League of Legends is giving every role a transformative rework as part of the best slate of changes I've seen in years

League of Legends has become a very different game in 2025. With the introduction of the battle pass system and ever-changing seasonal Rifts, it's taken a moment to get used to Riot's new and 'improved' LoL, and I'm still unsure whether or not I like it. 2026, however, is dropping radical, much-needed adjustments to balance, game time, and epic monsters, hopefully making things a bit smoother for top laners and ADCs. There are 11 new items - two of which are fan favorites - and we're being transported back to Demacia at the peak of its power. On paper, this season looks like it solves a lot of the MOBA's problems, and it's honestly quite exciting.

There's a lot to get through, so let's start with the next season's theme. As you were probably expecting, we're headed to Demacia. Following the events of Trials of Twilight, where Xin Zhao saw visions of the region's destruction, the Rift is getting a rather regal white, blue, and gold overhaul, with Demacia-themed skins for various champions (they're not all from Garen and Lux's stomping ground, though) and a Prestige cosmetic for Morgana.

"We've learned a lot about seasons through the course of [2025]," League of Legends' lead designer Bryan 'CatchesAxes' Salvatore says in a pre-season press briefing. "Many players liked most of the things that came with the approach to this year - the themes, the map updates, meta games, and champions being tied to it. But we also saw where we leaned too hard into it, or leaned too hard into a single region. It could feel very one-note, especially when it came to skins, so as it turns out, there is such a thing as too much Noxus."

As a result, we'll still see a focus on specific regions and their respective champions, but others will be added to the skin pool to ensure that there's a bit of variety.

.@RiotMeddler and @RiotPabro are joined in this Dev Update by @RiotPhreak, @RiotEndstep, @DashiJador, and Riot CallMeKT to talk about:
🏰Season 1 2026 Theme
👀Summoner's Rift Gameplay Changes
🥇Ranked
⏩Swiftplay
⌨️WASD
😢And more

Timestamps:
Intro: 0:00
Season One Theme: 00:37… pic.twitter.com/bkaYUFD6UZ

- League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) December 1, 2025

Next up is the role rebalancing. Everyone knows that playing as either a top laner or ADC has been miserable for a while. If you're up top, you're on your own isolated, farming island, while ADCs are consistently blown up by literally every other role - including some supports. As a result, Riot is introducing Role Quests: new rewards that you can earn during the game by doing all of the usual things - killing minions, getting plates, knocking down towers; you know the drill. You'll progress these quests faster if you stay in your own lane, so if you're still intent on swapping around, that might not be the best idea.

Top laners will receive a free, longer-cooldown Teleport on top of their two chosen summoner spells, and if you've already taken Teleport you'll be given a max-health shield when you use it. They'll also receive more experience and an increased level cap (Riot doesn't clarify what that is) in what Salvatore says is a "pretty significant push towards top lane."

ADCs, however, are also winning here. Bot laners will be getting more gold, including an initial lump sum, then increased gold from killing minions, champions, and scoring assists for the rest of the game. They're also getting a seventh item slot so that they can pick up a new legendary and really scale into the late game. Crit damage has been increased by 200% across the board, too.

Mid lane is getting some love here, too. They'll receive new tier three boots (similar to what we've seen with Feats of Strength) and an empowered four-second recall on cooldown. Junglers are getting increased movement speed in the jungle and more gold and XP from large monsters. Smite is also dealing more damage to epic creatures in an attempt to stop non-junglers from stealing objectives. Then, supports are getting a dedicated control ward spot, and increased gold generation across the game's lifespan.

But, speaking of Epic monsters: Atakhan and his bloody rose petals are gone for good. Lead producer Chris 'Auberaun' Roberts admits there's been a bit of "objective overload" in 2025, so the Bringer of Ruin has been vaulted, and Baron's spawn has been pulled forward to 20 minutes to compensate. This also removes Feats of Strength.

He's been replaced, however, by Crystalline Overgrowth. Shimmering crystals will slowly engulf turrets that are still standing, but when hit they'll detonate and deal extra damage, akin to Demolish. This should provide all champions with a bit more pushing power, with Demolish receiving some slight tweaks to compensate.

Tier 1 turret plates will no longer disappear at 14 minutes, and plates are being added to the inner and inhibitor turrets, too. This splits the gold gained into three chunks, instead of being distributed as one big cash pot when the turret goes down. Nexus turrets also will now respawn with 40% health instead of 100%.

Riot's goal here is to provide more opportunities for split pushing and sieging, which it admits "aren't currently in great states." Auberaun says that this will hopefully "broaden strategic options for teams," reducing the reliance on constant team fights which, let's be honest, can become really tiresome if your top laner is too busy farming minions and refuses to tp in.

There are some general changes to game time, too. You'll now get into the action "35 seconds faster," with minions spawning at 30 seconds instead of 65, and Rift Scuttle and Raptors also appearing 35 seconds earlier. You'll still be able to invade, but you'll need to be aggressive about doing so.

If you're playing Ranked, queue times are also decreasing with the new Aegis of Valor. While autofill heroes exist and we love them because they bring queue times down, it's a pretty thankless role. If you're dumped in a lane you don't want to be in, losing sucks because it's somewhat out of your control. To mitigate this, Riot will attempt to pit autofilled players against each other (so if you're stuck in the jungle, you'll be up against another autofilled player versus a Master Yi one-trick) and teams should have the same number of autofilled players.

This new Aegis of Valor is also a huge deal. Autofill players will be rewarded double XP for a win, and if you score above a C, you'll be fully protected from LP loss. This also applies to priority roles, including support and jungle.

To stop lobbies consistently bouncing, Riot is also removing the ability to ban hovered champions, and, at Master and higher, dodging will count as an immediate loss for the person leaving the lobby. Animations in champion select have been reduced, too, bringing lobby times down by around 30 seconds.

Solo/Duo is coming back to all levels, including apex ranks, and there are significant changes to MMR at lower tiers. "You've all gotten much better since we introduced Ranked years ago," Riot says. "Where a bronze player of the past might not have known much about the game at all, today's bronze player is often familiar with wave management, champion matchups, and objective timing."

As a result, Riot's done some tinkering to ensure that ranks are reflective of actual skill, with the new Climb Indicator showing when your front-facing rank is lagging behind your actual MMR. This means players will know that you've maybe just joined the game a little later this split, and that your actual skill level is higher than what is being suggested.

Finally, let's talk items. There are 11 new ones, included the much-beloved Hextech Gunblade (removed with patch 10.23) and Stormrazor (removed with patch 14.10), which feels like it'll work well in that new ADC item slot. The others include a new upgradable item (think Tear of the Goddess) for enchanter supports (yay!); a long-range item for ADCs that scales with distance; the Mananomicon, which has an active component that sacrifices mana for increased spell damage and decreased cooldowns; and the Scepter of Bonking, which doubles your on-hits. I mainly included that last one because I love the name.

Riot has confirmed that League of Legends' 2026 season kicks off on Wednesday January 7, with the changes appearing on the PBE on Wednesday December 3.

There's an awful lot going on here, but generally I think it's for the best. In 2025 I think the focus was on throwing things at the game and seeing what stuck. The result was overcomplication, and general frustration at the apparent lack of focus on fixing core systems. This year, I'm quite excited to see the distinct absence of shiny new things: it feels like Riot has realized that the core game needs some work to become a fun experience once more, and it's finally delivering.

We'll need to wait and see how these changes land - the top lane and ADC changes are the ones I've got my eye on - but, all in all, I'm excited about what comes next. After a year of not really gelling with League, hopefully this is the brings me back - I've genuinely missed the Rift.