dvdfaust
if my memory serves me right they said they ran into a huge problem with his movement animation and they're even debating about dropping him as a champion.
Well **** . Even though that doesn't make a ton of sense to me, why not just rework the model or scrap it? If they're going to make one from scratch for every new champ, starting over on just one aspect of an old one couldn't be -more- work, reasonably. Not to mention, When Vel'Koz came out, there was a lot of talk over how you make something as fluid as his model work, so I don't see why the same lessons on making really fluid tentacles couldn't work on, say, a fairly fluid eastern dragon body.
it's not so much they can't get him to move, it's his movement seems far to unnatural to his visual design. it's like what happened with Omen, he was a cool concept but his kit and movement lacked a clear identity and fluidity, he moved far to unnaturally for his model.
and they do that a lot, a while back (3-4 years) they talked about a "sand witch" they where making, but again they ran into identity issues and movement. over a long period of time, that champion was eventually reworked into Azir.