There’s a “leaked Project L roster” going around — take it with a heap of salt.

There are rumors circulating about a Project L roster leak right now. The source, a League of Legends customer survey revealed online by Youtuber Innovar Gaming, has many in the initial Project L community excited about possible selections. However, it’s worth taking the “list escape” with a pinch of salt.

The customer survey, recently shown to the world by Innovate Gaming but first completed in June 2022, features a list of 22 League of Legends characters. For each character, the video shows the question “how would you describe your relationship with the champions below?” Innovate Gaming also states that the survey asked about the characteristics of certain characters and what made them memorable. If this is an actual customer survey, it appears to be related to Project L.

There are several reasons why some of the initial Project L community is convinced that it includes future characters. For one thing, each of the six characters we’ve already seen in Project L are present. Second, questions about champion characteristics and memorable skins align with what the Project L team has established as the core goal of character design, as seen in Illaoi’s concept blog post.

This, plus the fact that we know the Project L team is in champion development mode at the moment, seems like enough to generate some hype on the roster. However, it pays to keep your composure and take the information revealed in the Innovate Gaming customer survey with a grain of salt.

It is worth emphasizing that the information is not a “leak”. It doesn’t come from internal documents, the words of an employee, a hack, or an accidental disclosure. This comes from a survey, which was sent out to League of Legends players to complete. You have to ask, why would Riot Games intentionally list the entire roster for an upcoming game in a public poll that people might send to their friends or followers online? Why would they shoot themselves in the foot like that?

Also, why would Riot Games ask for community feedback on champions they’ve already secured? If, for example, all respondents said they didn’t care about Teemo, and stated that the most memorable parts of his kit were his mushrooms and the fact that people hated him, it’s unlikely the team would blindly move forward with that in mind. . The game doesn’t even have a release date, nor does it have concrete plans for a competitive format yet.

What is more likely, at least in my opinion, is that they have intentionally included Project L characters that they know work in the game as points of comparison for possible additions to the roster. With Jinx present as a zoner, you can take community feedback for her and place it next to the feedback on Lux. With this, they can see what is similar and what is different, and figure out how to transfer what players like about Lux into a real fighting game character. They may have even intentionally included some red herrings in there, who knows!

If I were a betting man (I am), I’d expect several of the champions in this poll to be, but not all. June, when Innovate Gaming supposedly filled out the survey, was right before we knew development on Illaoi was starting. Combine this with the fact that they were continuing his hiring spree in Julyand I think when the poll was published, they were still developing the final cast.

Take the survey for what it is, an information gathering company. Maybe I’m wrong, and the poll includes the actual final release list for Project L. If so, I’ll take my bundles, but I’d also be absolutely amazed Riot Games would pass that up and take it away. pre-launch of the Project L publicity train.

But what do you think? Do you see the survey as a smoking gun? Let us know below!

For more Project L content, check out our on-the-ground conversation with League of Legends fans at the LEC Finals this year, and if they care about Project L right now.