With the release of K/DA’s music video ‘MORE’, came the release of a champion with much speculation and hype: Seraphine.

She originally appeared as an individual on Twitter uploading song covers and pictures. They appeared to be computer graphics, photoshopped with real-world backgrounds. What sparked the most curiosity about her was a leak stating that she would be a new champion. There was no real connection between her and Riot. So, this sparked a dispute on whether she was someone uploading song covers or an unreleased champion.

The latest tweets from @kdamusic. Riot teases new League of Legends Champion Seraphine through Twitter. In the past two months some teasers for League of Legends newest champion Seraphine have been surfacing through a Twitter and Instagram account in one of Riot Games’ most interesting marketing stunts. Seraphine on Instagram and Twitter There are also a bunch of pictures of the upcoming champion that have started to emerge on Twitter and Instagram profiles that are created under the handle “@seradotwav” and named “Seraphine.”. Seraphine⭐🌊 on Twitter “top 10 cooking moments (gone wrong) (on fire)”. Someone in Twitch chat mentioned that there was a public twitter and soundcloud of Seraphine. Could this be a new champion coming soon? Maybe involved with K.

Now, Seraphine is part of the 151 champions in League of Legends. As such, she was originally a champion that many were excited for. Initially, she had a positive response due to her beautifully sung cover by Lexie Liu, her voice actor. It was well accompanied by adorable character design, making her arrival much anticipated.

Yet after a week, most players wish she was gone. An initial love for her cute design has turned into hatred instead.

So, what caused such an anticipated champion to become so hated? Let’s get into it!

Seraphine’s Twitter

Seraphine was initially known for her Twitter account, which is a new direction that Riot hasn’t taken before. No other champions have a social media account, simply because that does not fit in with the world of Runeterra. Yet, due to her idol status, Riot wanted her to talk to her fans. So, like most idols, she posts updates and song covers on her Twitter.

Though Riot’s marketing strategy was effective in teasing her arrival and gathering interest it came with a few flaws. In the long term, it’s questionable due to how it seems like a fourth wall break in terms of lore.

Furthermore, there was an issue with how Seraphine presents herself on this Twitter account. Though she’s the cliché bubbly idol that we expect, she also posts tweets in relation to having mental health issues. Rather than raising awareness about mental health issues, she instead pretends to have them herself. Some would argue that she’s essentially emotionally manipulating the target audience to make a profit.

After several call-outs on this issue, there aren’t any tweets following this thread anymore. It’s still a shame we haven’t received an apology for this.

Seraphine’s Kit

As most know, many players refer to Seraphine as ‘Sona 2.0’ and you can see why.

In regards to their passives, Seraphine causes every third basic ability to echo and cast a second time. When casting an ability near an ally, she gains a Note. A Note gives her additional magic damage and a larger range of attack. Sona has a similar passive. Every 3 attacks, her next attack is bonus damage based on the last chord she activated. The two are quite similar in relation to gaining increased damage. In that sense, they are essentially the same, if not for a few differences like how Sona’s passive is based on the last chord she used.

For Seraphine’s ‘W’ or ‘Surround Sound’, she surrounds her nearby allies in a song. This grants movement speed and a shield to those near her. If she has shields on her already, this ability heals allies. This ability resembles Sona’s W, Aria of Perseverance. It heals allies in a similar pattern to Seraphine.

Her ultimate is also very similar to Sona and Yuumi. With Sona, her ultimate is one quick move that stuns anyone in front of her. With Yuumi, it takes several hits of her ability before the opponent is rooted. Seraphine’s ultimate involves a longer range than that of Sona’s but charms champions to approach her, while also increasing the amount of Notes allies have.

Yet, Seraphine also has many differences from Sona, where all of her abilities mostly situational. This leaves her ready for any moment where she could help her allies and provide better positioning. Furthermore, Seraphine’s cooldown and range are extended compared to Sona. Sona has a much shorter range and cooldowns. So, Sona has to stay close to allies if she wants to do anything. When using her main damage ability ‘Q’, she has to be fairly close to the enemy before it does anything.

To conclude, she does share many similarities with Sona which may seem off-putting at first. But, it might be best to try her out first before calling her a ‘Sona 2.0’. She still has her own unique kit and benefits after all.

Seraphine and Legends of Runeterra

Another minor reason, for the dislike of Seraphine, is how she is a pop star in the world of Runeterra. In a sense, this dislike isn’t unexpected, based on how she’s designed. Her character design is lighthearted and bright compared to other characters that all seem to have their own dark sides. Additionally, it might be simply because being a pop star is a job outside of the world of Runeterra. It seems like a bit of a stretch for a world based on fantasy alone.

Additionally, Seraphine is meant to be from Piltover, home to many well-known champions like Caitlyn, Vi and Ezreal. Yet, when you put all these Piltovan champions side by side, you can tell which one stands out. The only thing that’s remotely related to Piltover is her platform and mic, both powered by Hextech. Other than that, she looks more like a champion that was created first as a pop star. Then later hastily had additions made to her so that she could fit into Runeterra a bit more.

Another, more small detail, in regards to dislike for Seraphine would be the existence of her platform. Most players wished that the platform didn’t exist at all or that it only appeared during her ultimate. But Riot’s excuse for this was that the platform’s purpose was to set her apart from all other champions. Even then, it still sounds like something that they did just add to force her into the Runeterra world.

So why does everyone hate Seraphine?

There are multiple reasons why people suddenly hate this champion. Be it her Twitter, involvement in Runterra, or obnoxiously long-range kit, it’s ultimately just a matter of opinion. For the most part, it’s her similarities to Sona, not to mention the fact she’s also music-themed. It just makes her seem like more of a copycat than anything.

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Seraphine Twitter Controversy

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For a more detailed explanation of Seraphine’s abilities, go to this article.

Seraphine, League of Legends’ newest character, is a glitter bomb of fame and success within the game. But Riot went so far as to create real-life social media accounts for her character, and in those, Seraphine is a bedroom producer who lives in our world. She has a cat named Bao, she likes to do face masks, and she is a fan of K/DA. She is a café worker who wants to pursue music. Her Twitter became a venue for telling her backstory. One day she posts a cover of K/DA’s “Pop/Stars” and gets “noticed” by the group; the next thing you know, she’s flying out to help record with the group.

In the lead-up to Seraphine’s release, it all seemed like a fairly obvious promotion for Riot’s upcoming champion and skins, but things took a turn for the weird when Seraphine began to tweet about her anxieties. She suffered from imposter syndrome now that she was performing with K/DA, and she asked fans to send her encouraging messages — which she later pinned to a corkboard.

i don't think i'll ever be fully ready. but i know there's people believing in me, and that's more than enough. thank you so much, i mean it sincerely. i'm gonna face this head on pic.twitter.com/j7xZ7gQHqC

— Seraphine⭐ (@seradotwav) October 11, 2020

In the replies to the initial request for encouragement, there was tons of disdain among the kind messages. “This is frankly fucking disgusting,” one read. “Hey, this is fucked up using mental health struggles and crises as a marketing ploy,” another read. Any user who replied with encouragement was also met with another reply noting that Seraphine wasn’t real.

“Something about a marketing account using self-doubt & mental health to come across as relatable is Sadge capitalism,” said Golden Guardians Academy head coach Barento Mohammed on Twitter.

While there were fans who still found solace in Seraphine, who related to her tweets, and enjoyed what she represented, others found her anxieties upsetting, especially in our current gloomy COVID era. She’s not a real person, and she shouldn’t be coercing people into feeling close to her using mental illness when she is a social marketing campaign for a video game character.

Some people compared Seraphine to Miquela Sousa, the fictional CGI influencer, since she was creating relationships with others, all while not being real. Her anxiety-posting was a startling reminder that brands and the characters used to promote them are not our friends.

Seraphine Twitter Account

the secret to good skin is LOVE pic.twitter.com/nYNJY27AH0

— Seraphine⭐ (@seradotwav) October 6, 2020

While K/DA’s campaign was run by creative director Patrick Morales, all of Seraphine’s tweets were written by Bethany Higa. Higa used her own experiences to craft Seraphine’s story, making them relatable. But maybe a bit too relatable.

“Honestly, I wrote a lot of that story based on my own experience, as a young woman coming to Riot. It’s like one of my first jobs after college. I personally experienced self-doubt. I personally experienced imposter syndrome and all those things,” Higa said. “The intention behind the story was to show that sense of hope, that sense of persistence, and show her growing in confidence and overcoming those struggles and those fears that she might have.”

That isn’t to say that Riot Games is unwilling to admit the mistakes made with Seraphine’s later posts.

“I’m personally proud of the people on our team, like [Higa] who put very intimate parts of themselves into the character, but we also recognize that the story we chose had an unintended impact outside of the narrative that we were trying to tell,” Morales said. “Right now, what I could say is that we’re conscientious about how she engages her followers, as well as topics that may potentially hurt or mislead people.”

We don’t know what’s next for Seraphine or what Riot Games has planned for future champion promotions, but hopefully it won’t involve making a fake social media influencer and giving them relatable mental illness.