Photo edit credit: Sean ‘L and D’ George
It’s been a challenging year in esports, but sometimes you just have to trade the testing times for the trivial. We’ve been planning a separate article looking back on 2023 and ahead to what’s next, but in the meantime…
Why write another negative piece about the state of esports, when we could explore how it’s humanly possible for one UK caster – Alex ‘Nymaera’ Hapgood – to look like so many different League of Legends (LoL) champions at the same time? We’ve had our New Year listicles like the top ten UK esports events in 2024, and here’s one more, that you might not have expected.
1. Viego
It was a year and a half ago when the Nymaera League lookalikes began. Viego, The Ruined King, had a new skin drop based on how he looked before the Ruination: ‘King Viego’.
It didn’t take long for some in the community to Photoshop Nymaera onto the splash art (pictured, top), and the effect was uncanny.
Also, just to prove it’s not only King Viego Nymaera looks like, one of his mods, Amber (aka It’s Totally Amber) also Photoshopped him onto various Viego skins.
“There is no salvation from the dark, for the dark is me.”
2. Hwei
Even League’s newer champions aren’t safe from Nymaera’s likeness.
Hwei, The Visionary, who launched just last month, is ‘a brooding painter who creates brilliant art in order to confront Ionia’s criminals and comfort their victims’.
“Beneath his melancholy roils a torn, emotional mind – haunted by the vibrant visions of his imagination.
“With paintbrush and palette, Hwei shapes endless possibilities as he draws ever closer to earning closure or embracing despair.”
A quote from Hwei’s champion blurb or Nymaera’s old MySpace profile? We’ll let you decide.
3. Viktor (from Arcane)
When we saw the Viego and Hwei similarities and first got the idea for this article, we reached out to Nymaera to ask if there were other champions to include.
“Arcane Viktor’s on the list, if I forget to eat for a few days I’m sure I can match the emaciated look,” he said.
Consider pre-robotic Viktor added to the list then.
We’ve poorly Photoshopped Arcane Viktor above, over Nymaera’s brother Initialise (see more about the pair in our interview from late 2022 here).
4. Varus
Shoutout to It’s Totally Amber again, for suggesting one more champion for this list: Arclight Varus.
We’ve done a DIY job of pasting Nymaera’s face onto the Arclight splash art.
“One of the ancient darkin, Varus was a deadly killer who loved to torment his foes, driving them almost to insanity before delivering the killing arrow,” reads the champion’s blurb.
It all sounds strangely similar to how Nymaera torments the League community to insanity over his obsession with a certain other champion…
5. Ahri?
Ah, Ahri. Of course, it had to be Ahri.
The nine-tailed fox, the charming magic orb conjuror, and Nymaera’s favourite champion in the game.
If he’s not telling you to buy the book™ (that’s the in-game Mejai’s Soulstealer item, for any non-League players reading this), or complaining about Faker changing his upcoming Worlds 2023 winner skin from Ahri to Orianna, he’s probably commenting about how amazing this champion is.
You can also find Nymaera on Twitter demanding people wish Ahri a happy birthday, posting pictures of his Ahri merch statue, or even sipping from his Ahri mug – while dressed in his Ahri hoodie of course.
So, while he might not naturally look like Ahri, we’re putting this in the article to round it up to five champions. And we couldn’t not mention Ahri in an article about Nymaera.
So there you have it. The top five League of Legends champions Nymaera looks like.
A bit of New Year content that hopefully brought a smile to some of you, while acting as a reminder that articles on news websites don’t always have to be serious.
Happy Ahri New Year.
Honourable mention: Taric/Munchables
Other casters aren’t safe from being featured.
We knew putting together our old Memes of the Month articles would be worth it in the end. Hi Munchables.
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.
