Every year, to reinforce hype in its player base, Riot Games creates a movie-style cinematic video forLeague of Legendsshowcasing anew theme for the seasonrollover alongside cool fight scenes with some of League’s most iconic champions. This year’s cinematic is extra special, considering it was created by Fortiche, the animators behind the hit LoL show Arcane.
Welcome to the New Noxus, League Fans
Once Arcane officially concluded back in November, many League and Arcane fans alike were curious what region of Runeterra, the giant continent all League of Legends lore is from, Riot Games and Fortichewould travel to next. After the success of Arcane as a show, Riot Games made it a point to tie the game and show together permanently, even teasing the idea ofmultiple spinoff showsin the works at Fortiche to new lands like Demacia and Noxus.
Now, with this cinematic aptly titled “Welcome to Noxus,” LoL fans know that the focus of season one of 2025 will be on the famous militaristic, blood-thirsty region of Runeterra. The cinematic shows three distinct short stories across its five-minute run time; one of Mel from Arcane washing up on a Noxian beach alone, another showing a gritty one-on-one brawl between Darius and Trundle just outside a glacier, and finally Katarina and Elise dueling in a Noxian fighting pit.
Fortiche’s Fight Scenes Do Not Disappoint League Fans
Battles between hallmark champions are a staple of League cinematics, so it’s cool to see Fortiche continuing that responsibility while injecting their own style into the fights. Many fans have praised the battle between Darius and Trundle, two champions who are primarily top laners in LoL. The battle devolves into the pair dropping their weapons and going straight into hand-to-hand combat while a crowd watches on, an homage to what playing top lane feels like in League.
In contrast, the fight between the two agile fighters in assassin Katarina and the shape-shifting spiderlady Elise brings a certain floating, ballerina-like feel to aptly showcase how different these two champions feel in the actual game of League. Fans have spotted multiple moments in the fight where abilities from the game are utilized, like Katarina’s blink dash and Elise’s web stun.
What really puts the cherry on top of this skirmish is the end, where Katarina kills the rich Noxian tycoon, watching them battle to the death instead of Elise, who promptly exits herself once the blow has been dealt. This is once again so accurate to the two champions, who are both known in lore as queens of deception and pure assassins.
Mel’s Important Role in the Cinematic
The odd one out in terms of League cinematic’s is Mel’s small journey, which serves a much bigger purpose to the future of League of Legends as a universe. Mel can be seen battling the same Black Rose tethers that plagued her towards the end of Arcane, trying to hold her and her powers down for good.Just like in Arcane, Mel uses her unique powers to turn the red evil tethers gold and free herself, hell-bent on returning to Noxus to right her mother’s wrongs. This signifies the growing tie between LoL the game and LoL the TV shows as we head into 2025.
But Wait… There’s More
In true Marvel-esqe fashion, Riot Games and Fortiche have left a post-credits scene that introduces the big bad of not only Noxus, but Runeterra as a whole, the Black Rose. The Black Rose is a secret organization that controls Noxus and many other aspects of life on Runeterra, all from the shadows.
After the title card, the video cuts to a large, empty ballroom where two more league champions, LeBlanc and Vladimir, are discussing future plans finally concluding they’ll have to do something big and loud. This is the first time Fortiche have shown leaders of the Black Rose, and further influences the idea that the next LoL show will focus on the Black Rose and Noxus.
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