Is Corina Veraza the next support in League of Legends?

Riot has been relatively mysterious when it comes to champions getting added to League of Legends at the end of this year and headed into 2022.

Fans have received clues about the next three champions to be added to League of Legends’ lengthy roster. The first will be a marksman wielding some type of electric cannon, the second a support with a darker tone, and the third being a jungler from the void.

The LoL community has started to speculate that the support has been seen before in another one of Riot’s properties. Corina, a villain set up as Caitlyn’s nemesis in Legends of Runeterra.

Who is Corina Veraza?

Corina Veraza is a Chembaron introduced in Legends of Runeterra as a foil to Caitlyn, very much the Poison Ivy to Caitlyn’s Commissioner Gordon.

Corina is described as a Chembaron aiming to become more powerful than the Piltover Council and Chembarons combined. She cultivates exotic and deadly flora in her cultivar. She is scarred by encounters with the more deadly varieties of plant, and has metal augmentations to compensate for these.

Corina is depicted on two cards in Legends of Runeterra. One is “Corina Veraza,” her first appearance. Her second is “Corina, Mastermind.” These depict her before and after her master plan to cultivate the “Magnum Opus,” the purple flower with golden-yellow growths in the center depicted in Corina Veraza’s art. The Magnum Opus feeds off of the toxic gray smog that hangs throughout Zaun, known as the “Zaun Grey.”

Corina gives the Piltover Wardens a false tip about the activities of a mysterious criminal “C,” as is depicted in “Station Archivist.” The ambush is depicted in Caitlyn’s leveled-up form and in “Corina, Mastermind.” She’s all about setting traps and luring her enemies into them, especially those involving the Magnum Opus’ powerful spores.

What does the new support have in common with Corina?

The new support previewed in Riot Games’ 2021 Champion Roadmap has a few things in common with Corina. The descriptive paragraph about the support’s theme talks about technology ruling their city, about using pawns to get what you want, and calling the shots from behind the scenes.

These characteristics line up with Corina’s mastermind persona, laying traps and luring enemies into her well-devised ambushes. From Piltover and Zaun, she is very likely to understand the role of technology in the corrupt power structure of both cities. The image accompanying this description also has some interesting nods that could be referencing Corina.

The pin or sigil presented can be hard to decipher, but the best place to begin is with the golden design in the center. A tri-leafed bloom, it is one of only two gold elements on the symbol along with an illegible nameplate below it.

This pattern clearly evokes flower aesthetics and looks similar to the yellow growths, flanked by blade-like purple petals seen in Corina Veraza’s art. The clouds set into the central design and on either side in grey metal match both Corina’s augmentations’ color as well as potentially referencing the Zaun Grey.

With these in mind, this pin has lots of coincidental clues that point toward’s Chembaron Veraza’s Magnum Opus and its ability to draw power from the deadly Zaun Grey. She wouldn’t be the first character first seen in Legends of Runeterra that made their way onto Summoner’s Rift, with Yone also appearing in the card game before joining League of Legends. Augmented with metal and Chemtech, she has just enough aesthetic difference from Zyra to allow both green-thumbed supports space to flourish in unique ways.