Summoner’s Rift could’ve been home to cat cults and more bizarre changes, LoL dev says

While the upcoming League of Legends preseason has already been revealed in full, Riot Games has provided players with a look at some of the earliest iterations of new and updated mechanics, many of which look completely different from what they are now cemented to be.

In a new developer blog, Riot Phlox, game designer on League’s Summoner’s Rift team, dove into the steps the team took when designing some of the features accompanying the 2024 preseason, including the ability to ride the Rift Herald, the new Voidgrubs, and the Baron Nashor’s unleashed power. Many of these initial design iterations resemble those which can now be tested on the PBE, though like any good idea, they have evolved and been expanded upon vastly.

One of the biggest new additions to Summoner’s Rift in the preseason is the horde of Voidgrubs, a new epic-tier monster that will make its home in the Baron Pit before the Rift Herald spawns. The development team knew that they wanted to explore some type of epic-tier monster that appeared in the group, but didn’t immediately fall on the design of the Voidgrubs, instead using a handful of Whiskers—a cat-like Little Legend from Teamfight Tactics—that, originally, appeared around the map and forced players to go out of their way to look for them to fight for bonuses.

Ultimately, as the team narrowed down their dissatisfaction with the current state of the second-spawning Rift Herald, it was decided that these cats would instead act as an early-game boss that fed on the power of a Rift Herald trapped in some kind of crystal. Though this mechanic didn’t become what would be announced for the preseason, the group of enemies became the Voidgrubs, replacing the initial Rift Herald and becoming the first top-side Epic monster for teams to face.

Phlox then went on to detail an idea the team had surrounding an update to the Rift Herald after it was defeated, similar to its upcoming iteration of being controllable, but in a much more intricate sense. When players entered the Rift Herald, they would be able to take complete control of the Void creature, including a new set of abilities—that ultimately became more of a frustration to deal with “because it was quite strong.”

The most fearsome creature on the Rift, the Baron Nashor, also had a larger reach on the map before once more being confined to its pit. Instead of just the Baron Pit itself changing based on the form the Baron Nashor took, terrain would be added and taken away around the map, such as walls appearing in the middle of lanes and blocking existing gaps. Baron could even fire missiles to random parts of the map at one point which would tear through terrain, but the team noted it “was too random and didn’t lead to interesting gameplay.”

All of the 2024 preseason changes, including the final iterations of these features as well as a massive overhaul to the item system and League’s newest champion, Hwei, are all currently available for testing on the PBE. The 2024 season will begin on Jan. 9.