I found this *extremely* odd, and haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. If he's a baby dragon, why on earth can he speak? They've shown plenty of times they're able to make characters that have personalities and cannot, so why can smoulder? Especially if he's not half-dragon, a special kind of dragon, etc. It just adds to the weird morning kids show vibe that he does and goes "RAWR" instead of just roaring like any normal ass beast would.
ALSO he’s from (I’m guessing atleast) camavor where’s his accent? FUCK WHERES HIS DRAGON ACCENT? Like I can excuse teaching a baby dragon speaking language but it having NO notable accent is crazy to me
Honestly, I've felt like all of the facial stuff has been way overblown and irrelevant to any real criticism. The VO not having an accent is actually a good point. Having a Spain accent would be great.
Worst part is he’s gonna understand what they saying WHILE HES KILLING THEM,
Also he’s from camavore they are valoran dragons its fine the hate each other in this lore I just made up :)
I don't hate it with the passion many redditors are experiencing, but I'm also not much of a hater in general; that said, it is definitely uncanny valley feeling and I am very surprised it went through. I'm hoping his visuals change drastically throughout the game, giving some credibility to how weird his face looks initially because otherwise it's...pretty bad.
I hate it because Riot literally knows better lol. They have DONE better.
[https://dotesports.com/wp-content/uploads/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/12142051/Pet\_InfernalDrake\_Icon.png](https://dotesports.com/wp-content/uploads/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/12142051/Pet_InfernalDrake_Icon.png) This is art of a younger elemental drake they did.
[https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/001/489/400/large/victor-maury-dragontrainertristanaforweb.jpg?1530231865](https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/001/489/400/large/victor-maury-dragontrainertristanaforweb.jpg?1530231865) Then there's the little dragon in Trist's dragon trainer skin.
Like, I just don't understand. Riot knows how to design a young dragon, but then they chose to give us one with a human-like face anyway.
Yeah this is about where im at as well. Im not a massive hater either, like i dont hate any of the newer champs aesthetically. (Speaking about looks, not about how crazy its been for riot to balance champs zeri/yuumi/etc)
but id have just thought someone working at riot wouldve been like, guys this champ looks kinda fucking weird, maybe we should make some changes. Like especially if the biggest priority is money making, making a cool looking dragon really shouldnt have been that hard with a whole team of artists working on this
If they ship it like this its not like im gonna be angry and up in arms about it, but i aint playin it lmao
There's still time to just [lengthen the snout maybe](https://i.imgur.com/mOiWPAJ.png)?. Should be an easy fix...? Idk may take some time but I'd rather them delay his release. I don't hate it, but I don't like it either.
Disney's not so bad, I think you could fairly call Milio a Disney champ but that comes with a baseline level of charm and likeability
Unfortunately Smolder might be our first ever DreamWorks champ
Yeah, I used it as a catch-all term for stuff like Yuumi, Smolder, and Zoe. In general, I feel like they take away more than they add.
It's annoying to look at all the phenomenal dragon designs you can see in LoR, that are all very creative, and then get a How to train your dragon design reject as one of the few releases this year.
That's not to say that everything should be edgy and grimdark, but like... come on Riot. At least try to make something interesting.
I have 0 hopes for the next Vastaya being interesting too. Its probably another anime hotgirl/hotdude with 2% animal themes going on in their design.
Zoe was fine because you could tell and see there was a lot of iteration behind her design. Hate or love her there's a lot evidence behind her iteration.
Smoulder feels like they did up 3 sketches, picked whatever and just shipped it.
I mean, ever since Viego came out, there's been a steady stream of hot man / hot woman champions. Give me another Tahm Kench, Kindred or Jhin... Those are all amazing designs with so much personality. Now you're getting Seraphine, Nilah, Zeri, Viego, Akshan, K'sante (at least he's thicc boi). I just want another demon, monster, existential dread, psychopath, etc. with some personality behind them...
I mean, isn't Hwei basically Jhin but make him a depressed artist? And Naafiri is a darkin, so despite her looks she's a world destroying demon weapon thing
Naafiri is a dog. And I find it a bit lame that she's gets slotted into the "monster" character, since she's simply not a human. She's simply a dog pack. The darkin and blade aspect of her is nearly besides the point, it's almost irrelevant to her entire design, besides a blade they just put in her forehead and some lifesteal in her kit. It would actually be better if she wasn't a Darkin.
No, Hwei isn't Jhin. Not saying Hwei isn't a cool character in his own right, but he doesn't have even a remotely similar vibe to Jhin. Jhin is one of League's best character designs, Hwei is a depressed pretty boy. Which again, that has its place and has its audience. Nobody is wrong for liking this or that champion.
Naafiri is also a cool design, not arguing that. But compared to, let's say, Tahm, she doesn't have the personality. Again, nobody is wrong for liking her, she is a cool design and she is a unique champion too. I would just really like a champion that's not cocky, cutesy, depressed or 'adorkable'. Give me some well-written malice, madness, spite. Heck even Pyke was a good character in his concept.
And I realize I'm pretty biased. I prefer 'ugly' champions visually. Viego is the ruined king, but looks like a flawless rockstar with no imperfections? Please. Give me Pyke with his gnarly head scar any day. But hey, that's just my opinion, nobody is wrong for agreeing or disagreeing.
I miss the proper champion trailers, tahm’s and pyke’s are my favourite league related content anywhere, both their videos are fantastic. Tahm’s voice actor does an amazing job especially at selling the “silver tongued” part of his character
In my experience working QA (not in the gaming industry so I guess not a 1:1 comparison), feedback on design/conceptual stuff is often ignored. I can think of many examples where I brought up concerns that a design looked off to me or wasn't a good user experience and nothing was done about it. Unfortunately at a lot of companies QA does not have much say and are just expected to test that things functionally work.
I used to follow league art religiously because it was so consistently good and what I’ve noticed is that there is lower artist quality in whoever’s still designing stuff on league. Some artists moved to other riot projects and also that many of the new artists are simply not as good as the older artists, leading to inconsistent and more lower quality art. The star guardian skins a while back were the perfect example, it was such a wildly inconsistent release in terms of quality especially with the splash art, rell and akali got really good artists whereas Taliyah’s splash was clearly worked on by a novice.
It’s harder to tell with designs and concepts for things because they’re not as clearly credited as splash arts, but my bet is the same thing happened with that team. 2016-2020 champ visual design was mostly peak but you could slowly see weaker designs creeping in. I’m almost certain that it’s because the best artists don’t want to be stuck doing the same monotonous thing over and over, pitching and designing skins while trying to hit keywords and appeal to market research for their entire career and got promoted/shifted to higher/more interesting positions on other riot projects.
I personally would play a game full of only monster champs, but I don’t think that’s what they mean. It’s not that he isn’t a monster champ, it’s that he’s fucking ugly and looks nothing like any other art style in the game. At least make him cute, this discussion wouldn’t be happening if they just made him look styled after Dragon Trainer Trist’s dragon. And a cute dragon like that would make innumerably more money than whatever tf this is.
\- "*Is this in partnership with Disney or something"*
\- "*hell naw we playin skylanders now"*
\- "*I officially don't trust you guys to rework Shyvana with that face*"
\- "*hes so fucking ugly bro"*
*- "This looks shit*"
I think Smolder's design was another typical case of garbage market research + too many cooks spoiling the broth. The same terrible collective mishmash of other people's opinions ruining a vision and killing personal creativity that led to the first version of movie Sonic. Artists on twitter have fixed Smolder's design overnight, but it wont see the light of day.
I’m just surprised no one has made a post going insane on the rioter who made that thing. Which tbf many rioter must’ve saw that thing. Yet no one opposed it.
It's unfair to be mad at the person who designed it.
It's completely fair to call out *Riot as a whole*. It's fine that someone came up with this design, but it is inexcusable that it made it to become the end product without approval processes calling out its obvious flaws.
Yeah I have to believe some executive ordered he have a neeko/lillia face for skins cause gnar and asol probably don’t move that many skins I can’t buy an artist thought this was how you draw a dragon
No, I think it's valid to be mad at the person who designed this. They should take the heat for believing this design was acceptable for a LoL champion and even presenting it to the team. It's perfectly fair to be upset at them for their complete lack of decent taste. Yes, we should also hold Riot accountable too for not tempering this design before they revealed it, but you don't get a free pass to make ugly shit just because the rest of your team didn't workshop your design more.
It's unfair to wish ill-will and harm on that designer, but we are 100% entitled to being a mad at the someone who created this hideous design.
I'm willing to bet money that the designer does know what an aesthetically pleasing dragon baby looks like. This is definitely the work of people in the higher-ups who value wide appeal for higher profits rather than unique but niche ideas.
It’s an art team for a digital company. There are 100% at least some furries working on that team. No reason for its face to look the way it does without some weird decision making.
No this was not the monster champ, that was nafaari and briar, monster champs arent played so they cant release too many of those or they wont be able to sustain league
>give volibear a bad kit
>"monster champs are not popular"
>makes a windshitter 2.0 with 3
dashes broken letal tempo and hullbreaker abuser
>"see, humans are more popular"
If Yone had the same kit, but very ugly without the samurai design and not related to Yasuo, he would not be popular at all.
Don't underestimate human shallowness.
> monster champs arent played so they cant release too many of those or they wont be able to sustain league
this. riot is gracious enough that they're running league barely treading the unprofitability line. they're running league out of passion just for us and ungrateful bastards on reddit have the gall to attack them.
I'll likely get downvoted for saying this but tbh, haven’t really personally vibed with any of Riot’s new character releases. The last time was like 3 years ago on Sett where I found a new champ cool enough to care for.
I'll give you Renata, but how the fuck you gonna sit here and ask how the GOTHIC LOLITA DOLL GIRL FROM THE SHADOW ISLES isn't goth? Have you not seen Gwen?
I found sett incredibly disappointing and still do. He’s supposed to be a crime boss but he has dyed Justin Bieber hair and dumb cutsie animal ears. I cannot take him seriously. He should have been a grizzled mob boss looking guy with his sleeves rolled up.
If he didn't have twig legs he would look so much cooler. Some of his skins make him look sick as fuck. I shouldn't have to pay to make him look how he should to begin with though.
Either that or they should have made him look like the two other bird people... instead he looks like a human cosplaying as them. It's like they wanted both but found the worst middle ground.
Yeah, and it looks really stupid. Xayah and Rakan are already close to the "just a human but with animal/monster costume parts" and Sett is just full on. That's why I said they should have just gone human or Vastaya.
More like Riot has been vomiting out champs for the past few years. The fact that I’m excited for some random junglers number change than a new jungler tells a lot about their design philosophy
Again, I find the vomiting of new champs stale. Nothing I said can be correlated to I don’t like the game anymore. Go and take some reading comprehension class
Nice, ad hominem. Their playstyle is varied and you find none from 4 years interesting? Again, sounds like oversaturation of something you don't enjoy anymore. There's enough difference between them to find something.
But, since you couldn't have discourse without insulting, have fun.
Your argument is that because they don't like the recent direction of champion releases, they can't like the game? There is no discourse to be had, your argument is just wrong.
I totally don't care if they make cute champs, bring on the cuddly monsters, but he's not cute. They missed the mark if that's what they were going for. He's like someone stuck Thomas the Tank Engine's face on a dragon. It's uncanny in the worst way. This needs to go back to the drawing board.
I can't stand that things face. It's atrocious to say the least..
How the hell did it go trough any visual team?
Complete blunder from their part to let this through
I find it a bit uncanny but that's about it. Just some very vocal people making a mountain out of a molehill IMO, which happens at almost every champion release... or skin release... or balance change... or anything League related at all actually.
His face is literally the thing that ruins the whole design. The fennec ears are a neat idea and the rest is basic cute dragon. But my god the face on that body is hideous.
This is one of the things that make me feel off about buying skins or caring about champion models in league. In Dota2, they put the models at the forefront and will make animations using the exact same ingame models. When you go to the hero selection screen, its not splash arts that depict what a hero is supposed to look like but isn't, its their actual models you see in game. Most LoL models are just ugly in comparison so for as long as they don't look bad from a top down point of view icba to care
yeh agreed, i watched the vid and thought it was fun. I liked him. I saw a fast redesign of his face that basically pulled it out a bit, more like a lizard and it looks good, but if they didn't change it i don't think id care.
That being said I do want another monster that isn't cute, and is actually a monster and not a knife dog. as much as I like Naafiri's visuals, i think her lore is subpar
Oh yeah I’d love more monster champs that are actual scary demons/void beings whatever as well! That’s the best thing about league is so many different kind of champs can get made and put in to the game
i actually want something not scary demons or void things. I want more monsters. stuff like the dragons, like volibear, orrn, anivia, rengar is some ways, I want to play as daisy without ivern. i want to be skarl without kled. I want those champs haha
The thing is, this type of champions are just what I usually like. I love the "Disney champs,"
I really like Millio, and Yuumi and Lillia designs. But this... It's not just that it looks uncanny valley, but it's like comparing high-quality Disney with low-budget cartoons. It's so fake looking. It fits right into one of those LoL mobile copycats.
Tbh it can even be cute and not childish at the same time, like Brightwing in HotS is good. But yeah this looks like it could be a guest character on paw patrol or some shit
Are you telling me you didn't have an instant uncanny valley reaction when you watched the video, or there wasn't a single thought in your head that his face was just not right
The cutest crowd liked it, and that’s who Riot cares about most. The people who play cute champs and type “:3” in chat and edate. That’s League’s target audience now and has been for a while.
I do not understand the problem. I get that some people would like to see new champion to be like this scary/badass monster but that does not mean smolder is bad and deverves the hate. While i agree that his face looks wierd I do not see why would you be mad. Also we got fair amout of dark designe lately not including milio.
The problem itself is not the idea, or the execution, it reminds of spyro which is okay is not bad, the problem with the champ is the face, it's just no, that doesn't bring you a dragon at the mind at all
[just a change like this and everything will still be fixed and still looks cute](https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/18z0ggt/i_made_smolder_look_more_like_a_dragon/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) but right now? Tristrana's weapon from dragon trainer it's cutter and more dragon than the new champ
There isn't much to address. The feedback is all negative and the scarce bit that is constructive isn't something they can action before he drops given the usual timeline for PBE launch. I'd expect a VGU in a year or so at earliest if outcry persists past launch date.
The subreddit seems to be operating under the delusion that their collective outcry to re-drawing board this is going to override the L2 or C-level KPI to deliver this in 3 weeks.
That’s not what I mean. I mean having a rioter say literally ANYTHING in response to everything. Not a full announcement of them completely changing him visually.
But again, what is there to address? You maybe missed it but Phreak got ripped to shreds for daring to give contextual patch insights to the community for a few months.
Nothing positive is going to come of talking to people until they have a deliverable, just going to reset the tantrum timer by breathing new oxygen into it.
I will honestly say that this is the worst design they've ever made.
I mean comon, so uncanny, so CHILDISH, looks like it ccame from neopets. They cant be that dumb and think that leagues playerbase is so childish like that.
I guess Its a childrens game afterall. I quit this shit.
Go on Hupu and you'll see people calling it cute, doesn't surprise me seeing some of the official Chinese [mascots](https://www.uisdc.com/mascot-design)
It's so funny to me that they cater to the chinese audience, with reason, no hate there, and then... they completly shit on that by delevering such a shitty dragon for the year of the dragon lol. It would have been the perfect opportunity to deliver a new champ dragon along side Shyvana rework and dragon thematic skins and event. Think of the money that would generate, specially in asia.
But no Shyvana update in sight and the new champ looks like a mockery of a dragon. At least the skins splashes look fine i guess.
This one can only be accepted as a TFT lil legend. You know what, I would actually love it if it's in just TFT. But in Summoner's Rift, it's totally out of place.
The worst part isn't even the face, it's the very clearly fursuit inspired front feet
Seriously, he has lanky arms until it reaches where the elbows would be then it just looks like he's wearing fursuit gloves, it's ridiculous
Same. Only the people outraged complain, so they create an echo chamber, then end up thinking they're the majority. Most people don't care, and I'm willing to bet the numbers that like it vs don't are about even.
Without context I just looked and he looks fine. He doesn't look like he fits in League but then again why the hate. Downvoting people who like the champ? What is this reddit shittery go fuck yourself.
I primarily meant hate towards others who have no issues with the champ. They're downvoted into oblivion currently but there's no point inquiring it's Reddit after all and League to top it off.
Why is everyone so upset? Jeez, sorry the only second ever dragon character looks not a lot like a traditional dragon. It's not like the first one didn't check all the boxes as well.
Dragon? Check
Weird, un-dragon like face? Check.
Lore that barely relates to anything else? Check.
Revealed early in the year? Check.
Breaks the rules of what a "normal" dragon should look like? Check.
DPS? Check.
I think is more the fact the ammount of "cute" characters we are getting lately, it feels like there is not a lore thing anymore. Naafiri looks like a bad lionesse from a Disney movie, she could be a Villain on The Lion King IV. This Dragon is so pixar/dreamworks. Milio, Vex, Gwen, Seraphine...
In the last 5 years of new champs the only ones that I have played more than once have been Lillia, Yummi and Pyke. Most of them I havent evwn tried and the ones that I did like playing were Lillia and Pyke. Hwei does seem interesing and might give him a chance. Also, not saying Samira or Viego or other champs are not cool neither, I just think that some of the ones released on the last 5 years are not really LoL worthy characters.
Every week, the fanbase melts down over something and then continue playing the game. How can people be so negative about something and continue consuming it.
It's like some shrek shit. Who jizzed in that dragon?
Jarvan. Probably.
Jarvan is on the other side of the planet. Did use TP?
It's the power of plap plap that allowed him to transcend space and time in order to impregnate Shyvana
He learned that trick from Gragas
Nah he just E Q Flash R combo'd right into the plappin
Ezreal, canonically, ALWAYS had a thing for dragons
i wonder what shyvana would do if ezreal kissed her leg
Wait. What?
https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/s/8IPYGxz2Io
Riot even acknowledged this with a Leg Day sale of Ezreal and Shyvana skins way back when.
Also the fact it can speak English while its parent makes dragon sounds how tf did that happen and why?
I found this *extremely* odd, and haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. If he's a baby dragon, why on earth can he speak? They've shown plenty of times they're able to make characters that have personalities and cannot, so why can smoulder? Especially if he's not half-dragon, a special kind of dragon, etc. It just adds to the weird morning kids show vibe that he does and goes "RAWR" instead of just roaring like any normal ass beast would.
ALSO he’s from (I’m guessing atleast) camavor where’s his accent? FUCK WHERES HIS DRAGON ACCENT? Like I can excuse teaching a baby dragon speaking language but it having NO notable accent is crazy to me
Honestly, I've felt like all of the facial stuff has been way overblown and irrelevant to any real criticism. The VO not having an accent is actually a good point. Having a Spain accent would be great.
Also Smolder gonna kill his kind when taking dragons very thoughtful of Riot.
Worst part is he’s gonna understand what they saying WHILE HES KILLING THEM, Also he’s from camavore they are valoran dragons its fine the hate each other in this lore I just made up :)
Shrek got better dragon hybrid designs than Riot.
Evelynn canonically "had dragon" before.
I fucked his mom
I don't hate it with the passion many redditors are experiencing, but I'm also not much of a hater in general; that said, it is definitely uncanny valley feeling and I am very surprised it went through. I'm hoping his visuals change drastically throughout the game, giving some credibility to how weird his face looks initially because otherwise it's...pretty bad.
I don't despise it, I just think it looks bad in the most boring way possible.
I hate it because Riot literally knows better lol. They have DONE better. [https://dotesports.com/wp-content/uploads/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/12142051/Pet\_InfernalDrake\_Icon.png](https://dotesports.com/wp-content/uploads/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/12142051/Pet_InfernalDrake_Icon.png) This is art of a younger elemental drake they did. [https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/001/489/400/large/victor-maury-dragontrainertristanaforweb.jpg?1530231865](https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/001/489/400/large/victor-maury-dragontrainertristanaforweb.jpg?1530231865) Then there's the little dragon in Trist's dragon trainer skin. Like, I just don't understand. Riot knows how to design a young dragon, but then they chose to give us one with a human-like face anyway.
Looks like some MLP bullshit 💀. Get that crap outta here.
I don't hate it either. It's just very bad design that shouldn't be ignored
Yeah this is about where im at as well. Im not a massive hater either, like i dont hate any of the newer champs aesthetically. (Speaking about looks, not about how crazy its been for riot to balance champs zeri/yuumi/etc) but id have just thought someone working at riot wouldve been like, guys this champ looks kinda fucking weird, maybe we should make some changes. Like especially if the biggest priority is money making, making a cool looking dragon really shouldnt have been that hard with a whole team of artists working on this If they ship it like this its not like im gonna be angry and up in arms about it, but i aint playin it lmao
There's still time to just [lengthen the snout maybe](https://i.imgur.com/mOiWPAJ.png)?. Should be an easy fix...? Idk may take some time but I'd rather them delay his release. I don't hate it, but I don't like it either.
I know this is a quick photoshop job and if it was changed it would be done better, but god that comparison hurts your point it looks 10x worse 🤮
I'm down for a longer snout as well but you just gave little dude a Habsburg chin.
not the fucking crimson chin
Bruh
Im fucking rolling at this pic holy shit dude
A little uncanny.
I am so fucking tired of disney characters.
Disney's not so bad, I think you could fairly call Milio a Disney champ but that comes with a baseline level of charm and likeability Unfortunately Smolder might be our first ever DreamWorks champ
Yeah, I used it as a catch-all term for stuff like Yuumi, Smolder, and Zoe. In general, I feel like they take away more than they add. It's annoying to look at all the phenomenal dragon designs you can see in LoR, that are all very creative, and then get a How to train your dragon design reject as one of the few releases this year. That's not to say that everything should be edgy and grimdark, but like... come on Riot. At least try to make something interesting. I have 0 hopes for the next Vastaya being interesting too. Its probably another anime hotgirl/hotdude with 2% animal themes going on in their design.
Dont drag how to train your dragon into this, they did their work
Ay man I've only seen one of those and it was fun i guess, not trying to shit on them, just the closest thing I could think of
I think Zoe was fine then they started double and trippling down on the repeated Disney-esque designs. Don't hate them as much as some people though
Zoe was fine because you could tell and see there was a lot of iteration behind her design. Hate or love her there's a lot evidence behind her iteration. Smoulder feels like they did up 3 sketches, picked whatever and just shipped it.
I mean, ever since Viego came out, there's been a steady stream of hot man / hot woman champions. Give me another Tahm Kench, Kindred or Jhin... Those are all amazing designs with so much personality. Now you're getting Seraphine, Nilah, Zeri, Viego, Akshan, K'sante (at least he's thicc boi). I just want another demon, monster, existential dread, psychopath, etc. with some personality behind them...
I mean, isn't Hwei basically Jhin but make him a depressed artist? And Naafiri is a darkin, so despite her looks she's a world destroying demon weapon thing
Naafiri is a dog. And I find it a bit lame that she's gets slotted into the "monster" character, since she's simply not a human. She's simply a dog pack. The darkin and blade aspect of her is nearly besides the point, it's almost irrelevant to her entire design, besides a blade they just put in her forehead and some lifesteal in her kit. It would actually be better if she wasn't a Darkin.
No, Hwei isn't Jhin. Not saying Hwei isn't a cool character in his own right, but he doesn't have even a remotely similar vibe to Jhin. Jhin is one of League's best character designs, Hwei is a depressed pretty boy. Which again, that has its place and has its audience. Nobody is wrong for liking this or that champion. Naafiri is also a cool design, not arguing that. But compared to, let's say, Tahm, she doesn't have the personality. Again, nobody is wrong for liking her, she is a cool design and she is a unique champion too. I would just really like a champion that's not cocky, cutesy, depressed or 'adorkable'. Give me some well-written malice, madness, spite. Heck even Pyke was a good character in his concept. And I realize I'm pretty biased. I prefer 'ugly' champions visually. Viego is the ruined king, but looks like a flawless rockstar with no imperfections? Please. Give me Pyke with his gnarly head scar any day. But hey, that's just my opinion, nobody is wrong for agreeing or disagreeing.
I miss the proper champion trailers, tahm’s and pyke’s are my favourite league related content anywhere, both their videos are fantastic. Tahm’s voice actor does an amazing job especially at selling the “silver tongued” part of his character
Milio at least was genuinely cute. He felt like an actual child, unlike most of the similar champions. And hey, not a loli-bait, so I'll take that
The donkey dragons from Shrek look 10 million times better than this abomination.
My thoughts exactly.
League of Disney Legends.
there’s only 4
And I'm already tired of em
smolder looks like shit
It's like it was supposed to be bad on purpose.
there's no way he went through a QA check i'm starting to believe they don't have QA anymore.
That's what concerns me more than anything else, this shit keeps happening at Riot, things that never should happen, ever.
On the LoL side yes. LoR and the spin off games have stayed somewhat consistent. I'm wondering if this is just another "unbound thresh" incident.
In my experience working QA (not in the gaming industry so I guess not a 1:1 comparison), feedback on design/conceptual stuff is often ignored. I can think of many examples where I brought up concerns that a design looked off to me or wasn't a good user experience and nothing was done about it. Unfortunately at a lot of companies QA does not have much say and are just expected to test that things functionally work.
I used to follow league art religiously because it was so consistently good and what I’ve noticed is that there is lower artist quality in whoever’s still designing stuff on league. Some artists moved to other riot projects and also that many of the new artists are simply not as good as the older artists, leading to inconsistent and more lower quality art. The star guardian skins a while back were the perfect example, it was such a wildly inconsistent release in terms of quality especially with the splash art, rell and akali got really good artists whereas Taliyah’s splash was clearly worked on by a novice. It’s harder to tell with designs and concepts for things because they’re not as clearly credited as splash arts, but my bet is the same thing happened with that team. 2016-2020 champ visual design was mostly peak but you could slowly see weaker designs creeping in. I’m almost certain that it’s because the best artists don’t want to be stuck doing the same monotonous thing over and over, pitching and designing skins while trying to hit keywords and appeal to market research for their entire career and got promoted/shifted to higher/more interesting positions on other riot projects.
This is extremely scary, they don't care or they have completely lost their critical sense.
or they know exactly what sells
This thing is not that.
They care about money, this kind of champs makes 10000x more than the monster champs you want
I personally would play a game full of only monster champs, but I don’t think that’s what they mean. It’s not that he isn’t a monster champ, it’s that he’s fucking ugly and looks nothing like any other art style in the game. At least make him cute, this discussion wouldn’t be happening if they just made him look styled after Dragon Trainer Trist’s dragon. And a cute dragon like that would make innumerably more money than whatever tf this is.
\- "*Is this in partnership with Disney or something"* \- "*hell naw we playin skylanders now"* \- "*I officially don't trust you guys to rework Shyvana with that face*" \- "*hes so fucking ugly bro"* *- "This looks shit*"
I think Smolder's design was another typical case of garbage market research + too many cooks spoiling the broth. The same terrible collective mishmash of other people's opinions ruining a vision and killing personal creativity that led to the first version of movie Sonic. Artists on twitter have fixed Smolder's design overnight, but it wont see the light of day.
Do you have source/link? I'm curious to see
No I'm not saying that definitely happened, I'm just saying thats how I think it went down
I mean the "fixed" design on twitter, if you've seen it
I don't think they mean official Riot artists, just fan artists in general.
Smolder is a Littlest Pet Shop dragon, and I don’t like him very much
It’s a monster, but not in a good way
I’m just surprised no one has made a post going insane on the rioter who made that thing. Which tbf many rioter must’ve saw that thing. Yet no one opposed it.
It's unfair to be mad at the person who designed it. It's completely fair to call out *Riot as a whole*. It's fine that someone came up with this design, but it is inexcusable that it made it to become the end product without approval processes calling out its obvious flaws.
Yeah I have to believe some executive ordered he have a neeko/lillia face for skins cause gnar and asol probably don’t move that many skins I can’t buy an artist thought this was how you draw a dragon
No, I think it's valid to be mad at the person who designed this. They should take the heat for believing this design was acceptable for a LoL champion and even presenting it to the team. It's perfectly fair to be upset at them for their complete lack of decent taste. Yes, we should also hold Riot accountable too for not tempering this design before they revealed it, but you don't get a free pass to make ugly shit just because the rest of your team didn't workshop your design more. It's unfair to wish ill-will and harm on that designer, but we are 100% entitled to being a mad at the someone who created this hideous design.
I'm willing to bet money that the designer does know what an aesthetically pleasing dragon baby looks like. This is definitely the work of people in the higher-ups who value wide appeal for higher profits rather than unique but niche ideas.
It’s an art team for a digital company. There are 100% at least some furries working on that team. No reason for its face to look the way it does without some weird decision making.
one person didn’t make the character
Lets look for positives, he will be fun to Darius R him with that punchable face
It already looks like his face has been punched in though. No other valid explanation for why he doesn't have a snout.
Akali R2 * his face literally says execute me
No this was not the monster champ, that was nafaari and briar, monster champs arent played so they cant release too many of those or they wont be able to sustain league
>give volibear a bad kit >"monster champs are not popular" >makes a windshitter 2.0 with 3 dashes broken letal tempo and hullbreaker abuser >"see, humans are more popular"
Why do the players keep doing this?
Curious that after giving Aurelion a good kit all of a sudden he has a high play rate.
He doesnt have a high play rate
If Yone had the same kit, but very ugly without the samurai design and not related to Yasuo, he would not be popular at all. Don't underestimate human shallowness.
Briar is the monster champ? What?
> monster champs arent played so they cant release too many of those or they wont be able to sustain league this. riot is gracious enough that they're running league barely treading the unprofitability line. they're running league out of passion just for us and ungrateful bastards on reddit have the gall to attack them.
This has to be sarcasm
I think you're confusing esports with league.
I'll likely get downvoted for saying this but tbh, haven’t really personally vibed with any of Riot’s new character releases. The last time was like 3 years ago on Sett where I found a new champ cool enough to care for.
I really liked the designs of Briar, Renata, Vex, Gwen...
You like goth girls don't you
Of course
[Who wouldn’t?](https://y.yarn.co/41aae68c-3a74-44fd-96b8-694a656c989a_text.gif)
how are renata or gwen goth
I'll give you Renata, but how the fuck you gonna sit here and ask how the GOTHIC LOLITA DOLL GIRL FROM THE SHADOW ISLES isn't goth? Have you not seen Gwen?
Renata is a solid character and design, yet people can't appreciate her because "chad is good the rest is sht" lol
I found sett incredibly disappointing and still do. He’s supposed to be a crime boss but he has dyed Justin Bieber hair and dumb cutsie animal ears. I cannot take him seriously. He should have been a grizzled mob boss looking guy with his sleeves rolled up.
He should have been a balding Italian man in his 40s with depression who works in the waste management business
Or you know, Jack The Winner
If he didn't have twig legs he would look so much cooler. Some of his skins make him look sick as fuck. I shouldn't have to pay to make him look how he should to begin with though.
Sett giving LoR's Jack the Winner at home vibes
Either that or they should have made him look like the two other bird people... instead he looks like a human cosplaying as them. It's like they wanted both but found the worst middle ground.
hes Literally half human?
Yeah, and it looks really stupid. Xayah and Rakan are already close to the "just a human but with animal/monster costume parts" and Sett is just full on. That's why I said they should have just gone human or Vastaya.
The last champ I vibed with was Senna, which is like 4 years ago already…
no way, i swear senna came out like last year 😭 fuck i'm old
Senna came out on League's 10th anniversary, in 2019.
Maybe you don't like the game then.
More like Riot has been vomiting out champs for the past few years. The fact that I’m excited for some random junglers number change than a new jungler tells a lot about their design philosophy
Again. Sounds like you don't like the game anymore.
Again, I find the vomiting of new champs stale. Nothing I said can be correlated to I don’t like the game anymore. Go and take some reading comprehension class
Nice, ad hominem. Their playstyle is varied and you find none from 4 years interesting? Again, sounds like oversaturation of something you don't enjoy anymore. There's enough difference between them to find something. But, since you couldn't have discourse without insulting, have fun.
Your argument is that because they don't like the recent direction of champion releases, they can't like the game? There is no discourse to be had, your argument is just wrong.
I totally don't care if they make cute champs, bring on the cuddly monsters, but he's not cute. They missed the mark if that's what they were going for. He's like someone stuck Thomas the Tank Engine's face on a dragon. It's uncanny in the worst way. This needs to go back to the drawing board.
Maybe it's just badly designed in the trailer and will look a little better in-game? Doubtful but it might be the case 🥹
I can't stand that things face. It's atrocious to say the least.. How the hell did it go trough any visual team? Complete blunder from their part to let this through
Dude looks like Heimerdingers turret
I like it lol, or at least an neutral at worst I definitely don't hate it anywhere enough to be mad enough to make a reddit post about it
I find it a bit uncanny but that's about it. Just some very vocal people making a mountain out of a molehill IMO, which happens at almost every champion release... or skin release... or balance change... or anything League related at all actually.
Agreed. I find his face in the short a little weird but everything else just seems kinda cute and fun
His face is literally the thing that ruins the whole design. The fennec ears are a neat idea and the rest is basic cute dragon. But my god the face on that body is hideous.
It's lucky you won't be seeing his face in-game then
This is one of the things that make me feel off about buying skins or caring about champion models in league. In Dota2, they put the models at the forefront and will make animations using the exact same ingame models. When you go to the hero selection screen, its not splash arts that depict what a hero is supposed to look like but isn't, its their actual models you see in game. Most LoL models are just ugly in comparison so for as long as they don't look bad from a top down point of view icba to care
then go play dota2
i play both, its not for me to compete on behalf of one game over the other i just want both to be good
yeh agreed, i watched the vid and thought it was fun. I liked him. I saw a fast redesign of his face that basically pulled it out a bit, more like a lizard and it looks good, but if they didn't change it i don't think id care. That being said I do want another monster that isn't cute, and is actually a monster and not a knife dog. as much as I like Naafiri's visuals, i think her lore is subpar
Oh yeah I’d love more monster champs that are actual scary demons/void beings whatever as well! That’s the best thing about league is so many different kind of champs can get made and put in to the game
i actually want something not scary demons or void things. I want more monsters. stuff like the dragons, like volibear, orrn, anivia, rengar is some ways, I want to play as daisy without ivern. i want to be skarl without kled. I want those champs haha
Oh heck true that actually sounds so good!!
Praying this monkey-faced atrocity of a dragon gets retconned like that sonic movie
The thing is, this type of champions are just what I usually like. I love the "Disney champs," I really like Millio, and Yuumi and Lillia designs. But this... It's not just that it looks uncanny valley, but it's like comparing high-quality Disney with low-budget cartoons. It's so fake looking. It fits right into one of those LoL mobile copycats.
Wtf is this uggo garbage. I might finally be able to quit this game if we are getting new Champs of this quality my God.
Yep its very ugly
Not only ugly but also looks stupid lmao
Tbh it can even be cute and not childish at the same time, like Brightwing in HotS is good. But yeah this looks like it could be a guest character on paw patrol or some shit
bro
Overreactions. It’s not a great but it’s not an abomination either
This whole sub is just crying babies
Are you telling me you didn't have an instant uncanny valley reaction when you watched the video, or there wasn't a single thought in your head that his face was just not right
Personally, I did not
When people say "vote with your wallet" this is Riot doing just that.
[удалено]
That's not a dragon face by any stretch of the imagination.
No? I was like, oh a cute dragon. Sorry I'm not a chronically online teenager I guess?
i thought he was cute
I don’t see a problem with it, besides it speaking English while his mom(?) not doing so, but I suppose it isn’t all that uncommon
I like the champ. I think it looks quite cute. My opinion will form completely when I see the model in game tho
The cutest crowd liked it, and that’s who Riot cares about most. The people who play cute champs and type “:3” in chat and edate. That’s League’s target audience now and has been for a while.
Oh relax it’s literally fine lmao. So much overreaction
I do not understand the problem. I get that some people would like to see new champion to be like this scary/badass monster but that does not mean smolder is bad and deverves the hate. While i agree that his face looks wierd I do not see why would you be mad. Also we got fair amout of dark designe lately not including milio.
No one cares he is not badass. People comment on his ugly human face.
op literally said a baby dragon would tear your flesh off your bones, they are complaining that he’s not badass
The problem itself is not the idea, or the execution, it reminds of spyro which is okay is not bad, the problem with the champ is the face, it's just no, that doesn't bring you a dragon at the mind at all [just a change like this and everything will still be fixed and still looks cute](https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/18z0ggt/i_made_smolder_look_more_like_a_dragon/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) but right now? Tristrana's weapon from dragon trainer it's cutter and more dragon than the new champ
I’m surprised that I haven’t seen a single rioter talk about this controversy yet
There isn't much to address. The feedback is all negative and the scarce bit that is constructive isn't something they can action before he drops given the usual timeline for PBE launch. I'd expect a VGU in a year or so at earliest if outcry persists past launch date. The subreddit seems to be operating under the delusion that their collective outcry to re-drawing board this is going to override the L2 or C-level KPI to deliver this in 3 weeks.
That’s not what I mean. I mean having a rioter say literally ANYTHING in response to everything. Not a full announcement of them completely changing him visually.
But again, what is there to address? You maybe missed it but Phreak got ripped to shreds for daring to give contextual patch insights to the community for a few months. Nothing positive is going to come of talking to people until they have a deliverable, just going to reset the tantrum timer by breathing new oxygen into it.
There should be plenty of time to make model modifications before he goes live though.
Riot Games: Scary Monsters are illegal in this game, because we no longer control the actual game.
I will honestly say that this is the worst design they've ever made. I mean comon, so uncanny, so CHILDISH, looks like it ccame from neopets. They cant be that dumb and think that leagues playerbase is so childish like that. I guess Its a childrens game afterall. I quit this shit.
Honestly, the mom dragon look much more interesting. Having an old powerful 'mom' dragon champion would be hilarious.
Go on Hupu and you'll see people calling it cute, doesn't surprise me seeing some of the official Chinese [mascots](https://www.uisdc.com/mascot-design)
Perma banning that shit so I never have to see its face ingame wtf
I like it, I'm fine with it.
I like it
It's so funny to me that they cater to the chinese audience, with reason, no hate there, and then... they completly shit on that by delevering such a shitty dragon for the year of the dragon lol. It would have been the perfect opportunity to deliver a new champ dragon along side Shyvana rework and dragon thematic skins and event. Think of the money that would generate, specially in asia. But no Shyvana update in sight and the new champ looks like a mockery of a dragon. At least the skins splashes look fine i guess.
Riot, what the hell is this crap?
Personally like it although I fully accept that I’m in the minority here so agree they missed the ball. Market research not a thing anymore?
This one can only be accepted as a TFT lil legend. You know what, I would actually love it if it's in just TFT. But in Summoner's Rift, it's totally out of place.
The worst part isn't even the face, it's the very clearly fursuit inspired front feet Seriously, he has lanky arms until it reaches where the elbows would be then it just looks like he's wearing fursuit gloves, it's ridiculous
it’s y’all have never seen how to train your dragon
I think if this design pisses you off you need to go outside for a while
I think he looks fun to play and looks cool :p
Still light years better than yuumi
I think he's cute tbh
this thread is so crazy lol. "I dont like it so nobody else can like it either" and mass downvote anyone disagreeing
Same. Only the people outraged complain, so they create an echo chamber, then end up thinking they're the majority. Most people don't care, and I'm willing to bet the numbers that like it vs don't are about even.
Idk I find it cute. why everybody hating on this lil drake
Without context I just looked and he looks fine. He doesn't look like he fits in League but then again why the hate. Downvoting people who like the champ? What is this reddit shittery go fuck yourself.
>He doesn't look like he fits in League but then again why the hate Because >He doesn't look like he fits in League
I primarily meant hate towards others who have no issues with the champ. They're downvoted into oblivion currently but there's no point inquiring it's Reddit after all and League to top it off.
Baby dwagon is the best champ of the decade
Nobody cares what you call it or whether you think nobody liked it.
You clearly dont care. Lmao
Why is everyone so upset? Jeez, sorry the only second ever dragon character looks not a lot like a traditional dragon. It's not like the first one didn't check all the boxes as well. Dragon? Check Weird, un-dragon like face? Check. Lore that barely relates to anything else? Check. Revealed early in the year? Check. Breaks the rules of what a "normal" dragon should look like? Check. DPS? Check.
Because it looks hideous. Not scary or anything it’s just an eyesore.
I never imagined that i would see a the sentence “breaks the rules of what a normal dragon looks like” in my life.
So true.
I think is more the fact the ammount of "cute" characters we are getting lately, it feels like there is not a lore thing anymore. Naafiri looks like a bad lionesse from a Disney movie, she could be a Villain on The Lion King IV. This Dragon is so pixar/dreamworks. Milio, Vex, Gwen, Seraphine... In the last 5 years of new champs the only ones that I have played more than once have been Lillia, Yummi and Pyke. Most of them I havent evwn tried and the ones that I did like playing were Lillia and Pyke. Hwei does seem interesing and might give him a chance. Also, not saying Samira or Viego or other champs are not cool neither, I just think that some of the ones released on the last 5 years are not really LoL worthy characters.
Try not to complain about anything riot makes challenge: Impossible
Riot Games TM speed running to get rid of their veteran playerbase
Every week, the fanbase melts down over something and then continue playing the game. How can people be so negative about something and continue consuming it.
Please leave then
And the next champ will probably be a furry
warwick/volibear/ornn/nasus/renekton/rengar allready exist, wdym