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According to Riot developers, fans will have to wait a little longer to get their hands on Firelight Ekko. The new skin is inspired by Ekko's animated character in the hit League of Legends-inspired Netflix series Arcane. However, its release date has been pushed back. This is to give Riot more time to add more SFX to the Firelight Ekko skin and improve its quality.
Firelight Ekko had already dropped on the PBE as a preview for the latest patch to the game. But the community had expressed mixed feedback on the skin. Many did not particularly take a liking to it, considering its price of 1350 RP. As an Epic Skin, players felt that the effects and features were sorely lacking for the outfit.
Riot has steadily been releasing Arcane-themed content, before and during the airing of the show to promote it, but now even after the first season has come to a close. With a season 2 confirmed to be in the works, Riot has also revealed that they plan to bring more Arcane elements into their games, including characters like Silco debuting in Teamfight Tactics.
As for League of Legends, the champions who came to life as Arcane characters in turn received new skins. Players have already unlocked these cool new looks for Caitlyn, Vi, Jinx and Jayce through an in-game event weeks back. For Firelight Ekko, though, backlash from the community has prompted Riot to delay its release for now.
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In a Reddit comment, Lead Skin Producer Ambrielle “Katana” Army revealed the reasons behind postponing the skin's release. She said that “leaving out [the SFX] was an unfortunate mistake on our part due to a miscommunication internally.” As such, Riot will use this time to add more SFX and fix up visual effects. In addition, a Homeguard animation that will let Ekko fly around on his hoverboard. This detail emulates Ekko's portrayal in Arcane, with the character zipping around Piltover and Zaun.
“Homeguard animations are a feature that we have included on a very limited set of Epic skins when we feel it meaningfully helps sell the fantasy in a way that we couldn't otherwise,” Katana said. “Adding this [hoverboard] animation strongly contributes to Firelight Ekko's story and the celebration of Arcane.”
Riot Katana also noted that they are “going to hold off from shipping this skin for a few patches”, which means that we may not see Firelight Ekko right away when Season 12 arrives.
