Ex-LCS marksman player Peng “Doublelift” Yilang recently explained his thoughts about the latest dragon to sweep down onto Summoner’s Rift, the Chemtech Drake.
Doublelift said that the Chemtech Drake’s region of camouflage feels like League of Legends developer Riot Games was more occupied with making a unique feature than a fun or balanced one. Doublelift is the latest of many professional players to criticize Chemtech Drake’s rift effect.
On a recent Twitch stream, Doublelift went in-depth on his annoyance with Chemtech Drake and the gameplay patterns it results in. Firstly, Doublelift highlighted the unusual nature of the camouflage zones, suggesting Riot was focused on creating a unique experience rather than a necessarily fun one.
Doublelift isn’t the first to talk about the one-sided, volatile nature of the Chemtech Drake’s rift effect. Other professional players and community figures like members of Excel’s new LEC lineup and Marc “Caedrel” Lamont have also pointed out issues with the obscuring fog that the drake puts onto the map. Generally, the complaint is that there’s no straightforward way to wrest vision control back from the team that controls the fog zone.
The Chemtech Drake may provide more exciting games in solo queue matches, but it has the potential to seriously disrupt the games it appears in. From skewing dragon priority even more in favor of team fight compositions that can brawl it out in the river to deleting important bushes for vision control, the Chemtech Drake adds a whole new environmental hazard to League of Legends.
Hextech’s teleportation gates may have gotten the initial attention as ways to rapidly teleport across the map for low-mobility champions but the Chemtech Drake has rapidly become the focus. With a soul that completely changes the landscape of gameplay and a conditional soul, it seems like much of the Chemtech Drake’s power budget is tied up in the camouflage zones.
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