Is there a way to control which item gets combined and which gets dropped?

Yesterday this happened to me: I wanted to give a lvl 2 unit (lets say it's a Jax) its 3rd item which would be combined with the 3rd item already equipped. Now I had another lvl 2 Jax on the Bench, which, due to the time pressure, I gave the item, instead of the one being equipped already. Unfortunately I had another 2 lvl 1 Jax on my Bench, one being back from a shared draft round, so him having another item which I definitely don't want to combine with either of the other 2 items.

Now, assuming I have another Jax in my shop, is there any way I can control which item would combine with which, and which would be dropped off, through means like bench order or positions in the field or something like this? Or would it happen at random?

Solution 1:

Sadly no

As per an answer made by the Riot Games support, if there are more than two not already combined items when leveling up a champion, the game will not fuse them.

The leveled-up champion will equip with a random item of the non-fused items. The other items will be placed in your inventory, so you can re-use them later.
So there's still a chance that the item you definitely don't want to combine with either of the other 2 items is equipped on your Lv.3 Jax, thus forcing you to either combine it or leave it as it is (or sell your Lv.3 Jax, but I don't think it is what you want).

See below the screenshot of the french support answer (followed by my translation of it):

Hello,
Jax will keep his two completed items + one non-complete random item.
The two other randoms non-complete items will be sent on the edge of the board so you can use them.

Cordially

"I like Troll but it has to never go too far"*
Callmespike, Player Support Specialist

* _{Here's a wordplay that sadly don't pass through translation}