What does it take to build a League of Legends champion?

Jinx

PCG: What's so great about Jinx?

AB: Jinx for me, is honestly the character I love the most. One of the reasons is because I got to work on Jinx from day one: when Katie De Sousa posted a picture up on the board I saw it and thought "holy crap". I actually started on Jinx when I was working on Vi—Vi was my main project but Jinx was always on my mind in the background.

That’s probably the most satisfying thing about Jinx: she does feel like she’s mine. For a while she felt a lot like Vi, so we thought “wait, why don’t we make her enemies with Jinx”.

PCG: There's a recurring punk theme in your roster thus far. How come?

AB: It’s just an archetype that appeals to me. When I get the chance to work on a character like that I’ll jump on it. To me it appeals because I can see what the player will like about it. With Vi, it’s about personality, and that punk aesthetic works. Ekko’s like that too, in a different way.

PCG: What were some challenges specific to Jinx?

AB: Jinx’s challenge was basically determining who she really was. There was a part in her development process where there were lots of different pulls from different parts of the company. That’s because she was such an exciting character for all of us—we made that video clip for her, and that really captures her well. So many different people in the company had investment in this character because we were so attached to her. We had a period where we had to figure out, who is Jinx?

There was a version of her that was immature and not very bloodthirsty, kinda like Tiny Tina from Borderlands. But then there was another grim and bloodthirsty version: more Joker than Harley Quinn. I think we found a middleground: she’s kinda both of those, she’s a bit childish but she still has some intelligence and intent about her. She's dangerous and scary but she’s not trying to go out and murder you—though if she blows up some buildings she doesn’t care if you’re in them.

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