League of Legends champions go through a rigorous creation process, with devs living out their wildest fantasies when it comes to abilities. Well, one such ability was a little too OP and had to be toned down ahead of release.
Lead Designer of the League of Legends champions, August "August" Browning, revealed some interesting information on one of the most popular flex picks in League of Legends and how his ultimate came to be.
When asked about whether there are some abilities in League of Legends that sadly never made it out of testing, Riot August had an interesting story to tell about Ekko and how his ability had once influenced the entire game, but couldn't be shipped due to its influence.
League of Legends: Ekko's Former Ultimate Could Have Had A Global Effect
That Ekko would be a 'time assassin' was something that the dev team knew from the get-go when designing him. His kit would revolve around time and manipulating it in some way, shape or form. What hadn't been decided yet was the scope of these abilties.
Riot August revealed that initially, Ekko's ultimate would not only affect him, but also the entire map. According to him, the ultimate reset the entire game by 8-seconds, which meant that players would regain their health and stats. Not only that, but jungle creatures, minions, everything on the map was affected by the ultimate. It was only death that couldn't be rewound.
@riotaugust Replying to @Denny old Ekko ult comes to mind. #leagueoflegends #leaguetiktok #gamedev
original sound - August
If you died you didn't go back, which would cause some pretty cool things to happen. There would be crazy team fights with everybody throwing their cooldowns out right at the start, because they knew they'd get them back in eight seconds and all they had to do was kill someone.
This ult was a bit too powerful though, which is why it never got shipped. Riot August revealed that it would also affect other players that weren't part of the fight, so if someone was walking to top lane, they'd be teleported back to where they were and would have to start walking once more, which would be a mood killer.
He also revealed that one of the QA testers got so annoyed with the ultimate that he swore to ban Ekko in every single game, no matter the situation because of how obnoxious it was. So, unfortunately we didn't get a game warping Ekko ult, but he continues to be one of the most popular and fun champions in the game regardless.