League of Legends ends 2026 with its 2026 season champion decided in Japan (FENNEL), HLE holding the MSI title, and Riot winding down 2XKO while shipping patch 26.20 ahead of Worlds. The streamer tournament League The k4sen closes its run with an 11-day Season: Finale from October 15 to November 22.
Riot Games spent the middle of 2026 reshaping the client itself. League of Legends Classic was announced on June 27 with a trailer teasing old eras, then given a July 30 release date in patch 26.15, carrying removed systems like Rune Pages and the Revive summoner spell and community voting on later updates. The new assassin champion Locke arrived in patch 26.13 as the only new champion planned for the 2026 season. In August, lead designer Matthew Leung-Harrison said the mage bot lane meta had gone too far, and patch 26.16 answered with higher support roam penalties, stronger ADC items and runes, higher ADC base magic resistance, and a Heal buff rather than direct mage nerfs.
On the competitive side, HLE beat Bilibili Gaming 3-2 in the MSI 2026 Grand Final, ending BLG's undefeated run and Golden Road bid, with Zeus named Finals MVP. FENNEL swept the LJL 2026 WINTER SERIES, SPRING SERIES and SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIP to take the season title and the promotion battle into the League of Legends Championship Pacific, while FENNEL's MayR was picked for Japan's Esports Nations Cup 2026 roster. Evi announced on September 4 that he will retire after the 2026 season. Faker was appointed an honorary police officer and public relations ambassador by the Korean National Police Agency in July.
Riot's non-League business also moved: 2XKO active development ends at the end of 2026, with servers staying up and the game playable on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, after retention fell short and costs exceeded revenue. Enforcement against rank manipulation led to action on 296,416 accounts via the Vanguard Anti-Boost system. Patch 26.20 on October 7 restricted replays to matches a player played, cutting third-party replay downloads. True Damage returned with "Know My Name," the Worlds 2026 anthem, and the streamer tournament League The k4sen announced its final season, Season: Finale, with 60 players across Dahlia Diadem, Camellia Crown, Iris Tiara, and Laurel Regalia.
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Ryo Fujiwara drew the visual illustration for FIRESTARTER, the new song from League of Legends virtual group K/DA. The piece shows Ahri, Akali, Evelynn and Kai'Sa in the song's outfits. Fujiwara called the work "super fun and the best" and said he loves K/DA way too much. K/DA released FIRESTARTER on October 19, their first new song in about six years, with MIYEON and SOYEON continuing and two new vocalists joining.
At Worlds 2026 in the United States, the official LoL Esports account posted a matchup image comparing Top Esports top laner 369's champion pool with Zeus's. 369's side listed VALORANT agents Clove, Reyna, and Iso. 369 had returned to TES's starting lineup after Zuian's travel trouble, and before the tournament he streamed VALORANT three days in a row. On October 24 Japan time, TES lost 0-1 to Hanwha Life Esports.
JELLY JELLY GAMES announced on October 23, 2026 that it will publish a Japanese edition of Mechs vs. Minions in 2027. The cooperative board game, set in the League of Legends world, has 2 to 4 players programming mech actions with cards across 10 missions of about 60 to 90 minutes each. Riot Games released the original in 2016; it went out of print in 2020, and a reprint was set for its 10th anniversary through a licensing deal with Incredible Dream Studios. Title and price are undecided.
Riot Store Japan has opened pre-orders for Youtooz products tied to FIRESTARTER, the new K/DA song released October 19. The lineup is four member figures (Ahri, Akali, Evelynn, Kai'Sa) at 5,700 yen each, plus a Poro Plush Keychain blind box at 4,400 yen. The blind box carries a 1/4 standard rate and a 1/50 secret variant. Figures ship at the end of May 2027, keychains at the end of April 2027.
Riot Games shipped League of Legends patch 26.21 on October 21. The patch caps replay downloads at 10 per hour, replacing an earlier plan that would have blocked other players' replays entirely. Riot had announced that block in the October 7 update and said at the time it was for security. Criticism from players and pro teams, who study other squads' replays, followed, and the change was postponed to this patch.
Riot Games released the music video for FIRESTARTER, a new K/DA song, on October 19. MIYEON and SOYEON of i-dle return as the voices of Ahri and Akali, roles they have held since the group's 2018 debut. Sophie Powers and Mimi Webb join as new members. It is the League of Legends virtual group's first original release since the 2020 EP ALL OUT.
The final season of League The k4sen, k4sen's League of Legends tournament, opened on October 15. Kitsunejiro Uru, who calls herself a "God" and joined k4sen's UltraLMTM brand on October 6, lines up in the NEXT tier against top laners SHAKA, Kanou, and Tachibana Hinano, all streamers past 1 million YouTube subscribers. Sixty players across four teams compete on combined results from three tiers.
Worlds 2026 watch party streamers for Japan have been announced, with eight people selected: Enty, Evi, Raijin, Gingaji Signe, Shallur, Takaya Special, Chisen Yuhi, and Yutapon. The lineup mixes names who have held watch parties at past international tournaments with new additions. Evi, who said in September he will retire from competitive play at the end of this season, joins as a streamer. LoL Esports said more streamers may still be added.
k4sen hosts the final season of League The k4sen, a League of Legends community tournament, with Regular Stage Day 1 on October 15 at 18:00. Sixty streamers are split into four teams of 15, each roster carrying five NEXT, five CORE and five MASTERS players. Kuzuha and Kanae of ChroNoiR, the full Gemagema group, and newcomers Kanae, Stunmi and Jasper are among the participants.
Riot Games announced on October 15 that League of Legends Classic will end once at the close of Season 3, making the mode unplayable in January 2027. The company cited a decline in users, with most players returning to the current League of Legends. Riot says it aims to bring the mode back later as a limited-time event with adjustments.
ZETA DIVISION-affiliated streamer k4sen will host "League The k4sen" Season: Finale, an 11-day tournament running October 15 to November 22. It uses the NEXT, CORE and MASTERS tiers across four teams, 15 members each, 60 players total, with a Regular Stage, MASTERS CUP and Playoffs. Kuzuha, Kukuri Aria, Takamiya Rion, Tachibana Hinano, Shishido Akari, Kanae, Kagura Mea, Shirona Shizuku, Tentei Forte and Astel Leda are among the participants.
The k4sen-hosted League of Legends event League The k4sen has announced all 60 participants for its final season, LTK Season: Finale. Dahlia Diadem, Camellia Crown, Iris Tiara, and Laurel Regalia each field 15 players across MASTERS, CORE, and NEXT tiers. Six people join as LTK players for the first time: Kanae, Stunmi Japan, Jasper, Shishido Akari, Harucha, and Nemoh. Play runs from October 15 through the November 21 and 22 playoffs.
Riot Games released patch 26.20 for League of Legends on October 7, the last adjustment before Worlds. The patch applies champion buffs and nerfs and item adjustments, and it also restricts replay access so players can only open replays of matches they played themselves. Third-party apps and sites lose replay downloads. Riot cites security vulnerabilities and third-party abuse of game memory, and says data acquisition is now limited to the official API.
Riot Games published a Japanese-language account of how its Vanguard Anti-Boost system detects smurfing in VALORANT and League of Legends. The system, introduced to League of Legends in September 2025 and to VALORANT in July 2026, has led to action against 296,416 accounts. Riot says about 9% of accounts playing ranked matches on a given day are sub-accounts, and that more than half of those are harmless.
Riot Games announced on September 30, 2026 that its League of Legends virtual hip-hop group True Damage returns with "Know My Name," the official anthem of Worlds 2026. The song is scheduled for worldwide release on October 9 at 10:00 AM Japan time. SOYEON of i-dle returns as Akali, joined by Coco Jones as Senna, Vic Mensa as Ekko, and Sofía Reyes as Qiyana. The group is set to perform at the Worlds 2026 Grand Final opening ceremony at Barclays Center in New York.
Infinity Studio is taking preorders at Rakuten Books for a 1/4 scale painted figure of League of Legends' Miss Fortune Irelia. The design combines Irelia's backstory with traditional Chinese paper-cutting art. Clear material forms the hair, and the eyes use a drip resin technique. The blue waves at her feet carry a built-in LED light-up gimmick, and the base's rear panel is modeled on a Chinese folding screen with layered mountains in relief. The reference price is 175,000 yen; the Rakuten Books sale price is 154,000 yen including tax.
FENNEL's League of Legends division won the LJL 2026 SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIP, defeating New Meta in the final. The win completes a sweep of the WINTER SERIES, SPRING SERIES and SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIP, making FENNEL the LJL 2026 season champion. As champion, FENNEL takes on the battle for promotion to the League of Legends Championship Pacific.
Evi, the League of Legends pro for Fukuoka SoftBank HAWKS gaming, announced on September 4 that he will retire after the 2026 season. In a YouTube video titled "Thank you for 11 years," he said he approached 2026 as his last year of full effort and used up his motivation completely. He was the first Japanese player to reach a Worlds group stage and the first to compete in the LEC.
Riot Games announced on August 21 that active development of the free-to-play 2v2 fighting game 2XKO will end at the end of 2026. The online servers will continue to operate, and the game will remain playable on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, with offline play unaffected. The company said player retention did not reach a sustainable level, and that operating costs far exceeded revenue, with engagement remaining flat even after major updates. Throughout 2026, Riot Games introduced new champions, the PvE mode The Climb, and competitive events, but these did not change the game's trajectory. The company considered reducing team size, decreasing update frequency, and changing the business model before deciding to complete in-development content and end active development. Updates continue through the year: patch 1.3.1 on September 8 adds champion Lux and unlocks all champions for all players, while patch 1.3.3 in October adds Samira, the final new champion. A December patch focuses on bug fixes. Systems including the battle pass, KO Points, champion tokens, seasons, events, and ranked matches will be removed, with matchmaking consolidated into casual lobbies. Refunds for eligible in-game purchases made by August 20 are planned, with Japan and Korea procedures to be announced later.
ZETA DIVISION creator SHAKA will host LEGENDUS League of Legends ARAM: Mayhem Supported by Riot Games on August 28 at 18:00. Twenty streamers split into four teams will compete in the ARAM: Mayhem mode. The event uses a round-robin qualifier followed by a BO3 final placement bracket.
Riot Games lead designer Matthew Leung-Harrison responded to the rising mage bot (APC) meta in League of Legends, stating the current situation has gone too far. Instead of nerfing mages, the next patch 26.16 will increase support roam penalties, strengthen ADC items and runes, raise ADC base magic resistance, and buff Heal. The goal is to keep marksmen as the main bot lane class while preserving mage options.
Asus Japan has announced two limited-edition graphics card models in collaboration with T1, the League of Legends world champion esports team. The cards, named T1-RTX5070-O12G-GAMING and T1-RTX5060TI-O8G-GAMING, are based on Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5070 and RTX 5060 Ti GPUs, respectively. Both models feature silk-screen prints of T1 players on the card, with the T1 logo on the front and back. Each card also includes limited T1 collaboration stickers and magnets. For cooling, the cards use three Axial-tech fans with dual ball bearings, which the company says provide up to 23% more airflow than standard fans and have up to twice the lifespan of sleeve bearing designs. The cards will be released in limited quantities starting July 24, 2026. The announcement comes from Asus Japan and covers two SKUs, one for each GPU tier. No pricing information was provided in the announcement.
On July 22, 2026, Lee Sang-hyeok, known as Faker, the professional League of Legends player for T1, was appointed as an honorary police officer by the Korean National Police Agency and as a public relations ambassador for the Cyber Gambling Self-Reporting System targeting youth. Faker appeared at the event in a police uniform with a name tag reading "Faker" and was given the rank of Senior Patrol Officer. The appointment aims to leverage Faker's influence among young people to promote awareness of the self-reporting system, which was implemented in May 2025 to address the serious problem of youth addiction to online gambling. At the press conference, Faker said he felt honored and a great sense of responsibility, and expressed willingness to actively participate in activities as a public relations ambassador. The appointment comes during a busy period for Faker and T1, who recently competed in MSI 2026 and the Esports World Cup 2026 in Paris, with the LCK Split 3 starting July 29.
Twitch is running the large-scale Drops event 'Twitch Summer Drops Fest 2026' from June 16 to August 7, 2026, featuring over 40 titles. Partnering with games like League of Legends, Street Fighter 6, Marvel Rivals, ARC Raiders, Fortnite, and Overwatch, the event offers limited-time in-game items and Twitch chat badges. Rewards are obtained by watching eligible streams or subscribing to designated channels. Account linking is required for each game.
Hanwha Life Esports defeated Bilibili Gaming 3-2 in the MSI 2026 Grand Final, winning their first MSI title on home soil. BLG entered the final undefeated and chasing a Golden Road of all major titles in a single season, but fell short in a five-game series. Zeus was named Finals MVP.
Riot Games will release League of Legends Classic on July 30, letting players experience the game with old systems like Rune Pages and the Revive summoner spell. The mode arrives in patch 26.15 and includes community voting on future updates.
The Philippine Department of Education's MATATAG Curriculum includes a Grade 10 unit on esports and digital literacy. Recommended materials include Valorant, League of Legends, Minecraft, and Tekken. Students will learn competitive gaming skills, event organization, and online etiquette. The curriculum is being phased in from 2024, with full implementation by 2028.
Riot Games announced League of Legends Classic, a new game mode that recreates past versions of the MOBA, on June 27. A trailer shows Executive Director Paul "Pabro" Bellezza suggesting eras like the beta with 40 champions or the time of the Heart of Gold item. Details will come at the MSI finals on July 11.
MayR, a member of FENNEL's League of Legends division, has been selected for the Japan national roster in the League of Legends division of the Esports Nations Cup 2026. He is the only FENNEL player on the team. Japan will compete in the Asian qualifiers starting June 19, aiming for a spot in the main tournament in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this November.
The offline playoffs for the streamer tournament LTK Season: Pandemonium start June 20 at TOYOTA ARENA TOKYO. Four teams of 15 players each compete in a three-tier system (MASTERS, NEXT, CORE) with a special BO4 point system that rewards strategic tier deployment. Dahlia Diadem enters as the top seed, but the format makes raw strength secondary to tactical choices.
Riot Games released a cinematic on June 9, 2026, introducing Locke, a demon hunter who wields stakes and has a history with Vayne. Locke is an Assassin-class champion arriving in patch 26.13, the only new champion planned for the 2026 season.
Riot Games released a Dev Update on May 28 for League of Legends Season 2 Act 2. The new assassin champion Lock arrives in patch 26.13. A weekend-only 5v5 ranked queue will be tested from June 27 to September 7. The Mayhem mode is removing traits and adding new augments like Multi-Shot. New skin series include Sinister Shores, Wilderness, and Broken Covenant.