion to hit the rift was Vex.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
