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Smolder gets a glow up, but Riot Games promo art under fire for tracing

Smolder gets a glow up, but Riot Games promo art under fire for tracing
Riot Games

Written by 

Jack Marsh

Published 

15th Jan 2024 09:52

Aw, little Smolder. Never before have I wanted to pet something that would incinerate my hands into nothing but dust. Definitely worth it.

Yet League of Legends' latest recruit hasn't actually been to everyone's liking and the adorable new champion has been shamed into having a new look.

After being announced last week, Riot Games has now changed Smolder's appearance by popular demand, but that popularity soon diminished after they promoted the dragon with traced fan art.

Smolder gets a League of Legends glow-up

Having faced criticism that Smolder is still too "boyish" with a "human" face, Riot Games Product Manager "Lexical" revealed that he will be getting some plastic surgery before being released.

Lexical revealed Smolder will be getting an update to his face to "highlight his dragon features".

This includes adding more scales to his forehead, brows, nose, and cheeks, to make Smolder look more war-ready, and a change in his eyes to become more adolescent and less whelp.

Riot Games under fire for Tracing fan art

 

In all of this commotion though, Riot Games has been actively using fans' art to promote the dragon, and the fire from Smolder's tail has been blown in their direction.

One tweet, now with over 140,000 likes and 6 million views, has called out the official League of Legends UK, IE, and Nordics page for "tracing" their content. 

"Who do I invoice for this? @riotgames," quizzed "kn0nker", after seeing his art used without credit.

Riot Games has issued an apology now, saying, "We've missed a few steps by not including you in the process around the creation of this piece, and we apologize for it."

Still, the reactionary method is still being criticised on Twitter.

"It's not the first time they trace, unfortunately, Given how big they are, they should take more care in verifying that their products are NOT stolen," added another LoL fan.

If you play with fire, you're likely to get burned, and Smolder appears to have coughed up quite a fireball for Riot.

Jack Marsh
About the author
Jack Marsh
Jack is an Esports Journalist at GGRecon. Graduating from the University of Chester, with a BA Honours degree in Journalism, Jack is an avid esports enthusiast and specialises in Rocket League, Call of Duty, VALORANT, and trending gaming news.
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