Riot’s 2007 Pitch Shows Early LoL Prototype Onslaught: War of the Immortals

Riot Games’ pitch for a future multiplayer hit didn’t always look like the “summoner’s rift” game fans know today. Newly surfaced materials from 2007 reveal an early, darker League of Legends concept—then codenamed Onslaught: War of the Immortals—built to attract investors and featuring early versions of champions that would later become staples of the modern roster.

2007 pitch: an early LoL shaped for investors

In 2007, while the project was still in its formative stage, Riot Games prepared a video pitch to secure funding. At that point, the eventual title “League of Legends” and the “LoL” shorthand were not yet finalized. The work-in-progress was instead branded as Onslaught: War of the Immortals.

Those early drafts and the associated design documents have now been made visible after being shared via a newly published presentation video. The video was obtained from Paul Belleza, described as a long-standing figure at Riot Games, and it offers an unusually direct look at how the pitch stage of the project translated into early gameplay ideas.

1. In 2007, Riot Games created an investor-focused pitch video for a game concept that would eventually become League of Legends.
2. During that pitch, the project name was Onslaught: War of the Immortals, not “LoL.”
3. A newly published video now surfaces this earlier presentation and links it to early game design materials.

A split-faction world before the current map

The early vision for Onslaught leaned heavily into a mature, darker fantasy tone, framed around a world intended to split players between two opposing sides: Order and Chaos.

In the concept, players—referred to as “Immortals”—would fight across these factions. The materials also indicate that the familiar “Invocateur’s Rift” (Summoner’s Rift) layout hadn’t been established at this stage, meaning the final gameplay geography and structure were still being decided.

Champion sketches that already hinted at the future roster

Alongside the pitch footage, the design documents reportedly include early champion sketches that show recognizable characters—along with notable differences in both appearance and abilities.

• Annie and Singed were already present in early form, but with different looks and, importantly, different skill sets compared with the finished game.
• Blitzcrank had an early ability concept for pushing opponents back—an effect that later became associated with Alistar.
• Singed had not yet been defined by his later signature toxic trail.

Riot’s early logo and a concept that got reshaped

Even the branding points to how far the project changed during its evolution. The early Riot Games logo shown in the materials was depicted as stained with blood, signaling the concept’s darker tone. Eventually, the pitch and designs were adjusted as the project transformed into the version that became League of Legends.

For fans who have only ever known the modern LoL experience, the newly surfaced pitch materials offer a rare snapshot of how the game looked before its identity sharpened—before the map, faction framing, and champion kits settled into the form players recognize today.