"Gangplank is dead."

Yup. League of Legends has just killed off one of its characters. Well, "killed" off. He's dead in the lore, and he's unavailable in the game. That certainly doesn't mean this is the last we've seen of him.

As part of the story surrounding the Bilgewater event that's been running for the last few weeks, Gangplank was dispatched by his long time rival Miss Fortune. Drowned, naturally. But like super heroes, MOBA characters don't stay gone long. Just ask Skeleton Wraith King. It's unlikely the pirate is gone for good.

Riot's statement to the community is an exaggerated wink as to what's in store:

"Champion death is unprecedented in League of Legends, and we do not take it lightly. We encourage all Gangplank fans to remain calm for a few days until we can fully assess the situation. At this time, we are not addressing refund requests for him or his skins but please know that over the next several days we’ll do our best to make things right for everyone."

As are some of Riot's replies to forum posts.

It's worth pointing out that there's already a Gangplank ghost skin in-game. More to the point, Gangplank was recently given major overhaul—incorporating a new look and feature set. Which is a lot of effort to go to if you're going to permanently remove a character.

Meanwhile, Miss Fortune is living it up—rebranding herself as Captain Fortune, and gaining a new skin more in keeping with her title.

It should be fun to see where this is going. It's always cool watching developers experiment with long-running games.

Ta, Kotaku.