Riot Games partnered with Filipina cosplayer and streamer Aryanna to create the first-ever official Zeri cosplay for their launch event, “Ignite The Spark,” to welcome Zeri as the newest addition to the League of Legends: Wild Rift roster.
Riot Games’ Zeri from League of Legends was first released last January 20, 2022, but was only introduced to League of Legends Wild Rift only in February of this year.
Last March 12, 2023, League of Legends Wild Rift finally unveiled Zeri as the latest addition to the roster. The unveiling event featured a bunch of activities and games for the community to participate in, inlcuding a Wild Rift show match between Nigma Galaxy and the fans, a talk and meet & greet with the voice actor of Zeri, Vanille Velasquez, and the reveal of the official Zeri cosplayer plus a meet & greet with Aryanna!
Partnering with Aryanna for the creation of the official Zeri cosplay is a testament to Riot Games’ commitment to the gaming community. Cosplay has become an increasingly popular aspect of gaming culture, and Riot Games’ decision to create an official cosplay for Zeri demonstrates their dedication to supporting and celebrating their fans.
Who is Zeri?
Zeri’s bioelectric powers serve as the grounding theme that defines both of their “kits,” or their visual and technical designs.
Apart from enticing gamers with these features, they’ve also been intriguing Filipino fans, especially after their Filipino voice actress Vanille Velasquez called these characters Filipino-inspired.
Vanille Velasquez further clarified how she coined the term in an interview. “[It’s actually] only Zeri that’s Filipino-coded,” she explained. “Zeri’s not Filipino. [She]’s from Zaun, [making] her a Zaunite — but there are aspects of her character that are clearly inspired by Filipino culture. She has Filipino traits and features in her appearance.”
Although Zaun is a fictional community, Filipinos can readily relate to how it grapples with conflict, corruption, and class struggle.
Zeri hails from the undercity of Zaun in League of Legends. Being born with her electrokinetic abilities, she struggled with controlling them — until they were channeled into vigilante work against her hometown’s oligarchic Chem-Barons.
Zeri differs from other champions who play her intended role as an attack damage carry (ADC) because the majority of her damage output comes from her abilities rather than her basic attacks. Players are then rewarded for constant movement and consistently hitting enemies.
Aryanna as Zeri
Partnering with well-known Filipina cosplayer and streamer Aryanna, Riot Games created the first-ever official Zeri cosplay for their launch event, “Ignite The Spark,” as they welcomed Zeri as the newest addition to the League of Legends: Wild Rift roster.
With their partnership, Riot Games got to find out more about Aryanna’s passion for content creation and cosplaying, as well as more about her connection to the character of Zeri.
Q: How did you get into cosplay, and what inspired you to do your first one?
Aryanna: I’ve always been into all things anime, manga, and video games. Growing up, I used to religiously watch Sailor Moon or Fushigi Yuugi and have enjoyed Japanese culture from a young age.I did my first ever cosplay when I was 14 years old of Enma Ai from Jigoku Shoujo but only recently got back into cosplaying consistently last 2021 when I first debuted my VALORANT cosplays such as Killjoy, Jett, Skye, Raze, Reyna, and Viper. I am known in the community for my signature Killjoy cosplay and voice line impressions but am always trying out different characters to dress up as.
Q: Who did you work with on producing the content (photos and videos)?
Aryanna: I worked tirelessly with Welcome Studios and Oasis Gaming on this project as we only had 1 week to execute the whole concept. I worked closely with Clark from Welcome Studios to come up with our own interpretation of the Zeri Champion Trailer/Cinematic and decided to put our own twist on it by shooting in Intramuros to give the same vibes as Zaun.
Q: How did it feel when you were first contacted by Riot Games to cosplay as Zeri?
Aryanna: I was definitely so thrilled to be working again with Riot Games, but it was even a bigger honor to be contacted to be the official Zeri cosplayer for her launch in League of Legends: Wild Rift. I definitely had a happy cry about it as cosplay is something I really enjoy and am a fan personally of League of Legends, especially of Zeri. It’s not often you get to be the face to represent a Filipino-inspired character in an international game so this was definitely a big deal for me as I wanted to do the character justice by accurately recreating her cosplay.
Q: What were some of the biggest challenges in producing this video?
Aryanna: The time frame was obviously the biggest challenge as we only had 1 week to shoot everything. I wanted to come out with the content soon after the launch of Zeri as a part of Wild Rift so that meant shooting all our assets in one day and editing everything within a week. Special thanks to Welcome Studios, Dagli Films, Oasis Gaming, all the people behind the scenes, and our 2 editors for coming out with such great quality of content that we can all be proud of. They really helped bring our vision of Zeri to life and I hope people enjoy the videos and photos as much as we had fun working on this project.
Images courtesy of Welcome Studios.
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