League of Legends is pulling out all the stops for its season 14. A sublime cinematic, very big changes for the game and surprises for Arcane fans without forgetting a super cute new champion.
No need to introduce League of Legends, everyone knows the MOBA at least by name, just like Fortnite. The game is now entering its 14th year of existence, yes it’s huge, and it’s always full. Every year, the game applies a major update to revitalize its formula, refresh interest and attract new players. This year, in 2024, it’s even more than that. The launch of the 2024 season, or S14, is an opportunity for Riot Games to seriously kick in the anthill by making a whole bunch of announcements in addition to bringing a colossal update to the breach . Even Arcane fans will be over the moon.
League of Legends is pulling out all the stops for the 2024 season!
After getting a little lost with the launch of its previous seasons, Riot decided to go all out for this one and it starts straight away with a pretty incredible cinematic which adds more lore to the universe while giving a few shivers along the way. We see Kayle and Morgana confronting Aatrox, an elderly Yasuo who defends a village with crazy class or even Tryndamere in a very bad position, narrowly saved by a sublime Ashe who will help him face Kindred, hidden in the darkness. Nothing to say about this animation sequence offered by the French studio Unit Image. The video was a hit on YouTube and the feedback was excellent.
Arcane fans will be in heaven
Much more than a MOBA, League of Legends has become a truly ultra-rich extended universe. From now on, everything is canonical, lovers of the license therefore swallow everything that is directly or indirectly linked to the universe. The Riot Forge games, the narrative cutscenes and above all, Arcane, the Netflix series animated by the Fortiche studio. The game and the series are now linked and closer than ever. Arcane writes the origins of several heroes of the game such as Jinx, Vi, Jayce or even Viktor, from the Piltover region and Zaun, but also creates new memorable characters.
For the very first time, one of his characters will land in the Rift as a playable Champion. This is Ambessa Medarda, the mother of Mel Medarda whom she herself exiled to Piltover long before the events of Arcane. The Noxian warlord will therefore arrive later this year on League of Legends. We don’t know anything about her kit or her role, but it’s pretty easy to imagine her as a top lane fighter.
Speaking of the series, you have certainly not forgotten that season 2 of Arcane has been confirmed and will be released in November of this year. To mark the release of the new season of League of Legends, Riot Games took the opportunity to reveal a new trailer for the next season of Arcane. We discover Singed, the mad scientist, creating a creature well known to fans of the game: Warwick. Suffice to say that the hype is real.
A new ultra cute champion arrives in the next big patch!
Still a new hero, but this time we know who it is. Little dragonet Smolder will soon arrive on the Rift. This shooter designed for the bot lane is a cute little creature capable of calling on its mother, an ancestral dragon, to set fire to a large area with its ultimate. An atypical character who will evolve throughout the game. Riot claimed to have put a ton of visual and audio details to give us a real feeling of power. Smolder will be released in the next big patch.
It is currently in the testing phase on the PBE. Recently it was the mage Hwei who joined the fight. A painter capable of using no less than 10 skills. The least we can say is that Riot is working hard to try to find new ways to play. Not easy when you already have more than 160 playable heroes.
A ton of changes for the new year, new map, gameplay…
In addition to these numerous announcements, it is good to remember that this new season also brings a ton of new features. The Rift, the main map of League of Legends, is changing. This is very rare, but it has happened in the past. The jungle opens new paths on the lower and upper corridors, and tall grass appears in both rivers. There is also an overhaul on both sides of the mid lane which will certainly open up new opportunities for junglers on both sides.
Speaking of jungle, the monster camps are once again modified and some creatures will transform at a certain stage of the game. Baron Nashor’s lair has also undergone an overhaul. The latter now has several variants which, in addition to changing its abilities, will change the topography of the area. Moreover, before the appearance of the Herald of the Rift, Larvae of the Void will take possession of the place. A new point of interest that will offer some statistical advantages to the team that takes control of it.
The changes are also found in the item system which, once again, has been redesigned. Basically, this is a new XXL balancing. Mythic items and associated bonuses have disappeared (FINALLY!) and for the few survivors, they have all been rebalanced. New new items are also appearing and will certainly change the meta that we found at the end of season 13. Riot really wants to put more emphasis on champions and make objects simple… objects. Where we tended to choose heroes based on the most broken objects at the moment. Let’s see what this does over time.
Another change is to the ranking system itself. From now on, the year will be divided into several ranked seasons in order to offer more luck to players but also to revitalize the lines. Champion masteries and the overall evolution of experience are also points that change with this season. Full details of these changes can be found in the massive 14.1 patch notes as well as on the official League of Legends website.
As a reminder, League of Legends is a completely free-to-play game available only on PC, via its official website. As an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, you will also be able to find a shortcut for the game in the PC catalog and benefit from a bunch of bonuses: all unlocked champions, some skins and account XP bonuses in particular.