I’m a Seraphine player, yes, I admit it. The Starry-Eyed Songstress remains one of the most controversial champions in League of Legends, attracting a decent number of players despite what feel like constant nerfs and adjustments. Whether you love her or hate her, however, there’s no denying that Darling Dumplings Seraphine is an absolutely adorable skin, but while Amumu and Syndra are currently living out their gyoza fantasy on the Rift, Sera’s still waiting for her Lunar New Year-inspired glow up. The plus is that the skin has made it back onto the PBE, but something has changed with its recall animation.
Previously we saw Seraphine jump up onto her stage and shake her hips in the style of the Malatanghulu Dance, a TikTok trend based on the K-Pop track of the same name. Performed by SEO EVE, the song was released in 2024 and went viral on ByteDance’s platform, and considering Seraphine is the pop princess, it makes sense that she’d be keeping ahead of the trends.
The skin has since been delayed, however, as it was slated to launch alongside Amumu and Syndra’s Dumpling Darling cosmetics with League of Legends patch 25.S1.3, but has only just made it to the MOBA‘s PBE server. Eagle-eyed fans have spotted that Sera no longer does the Malatanghulu dance, though, suggesting that the emote may have been hit with a copyright strike.
Where Sera used to perform the sequence step for step, there’s now a break in the middle where she points her strawberry skewer at the audience instead of throwing it back and shaking her hips. While the recall animation still begins with a swish of the skewer and ends with a sideways turn, the core Malatanghulu dance has been removed.
There could be several reasons for this. The most obvious one is that Riot simply didn’t feel like the dance fitted with the cosmetic anymore and elected to change it. Perhaps more likely, however, is that SEO EVE has issued a copyright strike, asking for it to be removed. This, in turn, would account for the slight delay to the skin’s release.
I’ve reached out to Riot Games for comment, and will update this article if I hear back.
Dumpling Darlings Seraphine updated recall pic.twitter.com/aeMZhOSoZT
— SkinSpotlights (@SkinSpotlights) February 20, 2025
This isn’t the first time that Riot has made cheeky references to popular culture in League of Legends. Coven Nami does the ever-iconic Squidward dance from Spongebob Squarepants (if you’re lucky enough to get it, it only plays 1% of the time), and God King Darius performs the Brazil Dog Dance (which somehow never fails to make me laugh).
It’s unfortunate that this one hasn’t quite made it into the game, but I won’t lie, I actually prefer the new one. I’m also old and don’t have TikTok installed, though, so you can chalk it down to that.
If you’re looking to expand out your skin collection, here’s a list of all of the League of Legends skins that are currently on sale. Alternatively, if you’re looking for something a little more exclusive, here’s a full rundown of the current League of Legends Mythic shop.
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