Genshin Impact's official HoYoLAB account randomly posted Ayato fanart before swiftly deleting it.
Players might recognize this piece of fanart if they pay attention to the Genshin Impact leaking community. It's a fake character icon that many Travelers used when talking about Ayato.
At the time, there was no official artwork of model for players to go off of, but there was plenty of fanart to use for speculation.
However, it's still odd that Genshin Impact's official HoYoLAB account would randomly post it before deleting it shortly after. His official look is noticeably different from what this fanart depicts, and considering it was deleted shortly after, most Travelers assume the whole ordeal was an accident.
The above tweet shows the original post from HoYoLAB; the URL no longer works, as it will give players a 404 Error message. Ayato's official character icon has not been posted anywhere, which would make the official HoYoLAB account posting it seems bizarre to some players.
Source: The original Bilibili video
How this fanart was made was posted on Bilibili (as seen above). Why it was selected to be posted on the official HoYoLAB account over the plethora of other fanart remains unknown. One advantage it has over other fanart is that it was one of the first speculative fanart of his appearance.
Travelers should know that this video is only 29 seconds long. It details the drawing process in a significantly sped-up manner, including the reference material the artist used. The finished product is identical to the one that the official Genshin Impact HoYoLAB account posted.
It wasn't just Twitter and Reddit users who were confused by this HoYoLAB post; the people who actually use HoYoLAB were just as perplexec. miHoYo did not
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