During the early stages of development, League of Legends Vi’s kit looked very different

League of Legends champions looked vastly different in the early stages of development.

Each champion went through multiple phases before being launched in the servers. There are also times when the kit a particular kit designed for them is completely scrapped and done from scratch.

In 2012, when Vi made her debut in League of Legends, not many knew that during the early parts of her development Piltover’s enforcer had a very different set of abilities that allowed her to play out as a 2D fighting game character.

Combo chaining has always been the bread and butter of a good fighting game character, and Vi’s early kit allows players to do that.

This was Vi's R while she was in development. I wanted to go for a fighting game combo feel. It had some issues...Can you guess which combo people chose 90% of the time? pic.twitter.com/5GSxnl80J3

— August (@RiotAugust) April 7, 2021

In a recent tweet, League of Legends’ principal champion designer August Browning, shared what the devs originally had in mind for Vi.

They toyed with the idea of giving her a “fighting game combo feel” ultimate” which would allow her to chain a barrage of attacks together.

Vi’s early League of Legends kit

E would make her ult actually not suicidal :0

— scutte (@scutte1) April 7, 2021

Browning revealed that Vi’s initial ultimate ability Assault and Battery would,

“singled out an enemy champion, revealing them and dashing “unstoppably” toward them. Upon reaching them, Vi suppressed them for 1.25 seconds and dealt 150 physical damage.”

But during the suppression, she will be able to combo Q, W, or E into the effect making League of Legends feel more like a fighting game.

With the ultimate running, the combo variants had the following properties:

• Q combo: Vi beats the target up, suppressing them for an additional 1.25 seconds dealing an additional 50 percent damage.
• W combo: Vi slams the target into the ground, creating a shockwave that stuns and damages nearby enemies.
• E combo: Vi throws the target in a chosen direction.

Compared to the ultimate ability that Vi has today, the initial one looks way more interesting given her playmaking potential.

Vi has been an all-in champion without having any abilities that allow her to flee or disengage, so League of Legends fans wowill be disheartened to know that her original ultimate is much better.

Moreover, getting these sets of abilities back in the game has its own difficulties. Browning suggests that,

“Doing this on a high CD R is rough because people don’t get enough chances to try all the different combos and see what they do. Would see players just default to the same combo every time. If I was to try it again, I think it’d work better on something low CD.”

With Riot Games working on a League of Legends-based fighting game, currently called Project L, fans might just get to see this specific combo feature in Vi, but this time as a character in a fighting game and not in a MOBA.