Smolder, the newest champion coming to League of Legends, was teased by Riot Games at the start of the new year – and he has a voice line that directly references the developer.
Riot showcased Smolder on January 4 as the newest champion coming to League. The ADC is a simple marksman that should be a breath of fresh air for players after the mechanic-intensive Hwie.
The baby dragon is playful and overconfident, according to Riot, and has lore involving Camavor and the Ruination event. His backstory involves his mother, separating from her, and being raised as a human.
This backstory directly impacts his design, emotes, and voice lines in the game. While the character has not been released and doesn’t have a hard launch date at the time of writing, fans should expect to see Smolder on the Rift sometime in early 2024.
One Riot developer gave fans a quick look at one of his voice lines ahead of his release, teasing an in-game easter egg.
Riot dev showcases Smolder voice line
Daniel Kim, a sound designer on League of Legends, revealed on social media that the new champion has a 1% chance of saying this voice line as a taunt: “Well, my Mom works for Riot, and she’s going to ban you!”
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The childlike taunt seems to be in line with his overall design and references a real-world threat that many gamers have been subject to.
In our early meetings of brainstorming on Smolder's Emotes, I remember pitching this VO line as a joke to make my team smile, but they really liked it and it became real! It only has a 1% chance of playing so think of it as a cute easter egg more than anything else 🙂 pic.twitter.com/EMh5DnHHa6
— Riot KDan (@RiotKDan) January 9, 2024
Kim said in his post that he initially pitched the line as a joke, but it made the Riot team smile and eventually was added into the game.
“For his taunt, it kinda felt natural that he’d take advantage of his mom’s power to try to threaten his opponents, so I thought it’d fit,” Kim said in a reply.
Fans will have to wait and see who will be the first to hear the taunt in a game after the champion hits live servers.