For the past 15 years, League of Legends‘ seasons have been just a part of the game’s ranked competitive play, with little impact on lore or events. From 2025, Riot will introduce a new seasonal model that’s closer to other live-service games, with each year split up into three seasons that will tell a story based on one of the game’s regions. The first, arriving in January, will be titled Welcome to Noxus.
The new seasons are a major overhaul for the long-running MOBA, with Welcome to Noxus launching as LoL: Season One. Each season will run for around eight patches, or 16 weeks, and most gameplay updates, modes, minigames, and champions will be connected to the season’s overarching narrative. Each season will feature two battle passes, which will function similarly to LoL’s current Event Pass, with both a paid and a free track. A number of extraneous rewards systems scattered across the game will be streamlined, with the free battle pass track collecting most rewards in one place.
A look at the battle pass
Ranked play will still follow the traditional calendar year, seeing a single large reset in January instead of timing resets with each season. Players will be able to earn a Victorious skin for each of the three seasons throughout the year, which can be unlocked by winning 15 ranked games during the season.
Riot has given a preview of what is in store when Season One launches in January, with the season set to feature the region of Noxus and its characters–which includes Arcane antagonist Ambessa, who was recently added to the game as a champion. Riot has also teased a Noxian invasion of the classic Summoner’s Rift map.
Season One will also see a major shakeup to the Rift with the addition of Atakhan, a new jungle boss who will spawn only once per game. Atakhan will spawn at 20 minutes into the match on either the top or bottom side, depending on which team has seen the most champion damage and kills at the 14-minute mark. Atakhan will spawn in his own arena, which will permanently change the terrain of the map. Atakhan can spawn in two different forms depending on how much action the game has seen, with each dropping a different buff. The addition of the new boss means some other bosses will be seeing slight tweaks in timing, with the Rift Herald now spawning at 16 minutes, and Baron Nashor at 25 minutes.
Arcane, Riot’s animated TV series set in the League of Legends universe, wrapped up its second and final season over the weekend, and the popular show will be making its mark on the game that inspired it. A visual and gameplay update for champion Viktor is live now on the PBE test server, which aligns Viktor’s look, lore, and abilities with the version of the character explored in Arcane.
While Arcane might be over, Riot has plans for future TV shows exploring other regions in the League of Legends universe, with Arcane showrunner Christian Linke recently revealing that the next regions to be adapted for TV will be Noxus, Ionia, and Demacia.
