League of Legends Designer Explains Reason for Chemtech Drake Return

One of the lead designers at Riot Games on League of Legends has better explained why the Chemtech Drake will be returning to the game in Season 13. Earlier this year, Riot added two new Dragons to League of Legends in the form of Chemtech and Hextech. While Hextech is still in the game, Chemtech was eventually removed as it was found to be far too powerful. As part of League’s upcoming Pre-Season patch, the Chemtech Drake will finally be making a comeback, although it won’t be the same as it once was. 

In a new discussion with ComicBook.com, Riot’s Matthew Leung-Harrison talked more about why the developer felt like it was important to put the Chemtech Drake in League of Legends again. Not only did Leung-Harrison explain that the advent of the Chemtech Dragon helps add more diversity to LoL, but the Drake was also well-regarded from fans previously, at least in terms of its look. 

“I think Dragons and Dragon terrains we’ve discovered add a lot of variety both in gameplay and aesthetically to the Rift. And so it’s like when you see an Infernal map versus an Ocean map, aesthetically it’s just very different. For Chemtech specifically, we think the thematic was extremely resonant with players,” Leung-Harrison explained. “We had just released Arcane, and people really liked Zaun and that kind of thing. But we thought that the gameplay was just over the bar of frustration, and it’s something that’s kind of difficult for us to assess internally because we only get so many games to play it.”

Speaking more about this overhaul of the Chemtech Drake, Leung-Harrison went on to say what it was that Riot wanted to change and what it wanted to keep the same with the revision of the Dragon. 

“We really liked the design, the aesthetics design of the Drake and the fact that there was kind of a rivalry between the Hextech Drake and the Chemtech equivalent. The avenue for the thematic for Chemtech that we went with the Chemfog was very gloomy, dark, and kind of sad, whereas the new Chemtech is a lot more vibrant,” he said. “It plays into the Chem-Barons of Zaun and their terrariums, and there’s a lot of life and growth. And so we thought, ‘Oh, maybe it’s an angle to do more of that growth than augmentation.’ And so that’s where the idea of the plants being augmented kind of came from.”

At this point in time, it remains to be seen how League of Legends players end up responding to the new take on the Chemtech Drake, but we won’t have much longer to find out. The 2023 Pre-Season patch for League of Legends is set to drop next week on November 16th.