Surrender at 20: Red Post Collection: Ekko Q&A

Several of the Rioters involved with out upcoming champion gathered on the boards to host a Q&A on Ekko, the Boy Who Shattered Time!

Continue reading for more information on Ekko, his design, background, concepts, and more!

Ekko: Chronobreak Comic

5/21 PBE Update: Sandstorm Ekko splash art and Abyssal Scepter rework reverted

Ekko Q&A

Here's a ADillionMostDirty with an introduction to the Ekko Q&A:

"EDIT: Alright guys, we're heading back to work. Thanks for all the questions and we hope you enjoy Ekko!

Hey guys,

We've gathered a bunch of Rioters from the Ekko team for some Q&A about the Boy Who Shattered Time! Whether you're interested in Ekko's gameplay, story, art, or sound, ask away and we'll be happy to answer!

Check out these links if you need to get up to speed:

Seconds: Some things are worth fighting for. Time and time again.

Ekko, the Boy Who Shattered Time: Check out Ekko's reveal.

Chronobreak: A friend in need or a murderous deed. We’re defined by the paths we take."

As usual, I've sorted the Q&A responses based on similar topics:

Gameplay

To start us off, Gypsylord stepped up to bat with a few questions on Ekko as AP over AD, another time based champion vs Zilean, Ekko's affiliation with Zaun, and more.

"Quote:

1) What made you decided to make him AP over AD?
2) What does Vel'koz think about Ekko power over time?
3) For that matter, what does Zilean think?
4) Why make him from Zaun?
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 also commented on the Ekko vs Zilean discussion, noting:

"Quote:

Was there an issue about having another time-based champion when Ekko was being created?
Also, do Ekko and Zilean know eachother?
There wasn't too much of an issue there. As gypsylord mentioned in another reply:

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?!?!?!?"

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."

When asked about Ekko's intended role and position as well as builds, Riot Velocity shared:

"Quote:

1 - What are Ekko's ideal roles?He seems intented for mid with jg & top being reliable options.
2 - Would it work to build him more as a bruiser?Building a & the new seems to work well with him.
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!"

When asked if enemies can see Ekko's "time clone", Riot Velocity noted:

"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."

Iniquitee also commented:

"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!)."

As for if anything will interrupt Ekko from using his R to go back in time, Riot Velocity explained:

"Quote:

How does Ekko's ult interact with Azir's (does Ekko's "dash" back to his spot 4 seconds ago get interrupted if it goes through Azir's ult)?

What's his "sword"/bat made out of? It doesn't seem to be normal iron or steel, and I saw a rioter mention it was stolen from a clock tower, but what it's actually made out of seems like a mystery.
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!"

Gypsylord continued, talking about Ekko as a high utility champion and how his R trail interacts with summoner spells:

"Quote:

Enough about lore, what has been done to make sure Ekko is not another OP champion coming out of PBE that people will just gain free-lo with? What possible changes could we see in the future for this champion?

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?

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

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"

From the technical side of things, Riot Szymba added:

"Quote:

was it particularly difficult to set up the mechanics for his ult, with regard to tracking where he was a few seconds ago?
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."

As for why the Seconds video shows Ekko injured after going back in time but in-game he is healed, Gypsylord explained:

"Quote:

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."

Gypsylord continued, elaborating on the choice for Ekko's R and the concept of time travel abilities in a multiplayer game:

"Quote:

Hey Riot!
Uhh u know in the 'Seconds' Youtube video.
You know how he turned back time, why couldn't you do the exact same in the LoL game.
Because if you look at his ult in game, it's not turning back time, it's a burst of dmg (which is awesome).
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."

When asked if it is intended to allow Ekko to recall, buy, then use R to pop back into lane, Gypsylord noted

"Quote:

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.
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."

As for using Ekko's R offensively when the enemy can see where you will lane, Gypsylord noted:

"Quote:

First, the Sandstorm Ekko skin was genius. I love the Prince of Persia connection and what makes it better is how well the characters fit together on top of his kit. Great work on the particle effects for the sand. Thanks for making the abilities have sand particles instead of just a different outfit for the champ.

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."

When asked what sort of "balance levers" the team was expecting to tune after his release, Riot Velocity commented:

"Quote:

What tuning levers do you suspect you'll inevitably be pulling the patch after his release? What direction do you think you'll need to pull them?
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 potentia

l 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. :)"

Riot Velocity also commented on Ekko's R rewind time and Ekko's W "bubble":

"Quote:

The few questions I have is:

1) Will Ekko's rewind time window increase as he levels it up? If it doesn't I suggest it should, just by maybe .5 seconds per level for a total of +1 seconds at level 3

2) I think his bubble's animation is really cool and I love this idea of a utility assassin, what brought you guys to the idea of doing a champion like this and what inspired the bubble's cast animation?

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!"

When asked how about Ekko's three hit passive in-game and how it tied into the Seconds video, Riot ShadowStorm commented:

"Quote:

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."

Last up for the gameplay section we have Gypsylord answering several multiple part questions:

Gypsylord collection #1:

"Quote:

A lot has been said about his W passive, but I feel his natural passive is very strong as well. Has this been a concern or area of importance when balancing his power?

His W has quite the spot light for it's active too. I understand it's a prediction ability and love that about him, but isn't it's rank 1 a tad bit over packed? A long ranged slow field, potential stun, and a large shield for just one point. Also, the shield almost doesn't feel worth when getting the stun due to the durations being so similar. Is this on purpose? Protection from everything outside while you wail on what you stunned? Sometimes it feels like I'm hoping for just the stun just the shield.

Why did you decide to make the second part of his E a blink? I think it's an interesting concept and will have many creative uses.

Why the symbol over his hologram? Does it actually mean anything? Do you think it may lead to be more of a distraction after things like texture rebalances to clean up skins and hide eye candy options to remove unnecessary movement?

Why do I get baseball feel from Ekko? Was he based on a particular theme in history? I don't want to be offensive with this question, so if it doesn't fully make sense, feel free to skip it.

Will there be a distinction in color similar to the blue/red auras on Syndra's spheres for friendly/enemy Ekko's? I see how the symbols over his head could be that, but with them being random I don't think they will help too much.

Are the kids orphans?

Is this the final link to why Jinx loves to mess with Vi?

Do you think a bruiser build might be viable? The survival stats along with his ult and cc would make for nasty comb imo.

I've tried going AD Ekko and had much success just using my ability for the cc. Is this a concern?

What do you personally think about Ekko in the jungle? What about someone taking his support? It may not be to his full potential, but his cc and survivability could work well with an ADC.

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."

Gypsylord collection #2:

"Quote:

Alternative Build Paths

Ekko seems like he would be such a good bruiser champion, but just doesn't have the right numbers attached to him to do so. Everything in his kit scales on his AP. No diversity at all. So I guess my questions relate to giving him some diversity in his kit to allow for other builds that won't benefit him if building straight AP.

Why not give him something like:

Bonus AD scaling on his E and W passive?

Bonus Health scaling on his W shield?

Have his ult reflect percentage of damage taken in last 4 seconds? Having the percentage scale with defensive stats. Even starting it at 0% and scale only if they have defensive stats would be fine.

He really feels pigeon-holed into a static AP build. I spent 4-5 hours last night in customs trying about 10 different builds on him to prep for this Q&A ranging from AD, AD bruiser, AP bruiser, full tank, on-hit, etc and none of them compare to his AP path regardless of how much fun the other paths were to play on.

General Questions / Feedback

Outside of that though, here are a few questions I do have about the champion:

How is his ult calculating damage taken over the last 4 seconds?

Is it BaseHeal + ((PrevHealth - CurrentHealth) * Ratio) = HealAmount?

Or does it actually track damage taken over the last 4 seconds. If it's the former, then things like spellvamp, lifesteal, health regen would negatively impact. I know the health wouldn't be taken away, but it would reduce the amount that gets returned.

Why does his Chronoshift ghost appear blue/golden when you're playing him, but when the enemy place him, the ghost is fully colored with some transparency? (Maybe already fixed) I feel this is confusing as hell. I often see his ghost on the enemy team and think it's him and this could easily lead to people panicking. Or similarly reacting like they did when the bug that caused champions to randomly appear for a split second in the jungle did; causing burnt flashes and CD's.

Is his Chronoshift ghost visible when Ekko is not? I wasn't really able to tell, but it seemed like you could see his ghost without seeing him, which I find alarming. This means his ult is a liability when it comes to juking, warding, retreating, roaming, and even jungle objectives. I feel if it is the case, then people will simple not level up there ult until they absolutely need it because the ghost actually does more harm than good.

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)

More prominent in Sandstorm Ekko, but it might also be good to look at the ghost trail of his ult and adjust the Alpha Blending of the particle effect itself so it's not so additive. That way, you would still be able to follow it, but being in a small area won't cause it to make a massive blob.
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."

Art

On the art side of things, FauxSchizzle shared a piece of concept art for Ekko:

"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:

Riot ShadowStorm also shared a "concept art timeline" showing off how Ekko evolved visually over the course of design:

"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.

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

As for who was the main artist behind Ekko, Iniquitee noted:

"Quote:

Who was the main artist behind Ekko's design and and his skin?

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!"

As for the choice to give Ekko a dull weapon vs a sharp sword, Riot ShadowStorm noted [1] [2]:

"Quote:

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

Story / Lore

When asked about Ekko's weapon, Riot Velocity shared a bit of it's origins:

"Quote:

Hi! Character Design question here:

Ekko's "sword" seems like jade maori weapon Mere, that leaves me thinking if this was also a part in race inspiration, or it's just me?

Thanks
Hey there!

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

As for Ekko's facepaint, Iniquitee noted:

"Quote:

Is Ekko single? Can I date him?

My insane crush on Ekko aside, is the marking on his face significant in some way? Or is it just a design in his concept that looked nice?

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."

When asked how old Ekko is, FauxSchizzle estimated: Permalink

"Quote:

Approximately how old is Ekko?
Definitely a teenager... probably 16- to 17.

On Ekko's age in relation to his device, Jaredan noted:

"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..."

When asked about the villainous Piltover man see in in the Chronobreak comic, Gypsylord explained:

"Quote:

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. "

FauxSchizzle added:

"Quote:

As far as Ekko's lore goes in Chronobreak, what reason did anyone from Piltover have to be in Zaun? Why would that man kill an innocent child? He was a thief, or so accused, but that doesn't mean he had to die. And as far as we've ever seen, Piltover's lore describes the city-state as the least militarized and most empathetic. They are extreme rivals -- but what would push a man from Piltover to come to Zaun? What is going on? Later Ekko is fighting Singed, or so I assume, does that have any connection to what happened with Ekko and the man from Piltover?

IS HE EVEN FROM PILTOVER?

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."

As for the origins of Ekko's technology and time travel abilities, FauxSchizzle explained:

"Quote:

1) how did ekko get/make the z-drive?

3) what were some previous ideas for abilities to implement his time travel theme?

2) is ekko just naturally smart, or did he have some mentor that he learned from?

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."

As for how old Ajuna was, FauxSchizzle noted:

"Quote:

How old are Jinx, Ajuna, an Vi, then? Approximately.

Ajuna's about 12. Sad. :("

When asked how Ekko and Ajuna know each other, FauxSchizzle noted:

"Quote:

How are Ekko and Ajuna related ?
They are kindred souls, both street kids who ran with the same pack."

As for what the mural seen in the video and the comic sands for, FauxSchizzle elaborated:

"Quote:

Well now i guess its time for me to address the big elephant in the room. Mom mode. Who's the kid? Whats his name? Are they orphans? Are they in a gang? Who else is on the wall? Are all the kids on the wall dead? So how does he know vi and jinx? Whats the reason behind some of his quotes? Where did he get the idea to make the machine? Why would a kid need a machine? How did he get the parts for the machine? Is he actually FROM zuan? No parents? He said hes been fighting a lot for what?
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."

When asked about the ending to Ekko: Seconds and if Ekko went back again just to save the mural, FauxSchizzle explained:

"Quote:

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."

Gypsylord added:

"Quote:

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)."

When asked about Ekko's pride for Zaun (as heard in his voiceover), FauxSchizzle commented:

"Quote:

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.) are holding him back?
Also is the old map still accurate about how close Piltover and Zaun are to each other?
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."

As for what his ideal Zaun might look like, FauxSchizzle noted:

"Quote:

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."

As for a rivalry between Ekko and Ezeal, FauxSchizzle noted:

"Quote:

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 continued:

"Quote:

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."

As for a guess at Ekko's opinion of Janna, FauxSchizzle shared:

"Quote:

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."

As for how Ekko sees Jayce, FauxSchizzle commented:

"Quote:

Hi thanks for the Q&A hope i'm not too late
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."

As for Ekko and Jinx, FauxSchizzle teased:

"Quote:

Hey Riot,

Thanks so much for doing this Q&A. I know you probably won't answer this question but I am very curious about Ekko and Jinx's relationship. I think the quote, "I had a crush once, until you started talking to the gun," relates back to Jinx. I was just wondering :)

(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!"

When asked if there is any relationship between Ekko and Lucian, Gypsylord commented:

"Quote:

Hey guys... i was wondering... Is Ekko, Lucian's son? Apart from the obvious ressemblance (skin color), Could Ekko be playing with time and trying to go back in time to save his mother from Thresh?
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"

When asked what Ekko would think of Rumble, Iniquitee commented:

"Quote:

What would Ekko think about Rumble and his patriotic love for his city?
Ekko would respect Rumble for his ingenuity in building something awesome out of many parts."

As for how Ekko would react to Zac, FauxSchizzle commented:

"Quote:

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."

Last up for this section we have a slew of multi part questions on Ekko's lore, background, and personality.

FauxSchizzle collection #1

"Quote:

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?
1) 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.

2) 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.

3)Painted!

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

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

6) 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.

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

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 collection 2:

"Quote:

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...

Yes I'm very interested in his lore.

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

FauxSchizzle collection 3:

"Quote:

What is his weapon exactly? Does it have any special function? (referring to the sword-y thing)

Where did he derive that much of his magic, tech, and joint (hextech) knowledge from?

How did he develop the Z-Drive and what exactly is it?

Does he have any friends now? Or is he a lone wolf?

How do Zaunites in the league think of him? And how do Piltoverians?

Is there a limit on how far in time he can rewind to, assuming he has activated his Z-Drive?

Does the Z-Drive only return Ekko back in time? If yes, how is it only him?

Conversely, does he rewind time, transfer his conciousness back, or take his entire body back in time? Do injuries he has sustained heal?

How many time slots does he have to travel back to?

(Sorry if these are too many :'x )

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

1) Fun fact: it's the SECONDS hand from a Piltovian clock tower.
2) Ekko's an unrefined genius. Never formally trained, but highly gifted. Prodigious, even. He's been building things for years.
3) Lots and lots of experimentation. I don't want to spoil this as we are working on this story.
4) 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 collection 4:

"Quote:

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?

7) What does the XII on his sword mean? Any connections to VI (6) or Jinx's X (10)? Oh, and Caitlyns Nemesis C (100)?

8) VI doesn't remember her parents or her real name (or where her tattoo came from), does the same apply to Ekko?

9) Is Ekko his real name? Did he call himself Ekko because of his timey-wimey-abilities?

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?

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

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 :)

1) 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.

2)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.

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

4) I don't see Jinx on the memorial...

5) 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.

6)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.

8)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.

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

11)Most likely, but I can't speak to when/where/what."

Gypsylord collection #1

"Quote:

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?

7) What does the XII on his sword mean? Any connections to VI (6) or Jinx's X (10)? Oh, and Caitlyns Nemesis C (100)?

8) VI doesn't remember her parents or her real name (or where her tattoo came from), does the same apply to Ekko?

9) Is Ekko his real name? Did he call himself Ekko because of his timey-wimey-abilities?

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?

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"

Voiceover

When asked about Ekko's voiceover actor, Iniquitee commented:

"Quote:

What was the reason you chose Antony Del Rio as the voice actor for Ekko? Was he fun to work with, and how many kid icarus uprising fans are at riot because i assume you found out about him like i did from his voice work as Pit/Dark Pit, (i think ekko sounds more like Dark Pit :P )
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 nailed it!"

You can find a video preview of Ekko's voiceover here.

Development

FauxSchizzle also commented on who was responsible for Ekko from the different disciplines:

"Quote:

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."

When asked how fun it was to design Ekko, Riot ShadowStorm shared:

"Quote:

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*"

As for how long Ekko was in production, Riot ShadowStorm noted:

"Quote:

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."

When about that informs a champions design and if they start with a position, a story, or what, Riot Szymba commented:

"Quote:

Riot i have one more question before i am done for the day.
Awesome Q&A first off this champ has a lot of amazing things about him and very unique so a lot of questions are getting asked and answered.
My question is how do you guys go about deciding on the type of champion you want to build...

I know there is a back-burner filled with champion concepts but do most of the unique champs lately like Ekko, Kalista and Azir come from a demand you have for a role or to do you guys try to take the really unique ideas and run with them since you now have more time and energy you can invest in the champ development?
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."

When asked about versions of Ekko's abilities that didn't work out, gypsylord noted:

"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"

Gypsylord continued, noting an alternative Q Ekko used to have in testing:

"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"

When asked about interesting bugs during Ekko's development, Riot Szymba shared:

"Quote:

Were there any funny/interesting stories about programming mishaps that occurred during the development of Ekko? Can you tell us about any changes to his design as he was being developed? Ekko is one of the most interesting characters by far, and I'm excited to learn more about him!
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"