New League of Legends champion Ao Shin coming to China next month

League of Legends gamers in China have known about Ao Shin (敖兴), the Chinese-dragon-themed champion that’s coming to League, for a few months. But now, we finally know when Ao Shin will hit Chinese servers: January, according to Ryan “Morello” Scott, a lead designer for Riot Games. We still don’t know a ton about Ao Shin, but if you haven’t already, you can get an idea of the lore and the inspiration for the character by reading Riot’s initial announcement.

It’s likely that Ao Shin will be coming to global League of Legends players around the same time, but not definite given that he’s a Chinese-themed hero and that his release in China seems to be timed with the coming of Spring Festival, China’s most important holiday. But the whole world will be getting him sooner or later, so if you were hoping to play LoL as a dragon this Spring Festival, you may just get your wish.

League of Legends is the most popular PC game in China, and has held that number one spot for quite some time now. With new China-themed content coming in the lead-up to a major holiday, it doesn’t seem likely the game will be losing that position anytime soon.

(via 17173)