League of Legends champion Ao Shin is "on hold," Riot says

It's been more than a year since images of the upcoming League of Legends champion Ao Shin were leaked and then confirmed as legitimate by Riot Games. Lead Champion Designer Andrei "Meddler" van Roon said at the time that the character, a storm dragon, was still "quite a way off," and that's apparently still the case.

"We spent a bunch of time working on Ao Shin but ultimately concluded he wasn't hitting the mark so put him on hold for a while in order to figure some things out," van Roon said in response to a forum post asking if the champion had been dropped. "We still think his concept's really cool, as is some of the stuff we were trying with him, so do intend to make him someday. Don't expect to see him anytime soon though, we'd rather be slow, but do a better job of delivering on his potential, than quick."

Van Roon noted that other champions, like Lee Sin, Elise, and Azir, have gone through a similar process, which ultimately resulted in "better champs in the long run." He also said that Ao Shin's name may be changed when the champion is released, depending on whether it remains "a good fit for the final version."

Unfortunately for those looking forward to Ao Shin's release, van Roon cautioned that it won't be happening anytime soon. "For purposes of these sort of timelines the start of 2015 counts as 'soon,' or even 'very soon,'" he wrote. "Ao Shin's genuinely a long way off sorry."

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.