2020 was a great year for Riot Games. Their flagship MOBA, League of Legends, continued to grow in popularity and also received a mobile counterpart as well as a collectible card game in the forms of Wild Rift and Legends of Runeterra respectively. League of Legends’ “gameverse” (think of it as Riot’s own MCU) has steadily expanded, and we might even get to see the League fighting game and MMO in the future.
Of course, we’d be remiss not to mention that 2020 was also the year that Riot released Valorant, and shook up the world of online multiplayer FPS games. But while Valorant has just gotten a major update and the new agent Yoru, Riot focused on their upcoming plans for the League of Legends gameverse in their Season 2021 Livestream.
Here are some of the big updates announced in the Season 2021 Livestream.
League of Legends
You might have already seen him on your favorite League streams, and undoubtedly he’s the biggest and most exciting addition coming to League in patch 11.2: Viego the Ruined King. Alongside Viego, and following Ruination’s story arc, three more champions were teased in the Season 2021 livestream, and they’re set to be released throughout the year.
Aside from new champions, League will also be getting some improvements and additions to the shop. New, powerful items called Mythic items will be making their debut, giving players more ways to strategize and utilize their resources to decimate an enemy lane. There’s also a sweet new update for players who are new to League: the Shop’s Recommended items tab will now show more suitable items for your character and build, modeled after builds used by high-level players.
Throughout the year, we’ll be getting over 140 new skins as well as more tweaks to Ranked mode, and these improvements are largely impacted by community feedback. The stream revealed that upcoming choices for skins, new thematic sets, as well as hero buffs and nerfs are all the result of player feedback, and it’s nice to see just how closely Riot Games are listening to their player base.
League of Legends: Wild Rift
With Wild Rift still in its early years, there’s still plenty of room for its gameplay experience to improve, and you can expect some great changes to the game throughout the year. For now, Riot Games is focusing on launching Wild Rift to more areas in the world, but they’re also working on adding new champions and tweaking their abilities to better suit the mobile experience.
In the livestream, it was announced that Wild Rift will be getting two new champions every month, and the next two champions set to arrive are Katarina and Rammus. Later in the year, Dr. Mundo will also be making an appearance. Due to Riot’s main focus being on expanding Wild Rift’s availability, we’ve yet to see which champions will be joining the game in the coming months.
Finally, if you managed to join Wild Rift’s closed beta, you can now take part in the Yordle expedition event, which will allow you to explore Runeterra and unlock some new, adorable yordle champions.
Legends of Runeterra
It seems that there’s a trend of new champions in the Season 2021 livestream, and Legends of Runeterra is following that trend with the upcoming addition of League’s most powerful emo: Aphelios. As an LoR champion, Aphelios has access to his multiple weapons throughout each game, and he allows for a more flexible playstyle that lets you choose the order in which you’ll be using his wide array of armaments.
Also introduced in the livestream was the world of Shurima, the setting for an upcoming expansion for LoR. Shurima’s key art presented in the livestream showed desert lands and card art heavily influenced by ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian imagery. While details for now remain scarce, you can expect more news about Shurima in the coming months.
To end the LoR portion of the livestream, it seems that they also teased an upcoming champion who just might “ruin” the game. If you “mist” that reference, you might want to check out the livestream VOD.
Teamfight Tactics
Last, but definitely not the least in the League gameverse’s current line-up of games, Teamfight Tactics is also getting some additions and improvements throughout 2021. Elderwood Ornn is joining your team, and there’ll also be two new arenas set to come out soon.
There’s also a “turbo” mode currently in development for TFT, which will provide the same TFT experience in a faster, and slightly simpler way, for people who like to play the game on the go.
Esports
It wouldn’t be a League-centered livestream without some esports announcements, and for Season 2021, there’ll be plenty of esports events to watch out for. TFT will be having its Fates championship, and there’s currently a spectator mode in development for players who want to watch the games through TFT itself. Legends of Runeterra will also have in-game tournaments rolling out soon, so you can join some fierce competition if you manage to climb up the Ranked ladder.
With Wild Rift’s first official Ranked season coming soon, plans for Wild Rift esports events are also being made. And finally, Riot Games announced that the host of 2021’s League of Legends World Championships will be Shenzhen, China. It’ll surely make for an exciting year of competitive LoL.
Which of these upcoming updates are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments! And for all the finer details of these announcements, you can check out Riot Games’ full Season 2021 livestream below: