League of Legends: Smolder Is Ruining The Game Even In Pro Play
Recently, in an LCK game between Nongshim and T1, Smolder popped off when he truly shouldn't have.
Smolder is the newest champion on Summoner's Rift and he's completely broken the game. Because of how broken he's been since his release, Riot have nerfed the champion on multiple occasions, but he's been growing a little too rapidly, especially in pro play and a recent showing between Nongshim and T1 in the LCK proves just that.
Will the nerfs from LoL Patch 14.6 be able to finally reign in the little dragon or is he going to continue to be an issue in pro play?
League of Legends: Nongshim Jiwoo Deals Almost 80K Damage In Single Game
Recently, Nongshim faced off against the 2023 League of Legends World Championship winners. T1 managed to take the 2-0 victory, but not without a fight from one of the lower LCK seeds. In the second match, T1 had an early game focused draft, while Nongshim decided to go for the late game with Smolder as their bot laner.
While T1 managed to get a commanding lead, earning an infernal soul by the 27th minute, the game wasn't over until almost the 50-minute mark. In total, there were 5 baron fights throughout the game, as well as 3 elder drakes. Usually, games end after one elder...
But the thing that kept Nongshim in the game for so long, even with T1 managing to get all the neutral objectives throughout the game, was their bot laner Jung "Jiwoo" Ji-woo. By the end of the game, he dealt as much damage as T1's bot laner Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong and his support Ryu "Keria" Min-seok combined.
Nongshim seemed to be out of the game by the 25-minute mark, but thanks to Jiwoo's stacks, which by the end reached almost 750, Nongshim were able to hold on for as long as they did.
What most fans find frustrating is just how good Smolder is at stalling out games. T1 had complete control of the match, with every single objective, and yet they weren't able to finish the game in a "normal" time for such a large gap in control. The Smolder effect was in full force here, and players are worried that Smolder's continuous inclusion in the meta could result in more long games like this.
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