It's no secret that Smolder has been a nightmare since his League of Legends release in January 2024. But if Riot Games had released this little dragon in his original state, he would have ruined Summoner's Rift.
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On April 28, Spideraxe shared a post on their X (formerly Twitter) revealing that Smolder's scrapped design looked completely different. This was based on details previously shared by Riot's August Browning. The developer had planned for Smolder to automatically "become the son of whatever dragon's crack is for the game and gain a unique bonus to his Q."
While August didn't name the full list of effects, he did say that Smolder's Infernal Q would scout, Ocean would slow enemies, and Chemtech would apply poison. In one iteration of testing, Smolder's Super Scorcher Breath worked on turrets, including dealing real damage.
This version of Smolder didn’t make it to the live servers because it required a lot of art resources, and the champion would have been RNG-based. You never knew which dragon would take over Summoner’s Rift, meaning part of your kit would be a surprise every time you started a new game. Understanding and navigating your champion’s kit is a key part of League, and leaving it up to chance was bound to frustrate players.
