League of Legends' best game mode is getting a revamp, and Ranked 5s is making its grand return, but with a catch

Riot Games has released a new dev video, detailing everything coming with League of Legends Season 2 Act 2. Though the studio hasn't said much about new character Locke, it's been far more forthcoming with details surrounding major changes to ARAM Mayhem, as well as the long-awaited return of Ranked 5s. Of course, no dev update is complete without a cosmetics reveal, and the Sinful Shores skin line has News Ed Lauren and I gnawing at the bars of our cages.

League of Legends dev duo Andrei 'Meddler' van Roon and Paul 'Pabro' Bellezza are pretty coy on Locke in the dev vlog. That said, they do share just enough about the new LoL champion to get the ol' noggin' speculating. Meddler says, "if you're a fan of assassins who offer high burst, if you get your setup right, Locke might be your next main." Pabro, meanwhile, says he'll be "slinging nails and taking names on the Rift in Patch 26.13," which is currently scheduled for Wednesday, June 24, 2026. I'm getting Nobara Kugisaki from Jujutsu Kaisen vibes, though I guess we'll see how these nail-based mechanics will materialize.

I have become an ARAM Mayhem savant, which should come as no surprise considering I am something of an arbiter of chaos. The me-favorite mode started life as a limited-time event last October, before overwhelmingly positive fan feedback resulted in it becoming a permanent fixture in the MOBA. Rotating augment choices at different level breakpoints make it ridiculously replayable, with a different build outcome for your champ every time you play. It's not perfect, mind you. If you run into certain combinations like a Brand with Infernal Conduit, then you might as well GG go next. Hopefully, the upcoming Mayhem tweaks could fix those qualms.

In the vlog, Ezra 'Phlox' Lynn and Eduardo 'Cadmus' Cortejoso are on deck to take us through what's new. The headline change is that, from Patch 26.12 (June 10), the trait system is being removed completely.

"Our intention was to give you more ways to strategize when picking augments," Phlox says. "Plus, it could provide some whacky alternative playstyles you'd never think of, like Stackosaurus Yuumi, for example. But rather than provide an increased strategy, it often felt like you lost options because it was trolling not to choose a traited augment. And on top of that, beyond this illusion of choice, it just feels giga bad in games where you just get unlucky and can't level up any of your traits."

This means no more trillion-stack Heartsteel with Stackosaurus, or getting 100-0'd by rockets because someone hit Firecracker Exodia. However, that's not to say you can't get your ramp on. Some of the traited augments will live on as standard boons, with the devs promising we'll still be able to 'wee woo, wee woo' our way around the Howling Abyss, and rack up stacks on stacks.

Out with the old and in with the new, as they say, and Riot's doing just that with Mayhem. Alongside the now-traitless augments, the studio's bringing in over 50 new offerings, while switching up a number of existing ones. Ability-modifying augments have been right up there on my wishlist for a while now, and Riot's finally delivering the goods. The devs highlight 'Multishot' here, which fires two additional projectiles. So, prepare for Blitzcrank to hook half your team at once, or to dodge a triple Lux binding. There's also 'Chain Reaction,' which, as described in the accompanying blog post, rewards you for scoring those juicy knock-ups. Though I'm going to miss traits, I can't wait to try out all the extra modifiers. Phlox and Cadmus promise Mayhem will be balanced "within reason," which is absolutely spot on.

Mayhem isn't the only ARAM element getting new bells and whistles. For 1,350 RP, 'ARAM Wardrobe' will grant players access to most Epic tier and below skins, released before 2026, in both ARAM modes. The kicker is that your investment only lasts for 30 days, but if you're already spending over $100 on League each year, and only play ARAM or Mayhem, then I can see this being a solid value proposition. Meddler and Pabro say the system will be tested in Brazil and Oceania first, but be sure to get your feedback in wherever you are.

Speaking of skins, Riot's got quite the line-up of fresh cosmetics en route. Sinful Shores is, as Pabro says, all about "demons! At the beach," and one of the skins has Lauren feeling some kind of Hwei - I mean way. Brand, Hwei, and LeBlanc are the recipients, with the latter getting a Prestige version. Sinful Shores arrives with Patch 26.12.

Beyond that, Akshan and Locke are getting High Noon skins, while Aurora, Jhin, and Shen will be joining the Broken Covenant. This is probably my favorite skin line of recent times, mostly due to it resembling something out of a FromSoftware game. Broken Covenant Jhin looks unbelievably good, so I'll be four-king out for it. In July, the Worlds 2025 winner skins will debut, alongside Season 2's Victorious skin for Rengar.

Now, onto Ranked 5s. Firstly, it's back, hooray! While Flex is fine, full-sending a (not so) co-ordinated 5v5 on a Clash weekend is the only time I have the urge to hit the Rift. From Friday, June 26, until Sunday, September 6, you'll be able to get the gang together and get your sweat on. Riot says there are no restrictions on party rank disparity, so you can bring your padawans along to get a taste of proper teamplay.

However, it should be noted that Ranked 5s queues will only be available during certain hours at weekends. As Meddler explains, "to get a really good Ranked 5s experience, we need to match equal-skilled teams together. When we previously had Ranked 5s as a queue that was on all the time, we didn't consistently have teams of similar skill queuing up at the same time. That led to some pretty uneven matches which caused people to stop queuing up, further exacerbating the problem."

As such, windowing helps improve both the quality of games and queue times. If you somehow manage to pull the crew together during the week, Flex is still there for you to get some practice in ahead of the weekend's games. With LP on the line, you'll want those synergies to hit like prime ZOFGK T1. You can find the planned timings for each region in the Ranked 5s dev blog here.

With the main content bulk covered, Meddler and Pabro finish up with some miscellaneous work going on around League. Over the past few months, the studio's been brushing up on its penalties for disruptive and harmful comms, and you can now report abusive players who think they can get away with it by sliding into your DMs. League's Honor system has always felt a bit wispy, and Riot's working on a new way to keep track of it. This will let you keep an eye on "Honor-related systems you do and don't have access to, like Honor rewards for the Battle Pass, chat restrictions, or queue restrictions."

This latest League update is incredibly exciting. We're seeing some big investment into exciting modes, the skins team is cooking, and we have a new champ on the way. Honestly, it can't get much better than that.