League of Legends and VALORANT fans recently got brand new characters for their game; Zeri is thrown into Summoner's Rift, and Neon joins the agent roster this month. However, many people have noticed a handful of similarities that are far less coincidence, including the same voice actor voicing both characters.
Design-wise, both Neon and Zeri are covered in bright neon colors with a twin-tail hairstyle. More importantly, these two characters share the same voice. Vanille Velasquez, a talented Filipino voice actor, confirmed that she was chosen among the two characters after auditioning for both roles.
"You have no idea about the sheer excitement I felt when they first told me I was auditioning for not just one, but two big plays," Velasquez said on social media. “I will continue to thank Riot for trusting me to be a small part of your games. I hope I make Zeri & Neon proud.”
In Zeri's champion trailer, people noticed that her kit and powers are electrically based. It looks like lightning flashes from his fingertips in the animated parts of the video, too.
Overall, his abilities and powers were surprisingly similar to Neon in VALORANT, who was in a completely different world. Neon's roster in the first-person shooter has a sprint, glide, and lightning-flying ultimate ability that no other agent in the game can do.
VALORANT is technically based on the real world, so Neon is officially from the Philippines. Zeri comes from the fictional world of Zaun in Runeterra. Still, people can't help wondering if this is the start of a possible transition between the League and VALORANT universes. This wouldn't be the first time, as these worlds were seen during the RiotX Arcane event's visual novel as characters like Jett, Killjoy, Phoenix, and Yoru were all teleported to Piltover.
Whether or not these similarities have a deeper meaning, one thing is certain: Zeri and Neon are poised to inject some energy into their fanbase when it's released.