The roster is obviously tiny, with a lot of the cast being in Arcane and they did 0 marketing based on that. They don't even have a title that tells you its a league product. Arcane has 0 international appeal so China and Korea get nothing from that. I don't think China plays a lot of fighting games, and Japan has a very small league server so those are duds too. Visual appeal by region is very different with China loving their simple edgy ninjas and lean hot girls, where as Americans like unique monsters or monsterfied humans. There are too many ranged characters and the melee characters they chose mostly play as lumbering and slow in the main game. Blitzcrank is essentially a 1 button character in the main game. Because the roster is so small theres no natural partner for each character, and there are plenty in the lore to choose from. There are tons of league characters that can function well in a fighting game and are popular, but this roster is not them. They also should have put in a Ryu vs Ken analog to have a baseline for the games fundamentals.
The cutesy/hot girl characters that sell the most skins do not translate well to a fighting game because they are mostly low agency and ranged. From their girl band KDA they put in a ranged mage instead of a melee assassin. They didn't put in their incredibly popular blind monk character which you would expect to be an automatic entry whose skins include Muay Thai, Dragon Fist (its Bruce Lee), Knockout (Boxing), and God Fist. There is minimal sex appeal. Caitlyn and Vi are smelly lesbians who got an explicit sex scene in Arcane for some reason. Jinx is a Harley Quin copy with a black simping love interest in Ekko. Ahri is wearing shoes which is no good for fighting game coomers. Ahri is rated very highly in visual appeal for all regions and both sexes (a previous Riot dev called her female James Bond), but I don't think can work well in a fighting game. Illaoi is allegedly female.
League players are way too casual to play a fighting game and a core principal of league is blaming your teammates for everything. The 2v2 entries that I've played in Street Fighter x Tekken and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 were both poorly received so maybe 2v2 is just off-putting to consumers.
and who the fuck wants to play against teemo man
I've sadly played a lot of league, played some MVC3, Tekken Tag2, and Street Fighter 4+5. I've seen a few reviews of Arcane and a little footage of this game.
4 days later edit
a few days after this post they announced the melee assassin ninja Akali, and a another character with a gun, who is also brown, Senna
The roster is obviously tiny, with a lot of the cast being in Arcane and they did 0 marketing based on that. They don't even have a title that tells you its a league product. Arcane has 0 international appeal so China and Korea get nothing from that. I don't think China plays a lot of fighting games, and Japan has a very small league server so those are duds too. Visual appeal by region is very different with China loving their simple edgy ninjas and lean hot girls, where as Americans like unique monsters or monsterfied humans. There are too many ranged characters and the melee characters they chose mostly play as lumbering and slow in the main game. Blitzcrank is essentially a 1 button character in the main game. Because the roster is so small theres no natural partner for each character, and there are plenty in the lore to choose from. There are tons of league characters that can function well in a fighting game and are popular, but this roster is not them. They also should have put in a Ryu vs Ken analog to have a baseline for the games fundamentals.
The cutesy/hot girl characters that sell the most skins do not translate well to a fighting game because they are mostly low agency and ranged. From their girl band KDA they put in a ranged mage instead of a melee assassin. They didn't put in their incredibly popular blind monk character which you would expect to be an automatic entry whose skins include Muay Thai, Dragon Fist (its Bruce Lee), Knockout (Boxing), and God Fist. There is minimal sex appeal. Caitlyn and Vi are smelly lesbians who got an explicit sex scene in Arcane for some reason. Jinx is a Harley Quin copy with a black simping love interest in Ekko. Ahri is wearing shoes which is no good for fighting game coomers. Ahri is rated very highly in visual appeal for all regions and both sexes (a previous Riot dev called her female James Bond), but I don't think can work well in a fighting game. Illaoi is allegedly female.
League players are way too casual to play a fighting game and a core principal of league is blaming your teammates for everything. The 2v2 entries that I've played in Street Fighter x Tekken and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 were both poorly received so maybe 2v2 is just off-putting to consumers.
and who the fuck wants to play against teemo man
I've sadly played a lot of league, played some MVC3, Tekken Tag2, and Street Fighter 4+5. I've seen a few reviews of Arcane and a little footage of this game.
4 days later edit a few days after this post they announced the melee assassin ninja Akali, and a another character with a gun, who is also brown, Senna