This didn't seem to get a lot of attention, but analysis of the voicelines have shown what all the champions of the upcoming Shurima sets will be:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCskkPAjlTQ

TL;DW: Malphite will be in Targon, and Rek'sai will be in Shurima.

So, by process of elimination, we can deduce that..

The 10th region will be...

There won't be a 10th region

Yes, it seems extremely likely that there just won't be a 10th region by process of elimination. To understand why, first we need to understand a guiding principle for how LoR determines regions

Thematic Cohesiveness over Lore

By "thematic" I mean visual, conceptual, and gameplay cohesiveness. Take Nocturne and Kindred. In the lore, neither of them are from the Shadow Isles, and in fact never go to the Shadow Isles. However:

• Visually, both of them fit the "spooky scary stuff" theme
• Conceptually, the embodiment of nightmares and death both fit into a region of spirits and death
• Gameplay-wise, Fear (Nocturne) and Death (Kindred) both fit into the gameplay themes of SI

Basically, the guiding principle is: if you were to show a champion and explain what the champion does to someone who has never read LoL lore, which region would they intuitively think it goes into?

So now, let's look at all the possible candidates for the 10th region

Void

Void was the most likely candidate for the 10th region, because it has a very distinct visual and thematic identity: purple creatures with a unique insectoid/alien visual, and also purple humans who exploit the void energy. Black isn't even used yet for the region colors, so they could have used a blackish purple for the region symbol.

However, they're adding Rek'sai to Shurima, which makes it extremely unlikely that they'll add a void region. Rek'sai is visually and conceptually 100% a void champion above all else. It would make no sense to make a Void region and then have a Void champion in another region. It would be extremely confusing and would ruin the cohesiveness of the region system.

Not only rek'sai, but her void followers will also be in Shurima (you can already see some of the void elements in the Shurima cards already revealed).

Instead, it seems they're approaching the void champions in the same way as the Yordle champions: parceling them out to other regions. It seems likely that most, if not all, of the void champions will go Shurima.

Ixtal

Ixtal has a mostly cohesive visual and conceptually identity (the primal elemental jungle region).

However, Malphite (nominally an Ixtal champion) is being added to a different region, Targon. This makes sense because Malphite is a big mountain champion, so if you know nothing about the lore you'd definitely place him in Targon instead of the jungle region.

Because of this, it's possible that they could add Malphite to Targon, and then still add Ixtal as the 10th region.

The problem is that there aren't nearly enough Ixtal champions. With Malphite gone, there are only 5 Ixtal champions, which is not even enough for the first expansion. Even if you stretch and reassign champions that seem like they could belong in the jungle to Ixtal, like Gnar and Wukong, it's still not enough to sustain the region

Bandle City

Lulu and Teemo have already been assigned to other regions, so Bandle City is not possible for the same reason that Rek'sai rules out the void.

Possible Objections

There are a few objections you could make to this logic

Dual Regions

You could say it's possible that Riot will introduce Dual Regions, so Rek'sai would be Void/Shurima, Teemo could be P&Z/Bandle City, etc.

However, the problem is that champions don't live in isolation; they rely on all the associated cards. If you make Teemo dual region, then you pretty much have to make Puffcap Peddler, Chump Whump, etc. dual region as well in terms of gameplay. But that wouldn't make any sense in terms of conceptual cohesion. It would be a balance and clarity nightmare

Completely new region

It's possible that LoR devs could make a completely new region on their own. But that seems extremely unlikely and difficult. Most of the common tropes for regions have already been used.

Biomes:

• Desert: Shurima
• Ice : Freljord
• Ocean : Bilgewater
• Jungle/Forest: Ixtal

Culture

• Pirates: Bilgewater
• Ninjas/Samurais: Ionia
• "Good guys" standard sword and shield warriors: Demacia
• "Anti-hero" ruthless warriors: Noxus

etc.

There aren't really any common tropes left that they could pull from, so it would be nigh impossible to make a compelling and cohesive new region.

Completely new champs

It's possible that LoR could make their own new champs. It's unlikely, but if they go this route then Ixtal could still be a possibility because they could make new jungle champions.

But their roadmap showed a new region being added later in 2021

That roadmap is almost a year old, and it's likely they changed their mind given what they're doing with Malphite and Rek'sai. Notice that in their new roadmap they don't show a new region being added later in 2021

TL;DR

There won't be a 10th region because all the existing regions can be ruled out due to their iconic champions being assigned to other regions.

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