League of Legends Season 1 2026 Dev Update Revealed

The League of Legends development team today released the final set of Dev Update videos of the year, with the game’s development team, including Paul “Pabro” Bellezza, Andrei “Meddler” Van Roon, David “Phreak” Turley, Nick “Riot Endstep” Frijia, Darcy “Dashijador” Ludington, and Kellye “Riot CallMeKT” Smith to reveal an overview of the big update coming to Season 1 2026, which will begin testing on PBE on December 4, 2025, and go live on January 8, 2026.

Season 1 2026: Enter the Golden Age of Demacia, with 2026 kicking off with the theme of Demacia that will be presented through every element of the game.

• The all-new Summoner’s Rift Under the theme of Demacia with petricite design, gold-blue tones and unique architectural elements.

• Annual Cinematic January will highlight the atmosphere of the Demacia champions.
• The Battle Pass – Act 1 includes Demacia-themed skins for multiple champions, including Morgana’s Prestige Skin.
• The plot takes you back to the “heyday” of Demacia.

A major gameplay update for Summoner’s Rift will allow players to experience fresher and faster gameplay through several adjustments, including:

• The game starts 35 seconds faster.
• Added Faelights to the Map: Points grant Vision Bonuses to Wards.
• Original content such as Atakhan, Bloody Roses, Feats of Strength has been deleted.
• Introduced a new system, Crystalline Overgrowth, a passive turret destruction mechanism that hits three times.
• Added Plates to Inner and Inhibitor Towers
• New Items and Multiple Comeback Items
• Critical Strike Strength returns to 200%

Role Quests: A new system that flips roles in every lane, role-based quests have been added in all Top, Mid, and Bot positions to give every lane a clearer game rhythm.

• Top Lane: Higher level ceilings, XP boosts, and upgradeable teleports
• Jungle: Smite is stronger, with more gold and XP.
• Mid Lane: Free Tier 3 shoes and shorter recall times
• Bot Lane: Earn the first gold, the gold rate throughout the game, and the 7th item slot.
• Support: Control Ward discount and one new Ward channel

Fairer Matchmaking & Autofill System For a better playing experience for players of all levels.

• Adjust the Autofill system to match autofillers based on roles.
• Added Aegis of Valor Bonus: If a player achieves Mastery C or higher in an autofill game, they will receive double LP on winning or unaffected when losing.
• Prevent Dodge to bypass Autofill;

The all-new Swiftplay: Faster Swiftplay mode has been optimized to be faster.

• Start the game at level 3 with more gold.
• Cut Rift Herald and Grubs out of Dragon Mode and Elemental Rift spawns faster.
• Sudden Death is faster than ever

Other interesting information

• Ranked system adds a Climb Indicator to show who has a higher MMR than the actual
  rank. Adjusts the Flex MMR to be closer to Solo/Duo for fair competition.
• Reduce Champ Select time to enter the game faster.
• Added Duo Queue for Apex-Tier (Master, Grand Master, Challenger)
• The WASD control system was activated on the physical server on December 3.

League of Legends strives to create a deeper gameplay experience. More fun and balanced for all types of players. Players can watch the full Dev Update video on the official League of Legends channel.