Q&A

This is a collection of 96 “redposts”, or posts from Rioters, from a Q&A about Ekko on the League of Legends forums.

If this is your first time hearing of those forums, that’s because Riot couldn’t manage to keep a forum up, either.

They, of course, didn’t manage to archive any of the important information about their champions from those forums.

These posts give a unique glimpse into Ekko’s gameplay design and story. His writers and designers explain the deliberate decisions they made, and why they were important. These crucial details are what make Ekko unique.

Individual posts can be cited by their permalink.

Riot Velocity (2015-05-21 21:01:18)

is this started yet?

As of right now, yes.

Iniquitee (2015-05-21 21:02:46)

Ekko is totally single. Which is odd, given he can use his time powers to hit on someone multiple times.

His face paint is an expression of his personality - it’s his personal symbol.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:08:28)

Approximately how old is Ekko?

Definitely a teenager… probably 16- to 17.

Riot Velocity (2015-05-21 21:10:31)

Hey there Virotoxic, great question!

We currently have a pretty good idea of what we’ll do if Ekko is either too weak/strong on release. Some potential tuning levers might be:

• Looking at the AP ratio on his ult.

Our thoughts on this change is that Ekko has some fantastic burst tied into his ultimate, but while it is high it’s also unreliable in a lot of scenarios. If his burst in all situations proves to be too much be on the lookout for a hit there.

• Reducing his base movement speed.

He’s currently sitting at a 345 base MS which is definitely on the higher end of starting movement speeds. If it turns out that he’s zipping around between lanes a little too quickly we’ll look at hitting his base MS.

• Buffing his Q1 AP ratio.

Ekko is a character that scales incredibly well with item purchases, really coming online with his first two items. Giving him a bit more AP ratio on the first portion of his Q will help him survive in those difficult mid lanes.

I’m sure there are a few I’m missing, but those are the big 3!

Thanks for the question. :)

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 21:10:57)

1) What made you decided to make him AP over AD? 5) What do you think about the players reactions to him so far?

1) Two reasons: Thematically Ekko is a pretty skinny kid who uses wits and time magic to win fights over raw physical prowess. Mechanically, making an assassin AP locks him out from certain benefits AD grants (such as powerful basic attacks, lifesteal, and crazy tower taking). This allowed us to make his spells and utility stronger.

2) VK prolly just wants to disintegrate him to “get dat knowledge”

3) Ekko is pretty reckless in the use of his Z-Drive, I’m guessing Zilean (or Bard) might be somewhat concerned over the rippling affects of twiddling with the time stream.

4) So he had this hextech time device so it was Zaun or Piltover for sure. We liked Zaun because we’ve got a lot of villians from there but not many very appealing heroes (Vi moved to Piltover), felt we could strengthen the faction as well as tell better stories with Ekko being from Zaun. There was also a degree of Ezreal overlap with a Piltovian Ekko. Put “time kid” in a city of privledge and you get a very different type of person.

5)I’m happy with them :) People seem really excited and they’re picking up on a lot of major notes we wanted to hit on his character and gameplay. He’s gonna be fun.

Riot ShadowStorm (2015-05-21 21:11:00)

How fun was it to develop Ekko ?

That depends… do you think puns are fun? Because there were a LOT of time puns. Roughly a Zilean of them, if you will

*runs away*

Iniquitee (2015-05-21 21:13:39)

The talented Edmundo Sanchez (aka Dr. Mundo!) was the concept artist for Ekko, but as with all our champions, many artists contribute to the final result, and a whole ‘nother team of artists contribute to his skin concept and execution. It’s a serious team effort!

Iniquitee (2015-05-21 21:18:57)

When choosing a voice actor, their history is less important than their performance in the audition. Since the character isn’t in the game yet, actors have to use a picture and description of their personality to nail the tone we’re looking for. In Ekko’s case, actors had a hard time navigating the “angsty teenager” line without coming off as arrogant, petulant, or other undesirable qualities. We wanted someone who could nail the youthful confidence and determination that defines Ekko, and I think he did a pretty great job.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:19:01)

1) What sparked Ekko's hate for piltover? Was Ajuna's killer the final straw? 2) Is it right to assume Ekko is the one who paints the mural? 3) Is the hourglass on his face a tattoo, a birthmark, or painted? 4) Is the gang Vi was in Ekko's group? 5) How does Ekko feel about Yordles? 6) What champions can be Ekko's friends? And enemies? 7) Is Twitch really Mr. Tails?

Ekko’s always had a distaste for Piltover. Seeing friends and other people leave Zaun for the City of Progress gave him a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

Ajuna’s killer being from Piltover certainly didn’t help.

Parts of it, definitely. Like in other urban cities where violence/accidents claim lives, these street memorials are very communal, often with many contributors. Lots of people lose those they love.

Painted!

I doubt it, personally, because of their age difference, but they are aware of each other.

I don’t think he’s formulated an opinion, having only heard stories about them and never meeting one.

Good question. I’m sure that Ekko would eventually put aside his disappointment with Vi, and maybe one day he’d befriend Caitlyn. But both of those are big IFs.

Enemies? Viktor, Mundo, Singed.

He doesn’t think too fondly of Jayce or Ezreal most likely.

Many rats escape into sewers, some things we can never know for sure.

Riot Velocity (2015-05-21 21:20:06)

Hey Magee101, thanks for the question!

1) We currently don’t have any plans to increase the window for his rewind time. We think that it’s very important players get a feel for playing around Ekko’s ultimate, and increasing the window in that can make it confusing for both the Ekko player and his enemies. :)

2) As for his W cast animation, we wanted to capture the idea that Ekko is splitting off into an alternate timeline and using Bizarro-Ekko to help him in his current timeline. We could have accomplished the same effect by having Bizarro-Ekko walk over and place something on the ground, but playing off of the idea that his weapon (which by the way is an Hour hand that he stole from a clock tower in Piltover) looks and behaves like a bat sounded like a lot of fun and we decided to go in that direction.

Thanks for the question!

Riot Velocity (2015-05-21 21:22:07)

Yeah!

If Ekko’s ultimate is available all players on the map (including enemies) should be able to see the trail that it leaves. It isn’t visible through Fog of War, however.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:22:55)

So many lore questions :c

AWESOME QUESTIONS!

Piltover and Zaun are not too far apart. Some people are not very nice and live in nice places. They know better than to make a mess on their own doorstep. Even places where peace and progress reign have a few rotten apples. Unfortunately for Ajuna, he met one.

Ekko is not fighting Singed or Vicktor or Urgot. That character – a Vigilnaut, is a hexmaturgically enhanced goon, most likely in the employ of someone elsee.

Iniquitee (2015-05-21 21:26:09)

Ekko would respect Rumble for his ingenuity in building something awesome out of many parts.

Riot Velocity (2015-05-21 21:26:51)

Hey Jeddy!

I can’t speak much on the Lore portions of your questions but I can get the gameplay side.

1) Ekko primarily is played mid, however we’ve had a fair amount of Rioters playing him top and even jungle. We highly recommend you give him a try in a few different lanes and find what feels best for you!

2) Way back when we were flushing out Ekko’s early gameplay patterns we were tending to build him as more of a bruiser like you suggested, however as time went on and his kit evolved more and more we started to itemize him with these bursty assassin items. We think we’ve found a happy medium where a bruiser build would work, as well as a glass cannon build.

Hope you enjoy him!

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:27:01)

I'm curious to know what Ekko thinks of Janna. He's got a lot of pride for Zaun and a very strong dislike for Piltover. She had similar roots growing up in the slums but not only has defected from Zaun, she also flew for Piltover in the annual zeppelin race dethroning Zaun as the champions (Assuming that's still canon). I'd imagine he must have _something_ more to say than just, "How about that weather?".

He’s probably disappointed in her, but since he most likely has never had a personal connection with her (like he did with Vi), doesn’t take it too personally. She’s one of the defectors. He thinks she gave up on Zaun, which is something Ekko will never do.

Let me also state that Ekko does not think Zaun is perfect. He knows very well how is city is perceived and why it has the reputation. But he hopes that things will get better one day.

Iniquitee (2015-05-21 21:28:08)

Yes they are - it’s an important part of his counter-play, similar to being aware of where Orianna’s ball is at any moment (since it can be potentially dangerous!).

Riot Velocity (2015-05-21 21:30:38)

Hey there!

His “sword” is actually an Hour hand that he stole from a clock tower in Piltover!

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 21:31:01)

12) I wonder: Why does Ekko has this symbol over his head while he ults? I didn't quite get the use of that...

1) We felt the Time magic space wasn’t fully taken up with Zilean and were like, “What if we made a Time Assassin with Rewind?!?!?!?” Edmundo and Chris, came up with some great concept art of this punk Zaunite kid with a knowing smirk on his face and an hourglass on his back and it all clicked together from there

3) Ajuna, Ekko’s friend.

4) MYSSTEREYREYERYEREY

5) Ekko knew Vi when they were both younger before she left for Piltover. He’s got mixed feelings about her now. On one hand he knows who she was and what she could be and that she’s a good person, but on the other hand she sold out and is working for the Pilties now.

6) Ekko stays in Zaun because he knows that it’s not all bad. People like Ajuna (the friend he lost in the comic) live there. He believes in Zaun, and in it’s future (although currently in a somewhat childlike and less forward thinking way, he’s still a kid, still learning). Also the only other option is what? going to Piltover? He sees how they treat Zaun. In Ekko’s mind many corrupt Piltovian nobles are just as twisted as any Zaunite bad guy.

8) Ekko has parents who are gasp! not dead. They both work very hard and very long hours giving him a lot of time to do things on his own.

9)Ekko, like Vi and Jinx, does not go by his given name. Ekko was given to him by his friends.

10) He does not keep himself young, his time powers are not able to reach across years like Zilean. Ekko is straight up younger than Vi and Jinx

12) the symbol over his ult’s image is a UI element there for gameplay clarity (like the ones over Azir soldiers). It’s not something he’d have “IRL”

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:31:10)

1) Did you figure people would be comparing him to Diana a lot, did you realize the similarity's? 2) When first hearing about the idea from ekkos ult some people thought it might do something such as set the whole game back 5 secs or something of that manner, which would effect everyone in the game every time in a big way, are there reason's you are avoiding ults 'this big' or is it possible we will see some in the future if the balancing is there?

Actually, no! hahaha :)

WE TOTALLY TRIED THIS!

Riot ShadowStorm (2015-05-21 21:33:32)

Do you ever think about changing Ekko's passive slightly more toward Ekko's video "Ekko: Seconds" where he disassembled the enemy Zaunite Thug. Basically, I'm saying was it an option to lower the enemies magic resist by a flat amount on the third hit of his passive? Such as an alternative as Vi's Denting Blows but in magic resist.

The disassembling of the Zaunite thug was actually based on his passive - that’s why he ultimately takes 3 passes to defeat the thug! I think at the time, the exact effect of Ekko’s passive wasn’t locked down, but we knew it was a 3-hit effect, so that was intentionally worked into the video.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:33:41)

What's Ekko's ideal Zaun look like? He dislikes Viktor and Mundo enough to clearly show he knows what he doesn't like.

Ekko isn’t quite sure at the moment. He’s very much building his vision of the future on the fly. It’s hard to look forward when you’re so busy trying to perfect now.

Riot ShadowStorm (2015-05-21 21:36:00)

oh come on will ANNIEone make up any other unBEARable puns you guys are DRAVEN me crazy i GARENtee that i will die with all these puns i cant LEESIN to these puns anymore SEE THAT HOW YOU MAKE THE LEAGUE PUNS

Oh no, what have I started?! REWIND! REWIND!

Riot Velocity (2015-05-21 21:37:29)

Patent pending. ;)

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 21:37:52)

Yeahhhhhhhhhh, we did try that. Ekko’s ult went through numerous iterations. Here’s two notable ones that didn’t work out:

A) Ekko globally saves everyone’s state (Mana, Health, cooldown’s, position, etc). After 8 seconds ANYONE WHO IS NOT DEAD is returned to the saved state. Can’t rewind death

–This was really cool but REALLY PROBLEMATIC. When Ekko hit R everyone would just UNLOAD EVERYTHING. Because all that mattered for the next 8 seconds was that you didn’t die. Made it really hard to tell after a fight if your ult had had a positive or negative affect on the outcome and was super disorienting.

B) Ekko returns himself AND A TARGETED enemy chanmpion, to wherever they were 4 seconds ago. -This is a lot closer to the ult you see in his promo video, it was very fun but also ENORMOUSLY POWERFUL. Basically guaranteed kill on anyone trying to run away form your team. Would have had to completely cut out the rest of his mobility (and a good deal of utility) to allow for that kind of power

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:38:36)

1. What is his weapon exactly? Does it have any special function? (referring to the sword-y thing) 2. Where did he derive that much of his magic, tech, and joint (hextech) knowledge from? 3. How did he develop the Z-Drive and what exactly is it? 4. Does he have any friends now? Or is he a lone wolf?

Great Q’s, but I can only answer a few at the moment. My fingers can’t type fast enough!

Fun fact: it’s the SECONDS hand from a Piltovian clock tower.

Ekko’s an unrefined genius. Never formally trained, but highly gifted. Prodigious, even. He’s been building things for years.

Lots and lots of experimentation. I don’t want to spoil this as we are working on this story.

He’s got friends! Most likely few fellow champs, but his pals are still racing across the streets of Zaun, looking out for each other.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:40:14)

Can't wait to play ekko

We can’t wait for you to play Ekko!

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:40:16)

Ok that's interesting. Not gonna ask for many details but would you say his relationship with them is positive in some form?

He loves them for sure, but they are a bit distant and removed from his life. Ekko (like a lot of teens) considers his friends his true family.

Riot Velocity (2015-05-21 21:41:58)

Hey there Beeswax,

Alongside most characters, Ekko can’t use his ultimate while under hard CC. His ultimate will also not cleanse any buffs or debuffs from him after using it.

Thanks for the question! :)

Riot Szymba (2015-05-21 21:44:15)

We went through a massive amount of changes on how we wanted to represent his ultimate in game and specifically how to best represent the endpoint for both Ekko and his enemies. The W spell was also really problematic in trying to achieve the balance between the predictive gameplay for Ekko and the clarity/readability for enemies.

At one point before we started on his vfx, we made his ultimate so that instead of the trail he had a line of minions following him around the map to show where he had been xD

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 21:44:40)

Is this new comic that you recently released in any way connected to the reveal trailer? It looks like it happened before the events in the trailer, because at the end of the comic the scenes are the same as they are at the start of the trailer.

Comic is directly related to the trailer. Ajuna (googles kid) died in the comic and he appears on the mural in trailer. Ekko is defending the mural (and the memory of his friends).

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:45:02)

1) Why was that whistling guy going around killing people? 2) How far back in time can Ekko go? 3) How did he find the Z-drive? 4) Is he related to Ezreal in any way? 5) Does he have a rival? If so who? Yes I'm very interested in his lore.

The Piltie? He’s not a very nice person, despite his heritage and dress. He holds human life in low regard, especially those poorer than he is. We will never know if he was telling the truth about Ajuna trying to rob him.

I would also note that he’s not expecting to be caught. We used the German film “M” as a source of inspiration.

Short periods of time.

He didn’t find it, Ekko BUILT it.

Nope!

Plenty: Vicktor, Singed, Mundo, Jayce…

You have no idea how happy I am to hear that :)

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:46:45)

Hey guys, here’s an awesome piece of concept art that really inspired the team! We hope you love this piece as much as we do:

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:48:25)

So are we going to see a zillean and ekko pair of skins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eL5kj5FE4E

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:49:06)

**runs away*\*

SO. MANY. TIME. PUNS.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:49:39)

I don’t think it’s started yet.

wait…

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:50:05)

Ajuna is the boy that dies in Ekko's comic.

Ajuna’s about 12. Sad. :(

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:50:32)

Comic is directly related to the trailer. Ajuna (googles kid) died in the comic and he appears on the mural in trailer. Ekko is defending the mural (and the memory of his friends).

One could say they are the same story.

Riot Velocity (2015-05-21 21:51:51)

12,904.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:52:59)

So Ekko views those three as being harmful to his goal of reforming Zaun? Or is there a more specific reason behind this?

These are people that Ekko views as taking advantage of Zaun. It’s important to remember that Ekko is a teenager and while he’s very smart, he’s also highly emotional and sometimes his view of the world is skewed.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 21:55:46)

Wasn't Ajuna the original Ekko?

You just blew my mind.

Riot Szymba (2015-05-21 21:56:57)

So, actually tracking where he was 4 seconds earlier was fairly simple. Actually creating a representation that moves smoothly from point to point with that data proved to be very difficult.

Riot ShadowStorm (2015-05-21 22:00:39)

Was there an issue about having another time-based champion when Ekko was being created? We felt the Time magic space wasn't fully taken up with Zilean and were like, "What if we made a Time Assassin with Rewind?!?!?!?"

There wasn’t too much of an issue there. As gypsylord mentioned in another reply:

We were definitely conscious not to step on Zilean’s toes though. I think Ekko does some cool, different things with time (both in gameplay, and as a character overall), so there isn’t much of an issue there.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:03:35)

can we have ''90s Kid Ekko' where he skateboards, wears sunglasses, drinks caprisun, has an attitude and in general acts XXXTREME!!!!1!!1!1! because i would resonate with thaty

HA! I love it. (that is no way a guarantee that it will get made, but I love the way your mind works :) )

Family Jules (2015-05-21 22:04:00)

That would be awesome! Ezreal as Zack Morris???? Haha :)

Great, now I want a Capri Sun…

Riot Velocity (2015-05-21 22:05:27)

Hey there Guiotine!

When Ekko activates his ult he is both untargetable and invulnerable during the cast, which means that passing through any terrain (even Azir ult) won’t stop him!

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:05:27)

Sad face time. Yes, that is a memorial to the lost, whether it’s dead, missing, or wounded. It’s cherished and hallowed to Ekko and those in his community.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:06:07)

How are Ekko and Ajuna related ?

They are kindred souls, both street kids who ran with the same pack.

Riot Szymba (2015-05-21 22:06:10)

And thus, Riot ShadowStorm’s internet personality was cemented for the rest of eternity.

Really though, you’ve never truly lived until you hear a bunch of adults making time puns for months on end.

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 22:07:35)

13. Gypsylord, do you have something with the number 3? all your champions seem the revolve around that number, but I guess a lot of them do when you look at the whole.

1) Ekko’s natural passive is very important to his kit because of the utility it brings, both in allowing him to move through a fight and lockdown enemies for himself and allies to cleanup. Important to have that utility if he’s going to be worse at one-shotting people as per his design goals.

2) Level 1 W may indeed be too strong, we’ll track that as he goes live. It’s intended to be pretty powerful though, as it’s quite hard to land on your own without team coordination. Is also ideally one of the big reasons you want to bring Ekko to a team, for that AoE CC wombo. Shield is intended to last shorter than the stun. He doesn’t need that extra power vs. guys he’s locked down. it’s more there to protect him from people outside the zone as well as reward him going into the zone, even if no one is inside.

3)Thematically I felt like there was this cool time distortion thing he’d be able to do, teleport made sense for that. Mechanically it allows him to dodge projectiles and whatnot if used correctly while engaging and gives a really crisp feel to the actual impact of the spell. Minor optimizations go a long way for making a spell feel unique and different.

4)The symbol isn’t there for thematics, it’s there for clarity, want it to be very easy to pick out in a hectic team fight CAUSE THAT THING IS DANGEROUS

5)Well he’s got a bat like thing and those baggy pants :D He reminds me a lot of the Scout from TF2 who has similar baseball themes

6)They’re intended to be team differentiated. If they aren’t pushed enough we’ll iterate and make it more clear

8) Ekko has parents, he’s not an orphan.

9) Jinx does seem to have some weird fixation with Vi. Wonder why that is…

10) The bruiser build, similar to stuff like PURE AD ASSASSIN VI may be good as an offbuild if you want to train and CC people more but burst them less. I’d be worried if it’s good as a primary build because I think Ekko being tanky removes a lot of the counterplay you have against him and a lot of the decisions he has to make about staying alive.

11) Similar to bruiser Ekko, it’s cool if AD Ekko is an offbuild but less cool if it’s the best way to build him. I’d rather he be moving in and out of fights to burst people than just training on them with AD basic attacks.

12)Support, probably not that good, he’s major CC and laning isn’t reliable enough and he needs items to scale. Jungle may be okay, depends on how good he can clear, right now look like it beats him up pretty hard until he reaches item breakpoints

13) I LOVE 3 HIT PASSIVES. Design wise they allow big moments of buildup and payoff playing as while allowing the opponents opportuinites to back off at the right time and avoid some damage. Think I’ve exhausted most of the ways to make a new one that feels different however, probably won’t do another.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:08:31)

What is his opinion on ZAC and does he think ZAC needs a new skin :P

Hahaha, I see what you did there.

Zac is interesting. We wrote some funny Zac jokes, but when we heard them they sounded so mean. It was then that we realized Ekko probably would like Zac, and see that he wasn’t a bad guy at all. He might poke at him (literally) to see what Zac is made of and his unique properties.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:09:46)

And/Or any scrapped abilities and such?

We are working on this, the art we are trying to share is too large to share on the board at the moment, haha.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:10:37)

So, Ekko's time machine thingy is called Z-Drive, am I right? Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are RIGHT!

Riot ShadowStorm (2015-05-21 22:12:59)

Also, what would you call Ekko's time clone thing? Is that an echo of him? Ekko's Echo?

Personally, my favorite thing about Ekko is his relationship to Zaun. He’s very different than the other Zaunite champions we have, and I think he gives us an awesome avenue to look at Zaun as something more than “goopy-terror-badguy-land”.

As for the time clone… I’d call it Ekko’s Luden, just to be really silly.

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 22:16:59)

Apart from that, i will definitely be picking up Ekko, he looks really sick. (Credit to FriedRiceStyle for the idea)

He’s probably never met Lucian

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:21:56)

Oddly enough, despite being from Piltover, Ekko doesn't really have a special interaction with Ezreal. What's their relationship together?

Ekko would think Ezreal is a poser.

Riot ShadowStorm (2015-05-21 22:26:56)

Zac is interesting. We wrote some funny Zac jokes, but when we heard them they sounded so mean. It was then that we realized Ekko probably would like Zac, and see that he wasn't a bad guy at all. He might poke at him (literally) to see what Zac is made of and his unique properties.

Ekko/Zac buddy drama where?!

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 22:29:08)

Thanks for the time guys! Keep up the great work!

Not urgot - just a tech’d out thug.

At one point he had a riven Q like spell with 2 casts. Each cast teleported him a short distance and gave him a ranged attack for his next attack. Made for a VERY COOL kiting pattern. Didn’t work for Ekko in the end, but would be interested in trying it on another char in the future.

Well as we (only me) say in the champion team “Make it 3-hit or you should quit.” Honestly though I need to stop making these, mechanically they’re solid designs but I think we’re starting to get overloaded on them at this point. Hrmmmm….unless I could find a way to make a character who gives HIS ENTIRE TEAM a 3 hit-passive :D

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 22:29:44)

Are you going to patch that fun thing you can do with ekko's ult, when you ult back into lane after recalling? Plz no. {{summoner:30}} {{item:3090}}

Probably not. I think the cooldown keeps it in check. He’s not all that good at fighting people when it’s down so if he wants to use it to get back to lane I don’t see a problem with it.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:30:41)

1) how did ekko get/make the z-drive? 2) is ekko just naturally smart, or did he have some mentor that he learned from? 3) what were some previous ideas for abilities to implement his time travel theme?

He made it himself.

No mentor. If he’d had one his life would probably be vastly different. Part of the allure of this champ was to create a “good will hunting” style genius. Unrefined, self-taught, never known the taste of affluence.

Gypsylord gave some insight into this elsewhere on this thread.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:32:19)

Is Ekko lucian's brother?

Ekko has no relation to Lucian. They don’t even know each other.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:33:14)

Ekko/Zac buddy drama where?!

The challenge has been laid down, internet. Do your thing :)

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:35:25)

Which of you fine Rioters worked on Ekko? From concept to completion, art, writing, and all. I especially loved the comic, so I'd like to know who to thank for it.

I am the principal writer on Ekko. Gypsylord is the designer. and Dr. Mundo (not present) is art. Every Rioter posting in this thread worked on the champ and contributed in massive ways. Unfortunately, I am terrible at matching avatar names to actual human beings. Hopefully, they can introduce themselves.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:38:55)

(P.s. You're video and comic strip was so amazing! Great job Riot, can't wait to purchase Ekko :) )

I don’t want to share a lot of their relationship (I’m evil and twisted and horrible) because I adore all the art that I’m seeing on twitter/reddit/the forums. But I will say, yes that line is directed toward her. Read into it what you will!

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:43:13)

Why is Jayce one of Ekko's nemeses (apparently that's the plural of nemesis, who knew right?). Just because he's from piltover? why not Cait in that case or several other champions? I can't find anything in Jayce's lore that would make him seem any "worse" than any of the other piltover champions

Not too late!

This is an excellent question.

Ekko sees Viktor and Jayce as being opposite extremes on the same spectrum. He sees Jayce as a high and mighty posterboy for Piltover, who never had to work for anything ever. Ekko does not want to be like him. Or Viktor.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:44:49)

I read the chronobreak thing...I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR A FEELS TRIP

I knew we shouldn’t have cut out the disclaimer. ;)

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:46:03)

IS HE OR IS HE NOT THE "GIRL" WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME?

I saw that movie at Fantastic Fest at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. The title always stuck with me, but it is one of many such titles that inspired the Boy Who Shattered Time.

Great eye :)

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 22:48:05)

If Ajuna the original Ekko that would mean that ekko took the z-drive from ajuna when he was shot to try and save ajuna but that would make no sense also cause wouldn't ajuna just rewind time with his z-drive..But then i thought in the video that was released for ekko he was still damaged even after rewind time from the damage he took.So was ajuna the original boy who shattered time?

Ajuna is not the original Ekko. Ekko, is the Boy Who Shattered Time.

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 22:50:48)

1.) So with a finally villainous Piltovian, can we expect a bit more grey to the setting? And hopefully not in an arbitrary "Suddenly Demacia is blowing up cities while Noxus has donated blood to an orphaned kitten charity"?

1) That’s one of things we’re trying to do with Ekko. Our world is way less interesting when everyone in Piltover is nice and perfect and everyone in Zaun is evil and has a goop gun obsession. Adding more grey areas to all the factions makes for more interesting stories and characters.

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 22:53:21)

My question is how can he use his ult offensively versus defensively if it is always behind him? (I have my own ideas but interested design-wise how you built him to be able to do this)

Gotta find a way to get people to be where you were 4 seconds ago. Easy way is to get someone to chase you and create enough distance that they fall 4 seconds behind. Could try to combo it off a Gnar ult (since Gnar can hold people in place for an eternity while the image catches up). Could also try grabbing zhonya’s, using the active in a fight gives you 2 seconds of safety for the image to move where you want it to.

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 23:02:42)

4) How does Ekko's Ult passive (the glow of him that follows) how does that interact with Flash, Teleport, Mark, Exhaust (does it glow go slow), or even Urgot's ult?

3)Hopefully he’s making meaningful tradeoffs for the power we’re giving him. High utility, but has to work harder than Zed or LB for his burst (and generally has less of it). In the future (if too strong) I could seeing us hitting his base damages or AP ratios in a first patch to ensure that weakness exists

4)It tries to track EXACTLY where he was 4 seconds ago. So yeah, flashing, TP’ing, etc. He’ll account for those when he goes back

Riot ShadowStorm (2015-05-21 23:06:51)

Why is Ekko's sword dull?

It’s actually a clock hand that he stole from Piltover! We intentionally went with a blunt weapon for a few reasons:

• Gameplay-wise, we knew he was AP (gypsylord has talked about this elsewhere), so wanted to differentiate him from somebody like Yasuo in terms of weapon
• Ekko is young, and probably wouldn’t have the kind of training to wield a sharp weapon as effectively
• Zaun might be a rough place, but Ekko isn’t a killer at heart. A blunt weapon gives him what he needs, without the deadly side-effects
  

Riot ShadowStorm (2015-05-21 23:12:47)

Approximately how long was this champion in production?

We started refining the “time assassin” idea in late August, iterating and refining over a couple of months to get us to the specific concept we now know as Ekko. Actual production work started near the end of the year, a little bit after Kalista’s release.

Riot Szymba (2015-05-21 23:14:10)

This totally varies on a champion-to-champion basis. Sometimes, finding the right VO actor really helps the team come together around a champion’s actions and personality. For Ekko, we as a team had a really good idea of who this character was and the type of voice we were looking for when we started searching for actors.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 23:15:05)

Hello! I am sooo happy you guys are doing this AMA. I always wanted to be part of one! I have some questions here... I know, they are a LOT, but I already tried to hang back... 1) What was the inspiration to design Ekko? 2) How do you characterise Ekko? Any specific character traits he has? 3) Who is the boy we saw in the comic? 4) Speaking of the comic: Apperantly the boy is on the mural because Ekko couldn't save him (if he could, he wouldn't be dead; So not saving and dead go hand in hand here) Is that the reason Jinx is also on the mural? Because Ekko couldn't save her? (she went crazy instead) 5) What is his relation to VI? Are the rumours true Jinx, VI and Ekko were in the same gang? 6) If so, what keeps Ekko in Zaun? It seems like a pretty bad place to live, why is he so proud of this city-state? Or are we fooled by media to think that Zaun is a pretty ugly place? 10) Ekko seems pretty young. If we consider that he knows both Jinx and VI (before the one went crazy and the other joined the cops) is it possible that he keeps himself young with his timey-wimey-abilities? 11) Will there be more information about Zaun, Ekko and lore in genereal in near future?

You’ve got a lot of Q’s, so I’ll need to be brief with the answers, if you don’t mind. Lots of these have been answered elsewhere in the thread and probably in greater depth, too :)

There are a lot of inspirations: we wanted to make a time-based champ that stood apart from Zilean, wanted to make a teenager, and wanted to make a character that shined a different light on Zaun.

Reckless, unrefined genius, rebellious. He’s a brilliant teenager who tends to bite off more than he can chew and rewind endlessly to get the outcome he desires.

His friend, Ajuna. If you watch the trailer animation, he’s on the memorial wall.

I don’t see Jinx on the memorial…

I doubt they were in the same gang, as Ekko is younger than those two. But Ekko knows them, they were aware of each other.

It’s home and he knows the people. Ekko isn’t dumb, he knows Zaun is a rough place, but he owns that. Zaun made him strong, taught him to be resourceful and make big things out little. He’s starting to envision a different Zaun, a better Zaun, but he doesn’t have the complete picture yet as he is a teenager and still has some growing up to do.

Ekko still shares residence with his parents. They are caught up in the Zaun grind and are rarely home, leaving Ekko with large chunks of unsupervised time.

He does not. If anything, all those brushes with disaster coupled with the endless rewinds probably have made him age more.

Most likely, but I can’t speak to when/where/what.

Again: Thank you a lot for doing this AMA. I would be super happy if you could answer a few of my questions. Thank you and have a lovely evening/noon/night whatever. =)

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 23:15:37)

4. Perhaps it would be a good idea to give his visuals a bit more color diversity. When you have his passive indicators, ult passive, W aoe, and his Q all in the same color spectrum, it makes it very hard to focus them individually. The passive indicators being the hardest and his ghost is also hard sometimes to figure out where it ends. (Even more prominent on Sandstorm Ekko because yellow is more influenced by green terrain than blue)

So I too have thought about alternate build paths for Ekko and it’s somewhat intentional that straight AP is by far the best on him. This is mainly due to the sheer power of his ultimate and passive. Ekko has access to permaslow, pemahaste, and a fight reset on his R should his opponents ever manage to get him low. An Ekko who’s squishy, afraid of death, and forced to move in and out of fights between burst windows, can likely still be dealt with even with these strengths. An Ekko that’s building tanky and training people down with basic attacks is likely going to be much harder to deal with, and not feel all that clever to boot.

THAT SAID, I like off builds, and my ideal world is one where AD Ekko and Bruiser Ekko are decent off-builds that can work in soloqueue under specific circumstance but are by no means the primary or most obviously successful way to play him. I’ll keep an eye on it when he releases

1) It actively tracks damage taken. So if you take 200 damage over 5 seconds the ult heals you for Base + X% of 200.

2)The enemy team ghost is a bug we’re trying to fix. Is not intended to be confused for the real Ekko.

3)Ghost is not visible when the enemy can’t see Ekko. :D

4)Agree with you here and it’s something we’re watching. Some particles may need further interation should they proove too hard to read.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 23:18:50)

Ekko seems to have alot of hometown pride, but I can't really see why. Does he ever feel like his circumstances (orphan, street kid, protector, living in the shadow of piltover, etc.) is holding him back?

This question really dives into what home is. A lot of Ekko’s pride comes from being born and raised in Zaun. Home is always home, even if it’s not always the greatest place in the world. It’s also defined by the people you care about.

Also is the old map still accurate about how close Piltover and Zaun are to each other?

Riot ShadowStorm (2015-05-21 23:26:59)

But... he's an 'assassin'..

In gameplay terms, sure; but more of utility assassin.

I guess the bigger idea is that, when given the choice between killing the “Piltie” for revenge, or being with Ajuna while he died, he chose the latter.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 23:35:06)

My only question is, Is there going to be some sort of rivalry between Ezreal and Ekko? I mean they are a lot alike but Ekko is from Zaun and Ezreal is from Piltover.

You’re picking up what we’re putting down.

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-21 23:36:27)

So in the trailer at the end when Ekko has defeated his enemy he rewinded time. Did he rewind that whole battle just to save the mural?

Yes. Memory haunts and hurts. Ekko couldn’t let that tribute to his friend go demolished.

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 23:43:19)

Please answer asap!!!

When we were testing out Ekko’s kit we kinda ran into the harsh reality that many time based abilities simply aren’t okay for a multiplayer game. Ekko’s R used to rewind the ENTIRE MAP 8 seconds. It was super cool and incredibly thematic, but it also was disruptive and questionably beneficial for Ekko’s team when it was used. Example of a great thematic execution that fell flat on gameplay. The current ult is less thematic but I feel it still captures a good deal of the what a rewind would FEEL like (Undoes some of the bad things that happened, goes back to where you were and makes you think about the past, gives you a second chances at a fights.)

Jinx’s minigun’s development was similar. Initially it didn’t have individual attacks and instead fired a constant stream of bullets (like a real minigun), but that mechanic had major last hitting and clarity problems, so we moved to the current model (fast as hell with a rampup time). Pow-pow isn’t a perfect minigun, but within the context of league if FEELS like one.

Riot Szymba (2015-05-21 23:49:09)

Good question! The reality is the ideation process takes both of those ideas into account. Sometimes we start with whether a certain role/position needs a little love and other times we think about what thematic we haven’t yet explored in LoL. With Ekko, we started with the idea that we wanted to make a new version of an Assassin and then began thinking about what type of thematics we could explore in that space.

AD Yuumi (2015-05-21 23:52:40)

Why does Ekko gain health back when he uses his Ult, but in the lore he takes his injuries with him?

Oh funny story, the lore was intended to SUPPORT the fact that he only gains a PORTION of the health he lost back on the ultimate (as opposed to it being a full heal of whatever damage he took). The idea being that he can rewind, he can mend a broken bone, but he’s going to FEEL every hit. Every mistake has consequences.

Riot ShadowStorm (2015-05-22 00:22:49)

We also wanted to share this concept art timeline. This starts from the earliest ideas of making a “time assassin”, and reflects a lot of growth and refinement in the character. While this is only the art side, the evolution you see here reflects constant iteration between art, narrative, and design, which ultimately resulted in the Ekko you now know.

Hope you enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at Ekko!

EDIT: Direct image link here. EDIT 2: We polished this up a bit, to add a little bit more context. Plus artist credits!

(Heads up - it’s a pretty large image!)

Riot ShadowStorm (2015-05-22 00:41:14)

Sure thing - here you go!

I’ll edit that into the main post as well.

(FYI - On the boards, you can right click the file name and from there choose to either save the link or open in a new tab)

RiotJaredan (2015-05-22 06:19:39)

You win puns. All puns. You win them.

RiotJaredan (2015-05-22 06:20:11)

Ok, I was wrong.

RiotJaredan (2015-05-22 06:42:36)

1. Will Vi and Jinx get special Jokes/Taunts/Special Interactions with Ekko? 2. What does Ekko value over all? From what I have seen he cherishes his friends the most. 3. Though Ekko dislikes/hates Piltover and its people, does he respect Heimerdinger who is a fellow inventor? 4. Is Zaun the new focus point for the next set of skins/lore and or new champions? Much like the Shurima craze we are coming off of. 5. How old is Ekko really? Me and my friends have theorized with his almost constant use of Chronobreak his age must have been distorted, though I wouldn't even try to guess his actual age I am sure it is not the teen we see now. 6. It might be a bit inappropriate but is Lucian Ekko's father?

No plans that I’m aware of at the moment, but can’t be ruled out long-term.

I’d say that’s an accurate interpretation.

I doubt Ekko has run into Heimer (not that he’s aware of anyway) at this point. But I’m sure he would respect his capacity to create.

If by that you’re asking if Zaun is the next place that will be home to the next thematic event, then no, it won’t be. We’re going elsewhere…

Ekko is 16-17.

Nope, no relation at all.

RiotJaredan (2015-05-22 06:43:24)

Nope.

RiotJaredan (2015-05-22 06:50:41)

Also, what would you call Ekko's time clone thing? Is that an echo of him? Ekko's Echo?

This is just my personal opinion, of course, but my favorite aspect of Ekko is that his ability doesn’t make anything inherently easy for him, it just gives him more options and therefore more obstacles to overcome. A character who isn’t scared, who can just do anything is just not very interesting to me. A character who is willing to put himself through more and more challenges, to endure more than many would, in a way that no one can really understand (bystanders don’t see Ekko taking the hits that he learns from), is fascinating to me.

He could have taken the easy route, the obvious route, and wreaked his vengeance on the Piltie. Instead he chose to take the harder option: he put aside his revenge to be there for his friend for the only moment that mattered, even though it was hard for him.

Ekko’s abilities allow him to take on more and have more options than virtually anyone, and he still makes the choice to be a true friend.

I like that kid.

RiotJaredan (2015-05-22 06:52:49)

In the story world, there is no IoW for Ekko to be aware of or have a motivation to get involved with.

RiotJaredan (2015-05-22 06:53:59)

I don’t want to close any doors that we might open in the future, but time manipulation is very uncommon in Runeterra.

RiotJaredan (2015-05-22 06:54:42)

Ekko only ever jumps to the right.

RiotJaredan (2015-05-22 06:56:16)

Ekko isn’t directly related to Jinx or Vi. He’s too young to have been getting into scrapes alongside Vi, though he knows of her. The lady has a well-earned rep.

RiotJaredan (2015-05-22 06:58:58)

I hope not for his sake. She’s a bit unpredictable, that one.

RiotJaredan (2015-05-22 11:38:30)

Ekko ages in or out of time-travel. In fact, you might see him beat the tar out of someone and make it look like he saw everything coming, and made every move perfectly the first time. However, in that 30 seconds, Ekko actually experienced that same span of linear reality over 200 times until he got it right.

In other words, in that 30 seconds, Ekko aged 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Some things he can never get back…

FauxSchizzle (2015-05-23 02:45:17)

Good question. There is a passing of time between the Chronobreak comic and the Seconds animation. Ekko’s Z-Drive was indeed damaged in the fight with the Piltie, but at the end of the comic, he’s getting back to work, repairing his tech. By the time we see it in Seconds, it has been repaired.