Riot Games kicks off 2024 with a banger: take a look at the new dragon champion that will be coming to LoL, Smolder!

Image Credit: Riot Games

Riot Reveal Teaser For New LoL Champion Smolder

The video, uploaded on X, starts with Smolder introducing dragons (and thus himself) as “the mightiest creatures that grow up to be gigantinormous and strong”. With a cute and kid-like voice, Smolder goes through the history of the dragons, and towards the end of it, he appears on screen by burning a hole in the illustration of the story.

It’s worth noting that Smolder’s mom is also part of the teaser, even though she doesn’t appear on screen. She is introduced as Smolder apologizes to her. Riot previously mentioned that “something lurking not too far in the distance, always watching, creating a safe space for our young dragon to grow” during the Champion roadmap from last year, potentially hinting at her reveal in the near future.

When will Smolder be released?

Given that it’s the year of the dragon for the Chinese calendar and how everything is in theme for the Chinese New Year, we should expect Smolder to hit the live servers in Patch 14.3, which should be released on February 7, according to the patch schedule. His release to the live servers comes just a few days before the Chinese New Year, which will happen on Saturday, February 10, this year. More details regarding his release should come out soon.

While we wait for that, you can take a look at how Smolder should be in League of Legends. The dragon champion will likely be a late-game scaling ADC whose abilities scale based on hitting enemy champions throughout the game. It has some sort of similarity to Syndra’s passive that rewards her for hitting her spheres. You can check out our rundown of the abilities soon, as well as the first numbers from his kit.