5. Season Start, 2019 — Start-of-season themes are meant to build anticipation for the new ranked season - and the Season 9 theme delivered on this. Between the animated shots panning between several champions, and the theme music based on the great “Awaken”, it was a classic. Check it out! (Credit: Riot Games)
4. Star Guardians, 2016 — "Is LoL an anime?" players have occasionally asked. Well, in 2016, Riot not just rolled with it, but went the whole hog for its magical girls anime Star Guardians event. The login screen featured a song with lyrics as a login theme, to accompany the animated image of the five heroines soaring through the sky. Check it out! (Credit: Riot Games)
3. Welcome to Planet URF (April Fools Day 2015) — The second iteration of the super popular Ultra Rapid Fire game mode brought its classic login screen and theme. From the operatic start of the music, to the urf yell and the fireworks (and bubbleworks), that screen was over the top in just the right ways, and captured the outlandish charm of URF. Check it out! (Credit: Riot Games)
2. Cats vs Dogs (April Fools Day 2019) — The greatest rivalry in the history of civilization, coming to your League of Legends client! Just in case we took skins like Meowrick or Corgi Corki too seriously, Riot cooked up a login screen featuring casting by Primetime Draven and Kitty Kat Katarina. They were definitely fangirling, and the theme included meowing and barking. It was an unmistakable casting of Primetime Draven, and Kitty Kat Katarina, both fangirling like crazy in the background. How could we not put it here? Check it out! (Credit: Riot Games)
1. The Gangplank & Miss Fortune Series — This could have been just a Gangplank and Miss Fortune rework, but oh no, not this time. The designers went quite a bit further, with short stories, developing game events, and four animated login screens that evoked hand-drawn art, and subtly varied themes that matched the developing plot. The entire event was built in a way that Riot had not done before, and arguably has not done since, with the login screens playing beautifully into it. Check it out! (Credit: Riot Games)
The League of Legends client has had more than 200 login screens and themes throughout the game’s history. Whether celebrating ingame events, esports tournaments, or new champions and skins, the loading screens have often been a work of art in themselves. These are the five times Riot really knocked it out of the park.
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