Riot reveals a Dave Smolder voice line that only has a 1% chance

Declan McLaughlin

❘ published: 2024-01-09T22:16:22 ❘ Updated: 2024-01-09T22:16:34

Smolder, the newest champion to come to League of Legends, was teased by Riot Games earlier in the new year – and has a voice line that directly references the developer.

Riot revealed Smolder on January 4 as the newest champion to enter the league. ADC is a simple shooter that should be a breath of fresh air for players after the mechanic-intensive Hwie.

Baby Dragon is playful and overconfident, according to Riot, and includes the Chemwar and Ruination events. His backstory includes his mother, being separated from her, and growing up as a human.

This backstory directly affects the game’s design, emotes, and voice lines. While the character hasn’t 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.

A Riot developer gave fans a quick look at one of his voice lines ahead of its release, teasing an Easter egg in the game.

Riot dev performs a smolder voice line

League of Legends sound designer Daniel Kim 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 gonna ban you!”

The childish taunt seems to be consistent with its overall design and references to the real-world danger that many gamers are subjected to.

In our initial meetings brainstorming Smolders emotes, I remember pitching this VO line as a joke to my team to make them smile, but they really liked it and it became real! It only has a 1% chance to play 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 it was eventually added to the game.

“As for her taunts, it seemed natural that she would try to take advantage of her mother’s power to intimidate her opponents, so I thought it was appropriate,” Kim said in response.

Fans will have to wait and see who will be the first to hear the in-game taunt after the champion hits the live servers.