From the retired game modes of Dominion and Twisted Treelines to the ever-popular Team Fight Tactics (TFT) and Legend of Runeterra (LOR), Riot Games is continuing to innovate with new games that involve the League of Legends universe. Whether it is the addition of new items and champions to good-old League of Legends or a completely new game mod that will hit live servers soon, 2023 has held some of the biggest updates and changes that have ever been made to the League of Legends universe. It is time to jump into what changes/updates have hit live servers in the last couple of months as well as what is expected to come later this year.
Updates That Are Already Live
The most popular update that has hit the League of Legends universe recently is season 9 of TFT, Runeterra Reforged. As one of the most well-received TFT updates since its launch in 2019, Runeterra Reforged introduces multiple new mechanics to the game, some of which include the choice between different perk specializations at the beginning of each game, choosing a playstyle that provides unique perks to support it, and pre-building the team composition before entering a game. TFT Runeterra Reforged is a breath of fresh air for much of the community and has reinvigorated the joy that comes from playing it.
Another big update that just went live is the mid-season League of Legends changes. While this type of update happens annually in June of every season, the season 13 mid-season update brings more changes than normal. The most noticeable change was the addition of the item “Static Shiv,” which has quickly become one of the most overpowered items in the game. Static Shiv is an item that has been in the game before, but it is now better than ever before, with better stats and item ability. There are also some updates and buffs that came to champions. Most notable are Rell and Neeko, pushing each to be some of the best champions in the game. Rell has lost a stun but gained a lot of damage and cooldown reduction on all her abilities, making her a lot for versatile than before. Neeko got big buffs to her damage and cooldowns, too but also got her passive changed so she can camouflage as minions and other interactable objects on the rift. These are just the most notable changes, but there were several more changes that came with the mid-season update.
Updates to come
Just released on the League of Legends public beta environment (PBE) is the new game mode called “2v2v2v2.” Yes, that is the name; It could have been more creative, but it is what it is. As the name suggests, players are pitted against each other in a small circular arena in four teams of two. Each team plays the others once before an intermission, and that is repeated until there is only one team remaining. Teams are given a shared health pool. Each loss eats into it, and losing it all eliminates that team; each win does nothing to that health pool but makes the team stronger going into the next rounds. At each intermission, the teams can choose perks that will make their plays in the arena stronger. Most players are enjoying 2v2v2v2 but have found glaring issues that will potentially push back the release until much later in 2023.
Another exciting change coming to League of Legends very soon is the new champion, Naafiri. Lore-wise, he is known as the Hound of Iron, prowling the dark streets of the Shuriman nights with his pack. What makes Naafiri very interesting is he continuously summons other dogs to be a part of his pack, making him one of the only champions (along with Yorick and Bel’Veth) to be able to spawn minions. The community has high hopes for Naafiri, and he will be live on summoners right in early to mid-July 2023. While this is just a brief overview of some of the significant changes the League of Legends universe is seeing in 2023, there is a decent number of changes that have not been mentioned above. Stay up to date with all the League of Legends updates here.
