Take a first look at what's bound to become one of the most exciting years in League of Legends. A new Dragon champion is right around the corner, Ambessa is coming from the world of Arcane, more upgrades to Arena, and many long-anticipated champion visual and gameplay updates are finally coming to the rift this 2024.
Last year was one of the best in recent League’s history. The addition of the well-acclaimed game-mode Arena, huge changes to the Esports format, which gave us one of the best years in competitive League history (topping it off with a T1 Worlds win). And, the revival of Riot's huge Summer Events with Soul Figther, which players loved across a variety of titles (Wild Rift, TFT, LoR).
However, this year’s efforts are going to make last one pale in comparison. Not only gameplay-wise, which is big in the champions, map, items, and modes side of things with all the changes (new Baron). But, in systems (ranked, anti-cheat, champion mastery) along with the Esport ones.
Let’s first start things off with something most players wants to know: New champions coming up.
New Champions coming for Season 2024
This hatchling is the first champion of the year
On the new champions, we know of three new champions coming in 2024 - Smolder, Ambessa Medarda, and an enigmatic Vastayan mage.
Riot revealed more details about the new upcoming Dragon ADC: Smolder, the Fiery Fledgling. Apart from the gameplay looking fire, Alexia "Riot Lexical" Gao talked about how they wanted to make a straightforward ADC instead of a high-skill champ or non-traditional one. Examples of these champions are Zeri, Aphelios, Samira and Nilah.
Source: SkinSpotlights YouTube Channel
And while Smolder may be training up his young dragon skills, his mom may help him from time to time. To learn more details about Smolder’s abilities, especially his MMOOOMMMM! (Ultimate) one, continue reading!
The next champion coming after Smolder is the Vastayan champion who was announced last year. Riot has marked their intention that this will be a mid-range mage.
Ambessa from Arcane is making its way onto the Rift
Lastly, on the champion announcements, Ambessa Medarda is coming to join the League’s roster. The character from Arcane, the Emmy-winner show from Riot, is going to be the first Noxus champion added this year. In regards to her kit, according to Riot Lexical:
“She won’t be for the faint of the heart in-game, she brings both strength and speed, sidestepping attacks with surprising agility.”
From this quote only, we know that Ambessa will be similar to her Arcane version. And If you’ve watched Arcane 1st Season, well... you better be excited for this champ.
VGU State Update - Skarner, Shyvana and one secret champion
Skarner was a founding member of the Yun tal where he helped guide and shape Ixtal into the prospering region it is now
Riot shared more updates on the upcoming Skarner VGU. He’s getting ready for his release in the first half of the year (finally!). Additionally, they shared a preview of the progress made on his looks and revealed more information on his new lore.
After Skarner, a champion from Arcane is getting a VGU. If I take a wild guess, based only on what is seen in the teaser, there's a chance that the updated champion is either Singed, or the mysterious figure hanging in the lab. Still, no clue, we will need to wain until Arcane S2 premiers to learn more details about it.
Shyvana’s looking nice
For the final VGU announced, Shyvana is the last on the list. On the type of VGU she's receiving, they will be focused mostly on refining and progressing who she is and tuning up her gameplay. Instead of a complete overhaul of her narrative and themes.
The Arcane VGU and Shyvana one are planned to be released in 2025 (probably after the end of Arcane S2).
Champion Mastery System is being updated
If you have been playing League for a while, you must have at least 3 to 10 champions in Lv.7 Mastery. What’s next? Well, now Riot is uncapping the leveling system and letting you show off how much exactly you play your favorite champion.
There’s going to be new levels of Mastery after 7. Going up to 10+. Each level will unlock a new version of the mastery emote. After getting to the max level, they will add an evolving number that displays your total mastery level from 11 and beyond.
By the way, you don’t have to worry about your current champion mastery points being wasted, the points will carry over to the new system. So if you are an OTP Shaco with 2+ million mastery points, expect to show off new cool stuff to your enemies.
No more info until it gets closer to launch in the first half of the year.
Game modes
Riot knocked it out of the park with Arena, the 2v2v2v2 mode. This was great especially after the shortage of game modes for a few years. After its return and soon departure for the next patch, Riot has already announced it will return sometime in the next few months.
Riot’s game modes lead, Eduardo “Riot Cadmus” Cortejoso, sneaked a preview of the improvements coming. First, you can expect new augments, new maps, and some other improvements that are still being explored.
The biggest change of all though, is that they are increasing the number of teams. From 4 teams of 2 to 8 teams of 2, for a total of 16 players in each game of Arena.
In regards to other game modes, URF will be back for Lunar New Year. And then will be receiving One-For-All. Later in the year, there are going to be more updates on what modes are going to come out after that.
Apart from all of the work going for Arena, there’s is something else cooking behind the scenes. The new game mode, which still doesn’t have a name is going to differ a lot from Arena.
“This will be a little bit more of a chill way to spend time with your friends" according to Riot Catmus. More details later in the year.
Skins: Upcoming thematics, Prestige Skin List, and Updates on ASU.
Heavenscale skin line is coming to celebrate this Lunar New Year
This year, the skins department will kick it off with a new take on Lunar New Year: Heavenscale. This skin line pays homage to the rich cultural heritage of the holiday.
According to Thomas “Riot Hylia” Randy:
“Heavenscale’s design fantasy skews more heavily into ancient historical divinity and garments to distance itself from our more modern takes on the Lunar New Year, like Lunar Beasts or Firecracker”
One thing I can say for sure is that the Ezreal's skin looks neat!
Now moving over to the next thematics of the year. These will be the new and returning ones coming for the first half of the year.
- Primal Ambush
- Porcelain
- Faerie Court
- Project
- Blood Moon
Expect to see all of these come out before Summer this year. Primal Ambush one already is looking great.
Primal Ambush takes inspiration from South East Asia
Also, on a side note, there will be Legendary borders for the Legacy legendary skins such as Brolaf or Corporate Mundo. These borders will be on the live server soon.
Talking about Legendary-looking things, these are the champions that will receive a Prestige skin the first half of the year.
- Rakan
- Ezreal
- Kindred
- Evelynn
- Kayle
There will be an update later this year to learn about the rest of the champions receiving a prestige skin.
Update on Lee Sin and Teemo ASUs
Ending with everything related to skins, let’s dig into the details of the champions receiving an Art & Sustainability Update (ASU).
Time has passed since the announcement of the ASUs which were promised last year. Gladly, we are getting an update for both of them, and even one of them is releasing in a few months.
Lee Sin is the most advanced one. The base is finalized and they are working on his skin catalog. They spent a lot of time testing out his animations, to make sure it didn’t impact his smooth gameplay. Lee Sin is expected to release on the Rift in early May.
In regards to Teemo, there’s no date yet. Due to challenges found during his ASU development, they are still currently figuring out the updated timelines.
Ending the section on a wholesome note. Two forgotten champions are going to finally receive one: Rammus and Olaf. Rammus was close to being on the 10th anniversary of no-getting a skin, not OKAY.
About the skin details, it was revealed that Rammus one is from the Durian skin line. There are no details for the Olaf one.
Anti Cheat Update – Vanguard is coming to League
In late February or early Match, Riot is bringing Vanguard to League. Vanguard is Riot’s proprietary anti-cheat and anti-botting software that’s been active in VALORANT since the beginning.
The goal of Vanguard is to combat the issues with the higher number of bots in games, disruptive smurfs in Ranked, and an increase in scripting, according to Riot Meddler and Riot Brightmoon.
In regards to technical details, if you are into that, it will run at the Kernel level. Although it was specified that it will not collect or process any personal information differently from the current Anti-Cheat software, Vanguard’s addition to League has sparked great discussion.
Finally, Vanguard can stop a game if a cheater is caught and there will be a refund of the LP lost for every player except for the cheating player, obviously.
If you have already installed Vanguard because you play Valorant, you don’t need to download anything. But if you haven’t, starting in a few weeks you’ll be required to install Vanguard to play League.
Esports update – Hall of Fame, Changes to MSI, and Regional Start Dates
For starters, now the main regions will have three base slots at Worlds: LPL, LCK, LEC, and LCS.
The LLA, CBLOL, PCS, and VCS will have their slots unchanged.
Now there are going to be new ways for teams and regions to earn additional slots, one way to do it is through MSI.
According to Naz Aletaha, Global Head of LoLEsports, MSI (Mid Season Invitational) has always lacked the highest stakes in comparison to Worlds. That's why now, for the first time in League’s esport history, the winning team at MSI will be awarded a guaranteed spot at Worlds. Which also counts as an additional slot for their region.
The next best-performing region at MSI will secure also an additional world seed for their region.
Also, MSI will have the same double-elimination format from MSI 2023. We can be hopeful to expect a legendary miracle run from the Lower bracket in this year’s MSI.
MSI and Worlds 2024 Location
For this year’s MSI, the tournament will be brought to Chengdu China, and will be held from May 1st through the 19th.
Worlds 2024 is going to be celebrated in Europe this time. As announced in last year's World Championship, Finals will be held at the iconic O2 Arena in London, England.
In this year's update, they disclosed the location for the other Stages of the tournament.
The beginning of Worlds is kicking off in Berlin at their newly remodeled esports arena for the Play-Ins and Swiss Stages.
Both the Quarterfinals and Semi-Finals we’ll be held in the Adidas Arena in Paris, France.
Closer to the date, expect updates on tickets, schedules, and more.
Hall of Legends
In commemoration of the 14th year of LoL Esports, Riot is introducing the LoL Esports Hall of Legends.
The first player that comes to mind. Source: Colin Young Wolf
The goal of this is to celebrate those legendary players and teams that have made a lasting impact on the game, the sport, and the community.
About the process of how they will select which players are worthy. LoLEsports’ team gathered an independent voting panel of esports industry veterans and experts from every region to vote and select the very first inductee.
Regional Start Dates
Mark your calendars for the start of this year's competitive Season.
- LEC: Jan 13
- LLA: Jan 16
- LCK: Jan 17
- PCS: Jan 19
- LCS: Jan 20
- VCS: Jan 20
- CBLOL: Jan 20
- LPL: Jan 22
LEC is starting soon, and there was a ton of important roster changes along with team additions to the League. Find about all of them in this article.
This marks the end of the Season 2024 overview. This year is going to be a great one for all of us lovers of the game. What excites you the most? Ambessa coming to League? or are you eager to show your Fireball skills with Smolder?
There’s also much more coming to League to celebrate Arcane Season 2: New skins, Arcane-inspired gameplay, and a few other surprises they have kept hidden from us. We'll need to wait until it premieres in November.
Don’t think we forgot about all the changes to the map and items, for that you can check this article.
