Teemo ASU First Look: The Yordle’s Visual Update is Here
Teemo’s Art and Sustainability Update (ASU) is coming in Patch 14.20 after Lee Sin’s ASU. The ASU team worked hard to make Teemo look better while keeping his round yordle fluffiness. This rework gives him a new silhouette, personality, and even height—slightly longer limbs make Teemo look taller and more dignified on the Rift.
This is part of the ongoing process to update older champions to the visual standard of newer champions.
Three of Teemo’s classic skins—Happy Elf, Recon, and **Badger skins—will go up in price to 750 RP from 520 RP. But you can still get them for the old price before the update hits. These skins have new art and animations* so they look better and not as hair dyed teemo as Megan “Ze Ocelot” O’Rourke* called him.
The ASU also brings new skins like Astronaut Teemo and Modern Teemo, which have the same level of detail. The ASU team focused on making Teemo look more colorful and cheerful with better animations and a new recall sequence that reflects his playful nature.
The 3D art team went beyond surface-level changes and worked on Teemo’s skeleton to make it easier to create and maintain future skins and updates. One of the biggest challenges the ASU team faced was Teemo’s old skeleton, which had accumulated a lot of what’s called "technical debt" over the years. As David “Riot Duncnasty” Jeka and the technical art team explained, the old skeleton was holding back Teemo’s animations and overall visual quality, so they implemented a modular skeleton system to make updates smoother.
The new modular skeleton allows Teemo’s base model to support different thematic skins without needing a full rework for each one. For example, skins like Devil Teemo, which have unique elements like a devil tail and horns, can now share the same skeleton and have thematic-specific animations. This modular approach also future-proofs the model, making it easier for Riot Games to create new skins for Teemo without having to rework his entire model each time.
Also, dynamic facial expressions and limb movement are possible now, so he’s more expressive across all skins. These changes allow for smoother animations whether he’s recalling, throwing a blind dart, or planting a mushroom. The ASU team made sure to keep Teemo’s look recognizable while introducing big changes in how his abilities and movements are displayed in-game.
This applies to his iconic skins like Astronaut Teemo, where he’s closer in design to recent Astronaut skins. Older skins like Happy Elf Teemo were completely reworked to go from simple recolors to full skins with their own personality. Megan “Ze Ocelot” O'Rourke, concept artist on the project, said older skins like Happy Elf Teemo looked like “dyed Teemo” rather than a whole character, so the team set out to fix that. The team made sure each of Teemo’s skins is distinct, modern, and up to the standard of recent updates like Lee Sin’s ASU.
The animation team worked on making Teemo’s abilities and interactions more fluid and natural. Key parts of his facial rig were designed to capture a wide range of expressions, so Teemo looks more expressive and animated. Teemo’s Q (Blinding Dart) and W (Move Quick) abilities now have smoother and more natural animations that match his playful personality while keeping his signature side-to-side “waddle” movement, which the team kept because it’s a big part of Teemo’s character.
Also, skins like Beemo got a lot of updates. The new 3D model allows players to see Teemo’s face on his bee onesie. And for Astronaut Teemo, the ASU team put in some nostalgic Easter eggs like his old splash art in his recall animation.
One of the visual changes in Teemo’s ASU was updating his abilities, specifically his Q (Blinding Dart) and E (Toxic Shot), to make them more distinct in-game. Previously, these abilities had similar visual cues, which could be confusing in fast-paced combat. To fix this, the ASU team gave each ability its own look to improve gameplay clarity.
Blinding Dart (Q) now has a bright purple visual effect, so you can instantly tell when Teemo fires it at an enemy. Toxic Shot (E) has been updated with green poison effects, so you can tell it’s toxic and not his Q.
As part of Teemo’s ASU, his lore was softly reworked to present a more cheerful and lighthearted Teemo. The update changed Teemo’s personality from a military tone to a warmer and more adventurous one. He’s now a scout troop leader, exploring the world with a playful spirit. The Bandle Scouts are no longer depicted as a military organization but as a scouting group like traditional scouting institutions.
Teemo’s charm is still there, but the update moved away from the darker tones of skins like Omega Squad Teemo. The lore now focuses on Teemo’s innocent and mischievous nature—he’s a playful and well-meaning Yordle who’s completely clueless about the chaos he causes.
The ASU lore changes have sparked debate in the League of Legends community (e.g. from /r/LeagueofLegends), with some players disappointed about the removal of a key part of Teemo’s lore: his dual persona. Previously, Teemo was not only a friendly and approachable Bandle Scout but also a deadly solo mission assassin. In his original lore, fellow Yordles would recognize something “off” about him – he could go from a cheerful Bandle Scout Captain to one of the most dangerous Yordles alive when his people were in danger.
This dual persona added depth to Teemo; he was more than just a playful scout. He was a Yordle who would do anything to protect his people, gather poisons, craft weapons, and execute covert ops. The lore of Omega Squad Teemo was a darker and more mature take on what war does to a character—what prolonged exposure to conflict can do.
Many fans feel that removing this dual persona makes Teemo more one-dimensional. This is seen as a move away from the mystery that made him so interesting. Some argue that his ability to be both a cute and friendly figure and a deadly and efficient killer was what made Teemo unique, and now that’s gone.
Players who liked Teemo’s darker side are disappointed that the lore update removed that. It feels like he’s now a more straightforward and lighthearted character without the underlying complexity that made him special in the Runeterra universe.
To match the visual and animation changes to Teemo, the audio team added new sound effects and updated voice lines. They worked on making the audio cues for Teemo’s abilities more realistic and dynamic, making the sounds of his blow darts, stealth mechanics, and mushrooms more immersive.
For example, Teemo’s Q (Blinding Dart) now has a satisfying sound that makes you feel like you’re poisoning the enemy, while his mushrooms have squelchy and bouncy sounds that add a playful touch to his abilities. One of the most notable changes is that Teemo now has footstep sounds during his W (Move Quick) ability, so you can hear him scurrying across different terrain.
Teemo’s ASU is part of Riot’s ongoing effort to modernize older champions, similar to the recent Lee Sin update. This rework aims to bring Teemo’s skins and in-game visuals up to the standard of newer League of Legends champions. By making Teemo align visually with other updated champions, the ASU ensures that he stays relevant in a game where visual clarity and aesthetics are always evolving.
Teemo’s ASU will be available on the PBE starting September 24, so players can try him out early. The official release is set for October 9 with Patch 14.20. Players can explore his visual updates and new skins on the PBE before the update goes live.
Teemo’s ASU is a long-overdue visual update that brings the Yordle up to modern standards. This update includes new skins, art, animation updates, reworked lore, personality changes, and audio.
Try him out on the PBE starting September 24 before the update goes live on October 9. With new visuals, updated animations, and more Teemo-ness, he’s sure to be around for a long time on the Rift.
Source: /dev: Scouting out Teemo
