They call him Smolder, the Fiery Fledgling.

Shortly after joining the League of Legends team, this was my first champion launch. These types of campaigns are part of a pretty formulaic rollout of content that players have grown to expect with each release, namely the cinematic. Due to time constraints around the holidays, we found an crafty approach to deliver a vertical-first format in a different 2D illustration style.

This little guy proved to be pretty difficult – teetering a delicate line as the new dragon champion players had been asking for, but him being a youthful version which brought the risk of appearing too annoying and childlike if not positioned correctly.

Our team worked through multiple ideations that eventually yielded him as a champ that likes to burn shit down, a mischievous fella with a little teenage rebellion not understanding just yet how powerful he can be. And if he bit off more than he could chew, his mom would be there to bail him out of trouble.