League of Legends is going through a momentous change to its calendar starting in 2025, with the 15-year-old MOBA now hosting three seasons through every twelve-month cycle.
These three League seasons will each have their own “distinct” themes designed to expand Runeterra’s narrative, build competitive progression, and dictate update plans from the Riot Games development team. There will also be a new League champion released each and every season that ties directly into those themes and updates, with the three seasons across any given year then closely connecting through champs and lore.
“Our goal is for each season to feel distinct with different experiences, themes, and moments highlighted,” League studio head Andrei van Roon explained to fans after unveiling the grand new seasonal plans in a developer update on Monday.
How this will change the usual League content run through the year isn’t entirely clear. For the first 14 League seasons, Riot regularly followed a 24-update blueprint that started with preseason in December and January, built to an esports-heavy competitive patch for the Mid-Season Invitational in May, then ran through a midseason overhaul before teeing up a dedicated World Championship update in early September—usually the “18” or “19” numbered patch.
The cat was already among the pigeons with those plans considering Riot’s bringing in a third international League event in 2025 that will need its own curated metagame, but these plans send everything into an even larger state of disarray. Even the iconic one through 24 patch numbers may not survive through these seasonal changes.
That’s not to say League‘s incredibly regular two-week updating cycle should change. That defining feature has long been regarded in-house at Riot as the genius move that lifted League to its lofty popularity and shouldn’t be impacted any really major way.
One thing we can be sure about is that these seasons will likely come packaged with one or maybe two events; the perfect place for Riot to slot in limited-time modes and skins.
The League publisher has been trying to find more ways to get its battle pass-style event tracks running alongside gameplay for some time and this seems like the perfect springboard to formalize the system appearing regularly. It’s also the perfect staging ground for Riot to deliver on its pledge to “push the envelope” on modes like Arena and Swarm.
What we do know is that Riot sees these seasons as strong platforms to make specific gameplay changes within a monthly vacuum. We already know about one plan boiling away at the Riot studios, with League executive producer Paul Bellezza confirming how “doomed” some endgame situations can feel is already being looked at for January.
“A game can feel doomed once you have an exposed Nexus… quite often people lose motivation to continue to fight,” the MOBA producer explained. “We’re exploring options on how to solve this experience, and hope to bring a more competitive feel right to the very end of the game.
What that entails change-wise has not yet been revealed, though Bellezza did also tease more balancing changes to come packaged with that Nexus focus in the new year.
Expect more details on League‘s next year after Arcane premieres in November.
Published: Sep 23, 2024 07:41 pm