LoL Esports Nations Cup Qualifiers 2026: Format & National Teams Revealed

Posted on by Geekmandem

With 32 teams taking part, the Esports Nations Cup is set to bring international play to League of Legends. While 32 nations will play, the first 16 have now been confirmed as invited nations.

The remaining 16 sides will begin to qualify from June 19th, with two of the 16 selected as wildcard entries. These wildcards will likely be used to make sure that if the nations that don’t qualify, do qualify. Nearly 100 nations will take part in the qualifying in June, as they compete for the final 16 spots.

The nations involved will be broken down by regions:

  • Middle East and Africa: 31 teams
  • Eastern Europe: 17 teams
  • Western Europe: 14 teams
  • South East Asia & Oceania: 9 teams
  • South America: 8 teams
  • North America, Central America, and the Caribbean: 8 teams
  • Asia: 7 teams

Esports Nations Cup Format

The event will use a double-elimination bracket, with a best-of-one setup for the matches. The qualification series at the later end will be moved to best-of-three. All the action takes place between June 19 and June 21.

The main event will be split into Groups, firstly the Play-In Stage, then the main Group Stage. The first will be best-of-one, before again moving to best-of-three. The knockout round becomes single elimination best-of-three, with the Grand Final moving to a best-of-five.

There is a $1,500,000 prize pool for the event.

EWC 2026 League of Legends
Credit – EWC

16 Invited Esports Nations Cup Rosters

The rosters for the 16 invited sides have been confirmed, with some of the big hitters bringing stacked rosters to the event.

While it’s too early to say who the favourites are, we’ve listed the rosters below in what we think might be the best rosters.

  1. China – Bin, Tian, knight, JackeyLove, ON, Flandre (S), and Monki (S)
  2. South Korea – Zeus, Canyon, Faker, Gumayusi, Keria, and Zeka (S)
  3. France – Adam, SkewMond, nuc, Caliste, Zoelys, Sheo (S), and Hans Sama (S)
  4. Vietnam – Kiaya, Hizto, Dire, Eddie, Taki, Aresss (S), and SofM (S)
  5. Brazil – Xyno, Tatu, Tutsz, Ayu, Frosty, zynts (S), and Morttheus (S)
  6. United States – Dhokla, Blaber, APA, Yeon, huhi, Gryffinn (S), and DARKWINGS (S)
  7. Chinese Taipei – 1Jiang, Junjia, hongQ, Doggo, and ShiauC
  8. Denmark – Wunder, Cboi, Caps, Zven, Doss, Carlsen (S), and Woldjo (S)
  9. Turkey – BrokenBlade, Rhilech, Serin, Aetinoth, Fleshy, Parus (S), and Closer (S)
  10. Spain – Myrwn, Elyoya, Alvaro, Hydra, Flakked, Oscarinin (S), and Legolas (S)
  11. Greece – Embryos, Pallet, Vladi, Comp, Labrov, Drofan (S), and Peppe (S)
  12. Poland – Tracyn, Inspired, Czajek, Harpoon, Busio, Jankos (S), and Trymbi (S)
  13. Argentina – Ackerman, Kaze, Ceo, Josedeodo, ZOEN, Enga (S), and Lyonz (S)
  14. Canada – Vulcan, Spirax, Massu, KryRa, Zamudo, Jojopyun (S), Sheiden (S)
  15. Sweden – Yike, Rekkles, Thebausffs, UNFORGIVEN, SlowQ, Krye (S), and Mishigu (S)
  16. Czech Republic – Carzzy, Jackies, Twight, Bobista, Humanoid, OMON (S), and Patrik (S)

The event is set to be very interesting, and while the remaining 16 sides will be massive underdogs, there are some interesting rosters in the larger group of nations. The full list of rosters has been confirmed by the ENC.

MSI 2026 Is Back: Free Drops, Pick’Ems Rewards, and Worlds Spots on the Line

Posted on by Geekmandem

MSI is back, and this year the world’s best are piling into Daejeon, South Korea. This is the last big event ahead of the EWC, and the first “big” international event of 2026. It’s the midseason scrap where every region throws its top dogs into one arena, with the trophy and a stack of extra Worlds slots on the line.

Here’s the quick rundown on how it works, who turned up, and the loot you can pocket just for watching. 

The Format

The whole thing runs across two stages, and if you tuned in for MSI 2025, you’ll feel right at home, because the only bit that’s changed is the Play-In.

  • Play-In Stage – 28 June – 1 July
  • Bracket Stage – 3 – 6 July, then 8 – 12 July

The Play-In is now a 4-team double-elimination bracket, and only one team claws its way out into the main event. One slot. That’s it. No pressure, lads.

The Bracket Stage stays as the familiar 8-team double-elimination gauntlet, so there’s a one-loss safety net before anyone gets sent packing. Grand Finals land on 12 July, where someone finally gets to lift the thing.

The Teams

Eleven teams across six regions made the cut. Here’s who’s showing up to throw hands:

China · LPL

Bilibili Gaming (BLG)

Top Esports (TES)

Korea · LCK

Hanwha Life Esports (HLE)

T1 (T1)

EMEA · LEC

G2 Esports (G2)

Karmine Corp (KC)

North America · LCS

LYON (LYON)

Team Liquid Alienware (TLAW)

Asia Pacific · LCP

Team Secret Whales (TSW)

Revolve Deep Cross Gaming (DCG)

Brazil · CBLOL

Furia (FUR)

Eagle-eyed folks will spot that Brazil rolls in with a single team while everyone else brought two, so Furia are flying the CBLOL flag solo.

Drops And Rewards

Free loot, you say? Drops are back for MSI. Watch matches live on LoLEsports.com while logged in with your Riot ID, and you’ll bag exclusive event rewards, including two shiny new icons:

  • “Ducky!” – starring Yunara
  • “No Running!” – starring Renekton

There are also special activations from partners like Opera GX, Secretlab, and Coinbase to keep an eye out for. The catch is these only drop during MSI, so grab them while the lights are on, because once the trophy’s lifted, they’re gone.

A quick note about drops for LoL events. These are Lolesports.com drops, not Twitch drops. Twitch gets separate drops for subs, rather than watch drops.

MSI Pick’Ems 2026

MSI will have Pick’Ems for 2026, as it looks to build on the popular format used in CS2. All is done via the official LoL Esports website, but there are some good rewards. If you manage to get perfect picks, however, you will get a lovely Jhin skin.

Pick’Ems Rewards

  • Participation (Play-ins or Bracket stage) – Exclusive El Tigre Braum “Pinfall” Emote 
  • Top 50% – Exclusive Zenith Games Blitzcrank “Settle the Score” Icon  + Participation reward
  • Top 25% – Exclusive Janitor Thresh & Zac “Clean Up” Emote + everything from Top 50% and Participation.
  • Perfect Picks – Earn Broken Covenant Jhin + Jhin champion and everything included in the previous tiers!

Patch 26.13 Preview – League of Legends

Posted on by Geekmandem

The League of Legends Patch 26.13 Preview is here, as the MSI patch lands on the Rift. Full details from Riot Phroxzon on X.

Champions

Senna is the big winner of the Season 2 changes, synergizing well with Doran’s Helm (gets a lot of effective health from her Q heal synergizing with the resists) as well as getting a lot of stats from Jack of All Trades
She also synergizes well with Stattik Shiv on-hit, and we’ve made the decision to not support this interaction (Q CD reduction on-hit), even though it is pretty cool
Given all this, we think she does a bit too much damage given how durable she is
Brand changes are primarily targeted at his Bot carry tuning, while also trying to affect his support and mid less
That said, Brand support is also often a frustrating experience for bot laners and so we think he should also sit a little lower sustainably
Given that Brand Support synergizes better with mana regen, we’re compensating through this avenue but adding some amount of mana pressure for the roles that need to use E more often
For Cassio, we want to retain her identity of having strong all-in pressure early as that adds texture to the roster and she’s one of the unique mages that can do this
We’re targeting her durability in the mid-game where she is more vulnerable, espeically in skirmishes or when she’s playing on the sidelane
This can help to keep her edges, but present more areas of vulnerability for opponents
Bard is the top of the meta for both Pro and in many skill brackets in Solo Q
We’re adjusting how much damage his builds do, especially given his tank roaming builds tend to do a lot more damage than expected
Helping Leblanc scale a little better into the Mid and Late game with this set of changes
Given that these buffs help scaling, should also disproportionately help Solo Q
We’re not looking to buff Olaf jungle a huge amount, given that he’s already flex viable in top lane, but given that Jungle was his initial primary role, we want to make it more viable than it currently is
A pretty simple targeted buff at his Q that should help how fast he clears, especially into the later portions of the game

Locke

  • Locke will also hit the Rift sometime during Patch 26.13
  • We’re super excited for his release (I know I will be playing him a bunch :D) and have seen a lot of community hype for him as well
  • Currently, we’re trying to lock down a few tunings and timings on some of his abilities, as well as where we want his power budget and maxes to be (a process called fine-tuning)
  • A lot is changing day by day, in particular, the amount of power budget in his W has been something we’re trying to fine-tune, as well as how Normal vs Elite skewed he is

Doran’s Helm

Doran’s Helm has started to be picked up on a few ADC’s, especially ones that have particularly strong synergies with the resists (Senna through healing and the effective health it provides synerging well with the resists) and Jhin (as he has a lot of his early damage in base damage)
We’re looking to keep these incentives intact directionally, but try to make the item a little more balanced for these users, while trying to grow the user pool a bit as a result

Imperial Mandate

  • For systems changes, we have an Imperial Mandate buff. So far, it has added a few users to the pool; however, a bunch of these are midlaners like Galio, fringe TF, Liss, etc.
  • This set of changes is meant to position it to be more fantasy-forward for Support champions while also giving it a bit of a power-up. It’s not really the “best item” on any support at current tuning, and for an item with as strong kit synergies as this, it probably should be if it’s appropriately powerful

Riot Sends a Custom Xayah and Rakan Wedding Gift to League Couple

Posted on by Geekmandem

Right, drop whatever you’re doing, because this one is genuinely lovely.


A fan going by Ironelia took to X to share that her sister and her sister’s partner first crossed paths on the Rift almost 12 years ago. Nearly a dozen years, a few hundred ranked games and presumably one or two screaming-match-inducing losses later, the pair (summoner names Kaigaa and Lyriels) are tying the knot this Saturday.

So Ironelia did the cute thing and reached out to Riot Support, asking if they could pass a little message on to the soon-to-be-married couple. A nice gesture, low expectations, you know how support tickets usually go.

Riot Games Brings the Gifts to LoL Wedding

While Ironelia might have expected nothing in reply, Riot Games did, in fact, have a reply. A gift was prepared, with a package full of keepsakes for the newlyweds. There’s a wooden gift box decorated with Rakan and Xayah, League’s resident power couple. The pair’s summoner names are engraved on the front.

There’s a congratulations card leaning hard into the Rakan and Xayah theme, complete with the cheesiest, most perfect line going: hoping their hearts dance to the same rhythm, “just like their recall.” If you’ve ever watched those two recall together, you get it.

That wasn’t all, however, the sweetest part of it all was a selection of handwritten notes from Riot staff. One staffer writes about how 13 years ago two players loaded into the same game with no idea what was coming. How the meta has shifted a hundred times, and champions have risen and fallen since, and yet here they both still are. Some things, apparently, outlast the game itself.

It’s a proper reminder that for all the patch drama and balance meltdowns, League has quietly been playing matchmaker this whole time. Two people queued up, found each other, and are now signing the paperwork. Congrats to Kaigaa and Lyriels, and big respect to the Riot Support crew who decided to make someone’s entire decade.

League of Legends Patch 26.12 Gives ARAM Mayhem Bigger Quest Payoffs

Posted on by Geekmandem

The big ARAM: Mayhem Augment overhaul is officially live, and Arena 3×6 hands AD assassins some long-overdue love.

Patch 26.12 has landed, and it has brought a double dose of chaos. The big ARAM Mayhem overhaul we previewed from Riot’s dev blog is officially live on the Bridge, and Arena 3×6 has had a proper going-over too. Plenty to dig into, so let’s get stuck in.

The Mayhem Augment Shake-Up is Finally Here

ARAM Mayhem 26.12

Remember all that stuff Riot teased about Ability and Quest Augments? It is here now. Ability Augments do exactly what the name promises: they latch onto one of your champion’s abilities and crank it right up, and you will only ever be offered ones that actually work on your champ. Quick Step, for instance, makes you dash forward whenever you cast a self-targeted AoE ability

Quest Augments got an upgrade too. They now come in multi-tier flavours, so instead of one unlock and done, they can evolve several times into beefier versions as you tick off objectives. Older ones like Quest: Steel Your Heart have also been cleaned up with clearer visuals and proper tracking, so you actually know how close you are to the payoff.

So, a fun example. Blirzcrank Q can fire three hooks once it’s fully powered up. So have fun trying to avoid that.

Major Ranked Matchmaking Changes Rolled out Globally

Traits Are Officially Gone

The Trait System has been pulled for the season. Riot found that while a few Traits like High Roller and Archmage were genuine crowd favourites, the system as a whole was quietly squashing build variety.

The fix is a tidy one: a bunch of the best Trait fantasies have been reborn as standalone Augments, so you can still chase the likes of Archmage, High Roller, Snowday, Wee Woo Wee Woo and Stackosaurus Rex without committing to a full two-piece. Make it Rain has also had a glow-up into the wonderfully named Yowch, My Coins!

Arena 3×6: AD Assassins Get the Spotlight

Over in Arena, Riot reckons 3×6 is in a good spot, so this is more of a fine-tune than a teardown. The headline goal is propping up the under-performers, and AD assassins in particular are getting some help they have been crying out for.

ARAM Mayhem 26.12

On the champion front, Talon is the big winner. His E per-wall cooldown drops from 26s-6s all the way down to 16s-0s, which is borderline terrifying. Nocturne, Pyke and Quinn all get their cooldowns shaved too, and Akali’s R picks up a chunkier ratio and a lower cooldown. On the flip side, Brand, Lillia and Karthus are coming back down, with Karthus’ Q reverted to match its Summoner’s Rift values.

The Item List is Where the Assassin’s Love Really Shows

A whole pile of lethality items got their cooldowns slashed, including Edge of Night, Youmu’s Ghostblade, Prowler’s Claw, Voltaic Cyclosword and Spectral Cutlass. Serylda’s Grudge in particular got a big glow-up across its damage, haste and slow. Bruisers are not left out either, with Trinity Force and Sterak’s Gage both getting buffed.

The quiet MVP, though, might be a defensive tweak. Guardian Angel, Zhonya’s Hourglass and Wooglet’s Witchcap no longer share a lockout, so you can finally grab a GA alongside a Stasis item. Banshee’s Veil and Iceborn Gauntlet also got friendlier numbers.

There are also a host of bug fixes packed into this one. You can find the full rundown over in our Patch 26.12 notes.

Posted in LoL

Patch 26.12 Notes – League of Legends

Posted on by U.GG

Patch 26.12 notes for League of Legends are here. (Source)

Patch Highlights

System Changes

Normal Draft Queue Availability
We are happy to open up Normal Draft availability for ME, OC and SG from windowed time to 24/7, as we’ve seen meaningful queue time improvement across regions since late 2025.
Apex Duo Restrictions
Apex duo restriction was turned on with S2 start in some regions where the Apex players also got a reset. We are actively monitoring the health of those top tier matches to build confidence and understand what match quality improvements we need to make to re-enable duo for Apex players in those regions, but don’t currently feel comfortable in flipping the switch without making some improvements. We will let you know when we’re in a state to re-enable.
Honor in Social Panel
We are introducing Honor and active penalty information to your social panel so you can easily track your standing, view your progress towards redemption, and see how your behavior impacts your games. The panel will display current Honor, restrictions, and actions you must take to restore standing, serving as a constant reminder of the positive community we are building together.

Teleport

You get teleport, you get teleport, everyone gets teleport! In a post-rolequest world, we’re still monitoring how top laners that don’t want to use combat summoners can have their gameplay fantasies furthered by Enhanced Teleport.

The current state of top lane TP Shields is not incentivizing the kind of action or tradeoffs we like, and it’s pretty clear that expectations are being broken by a 30 second shield, so we’re making an adjustment here that we hope encourages more immediate crossmap action.
Max Health Shield: 30% for 30 seconds ⇒ 35% for 10 seconds

Champions

We’re looking to give Aatrox some love as he’s been sitting on the sidelines for some time now, even though signs point to the Darkin being a solid pick in the current meta. We’re putting more power into his Q sweet spot to reward him for his core skill check and make him a real threat against lumbering tanks and squishies alike.

Q – The Darkin Blade

Sweet Spot Bonus Damage: 70 ⇒ 75
Gwen has been cut out of the meta for quite some time across all skill brackets. She lost some power with 26.09’s minor rework to Dusk and Dawn, so we’re giving her some of that power back in the early game. She’ll remain a scaling pick, but a weaker first item spike has cost her early game a bit too much. These changes should help Gwen players live that snip and skip fantasy at all stages!

Q – Snip Snip!

Base Damage Per Snip: 10/13.5/17/20.5/24 ⇒ 10/14/18/22/26

E – Skip ‘n Slash

Bonus Attack Speed: 20/35/50/65/80% ⇒ 30/42.5/55/67.5/80%
Hwei’s 26.08 changes to how his ability slows stack and interact with other sources of slows had a larger negative impact than expected. While we had put in a compensation buff along with that change, it’s clear after a few patches that he has ended up worse off from the change, so we are giving him some power spread between his Q and E to keep all his abilities feeling relevant.

Q – Subject: Disaster

QQ Damage: 50 / 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 (+70% AP) (+3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7% Target Max HP) ⇒ 50 / 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 (+80% AP) (+3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7% Target Max HP)
QW Damage: 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+25% AP), increased to up to 120 / 201.875 / 302.5 / 421.875 / 560 (+50 / 59.375 / 68.75 / 78.125 / 87.5% AP) ⇒ 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+30% AP), increased to up to 120 / 201.875 / 302.5 / 421.875 / 560 (+60 / 71.25 / 82.5 / 93.75 / 105% AP)
QE Slow: 30% ⇒ 35%

E – Subject: Torment

Cooldown: 13 / 12.5 / 12 / 11.5 / 11s ⇒ 12 / 11.5 / 11 / 10.5 / 10s
Our favorite Grandmaster at Angling has been patiently waiting for his time to strike. Jax is meant to be a high-damage threat who ramps up in fights, but currently he’s been a (fish)bait pick against durable opponents. These changes should help with that, without pushing him over the (fishing) line.

Q – Leap Strike

Mana Cost: 65 ⇒ 50

E – Counter Strike

Target Max Health Damage: 3.5% minimum damage / 7% maximum damage ⇒ 4% minimum damage / 8% maximum damage
The recent changes taking away some of Lee Sin’s kit restrictions have been cool for Lee players, but he’s clearly just too powerful now. With more outplay potential, we are nerfing his raw damage to balance him out.
Base Stats
AD Growth: 3.7 ⇒ 3.4

Q1 – Sonic Wave

Damage: 65 / 95 / 125 / 155 / 185 (+95% bonus AD) ⇒ 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+90% bonus AD)

Q2 – Resonating Strike

Damage: 65 / 95 / 125 / 155 / 185 (+95% bonus AD) ⇒ 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+90% bonus AD)
Nocturne has been in quite a strong spot for a while, especially in the higher echelons of play. We like how distinct he feels to play with his relatively low ultimate cooldown, but that means we are going to pull power out of his 1v1 and farming since he has such strong tools to quickly create unequal fights.

Q – Duskbringer

Damage: 65 / 110 / 155 / 200 / 245 ⇒ 65 / 105 / 145 / 185 / 225
Often called League’s “perfect champ,” Orianna in recent years has been doing it all and more: dominating lane, protecting allies, and outputting extremely reliable damage in teamfights. As the highest pro priority in recent patches, we feel like too much of her power is in early lane dominance. She should still show up – just more situationally and for 3k elo shockwaves rather than early game bullying.
Base Stats
Base Health: 585 ⇒ 565

Passive – Clockwork Windup

Damage Increase Per Stack: 20% ⇒ 15%

R – Command: Shockwave

Damage: 250/400/550 (+95% AP) ⇒ 225/350/475 (+110% AP)
Ryze’s early game trading has only gotten stronger with Deathfire Touch. For a champion known as a scaling combo mage, we feel his laning has gotten too unassailable. So like Orianna, we’re tuning down his early game a bit to keep his power budget in the late game as he’s intended to be.
Base Stats
Base Health: 645 ⇒ 620
Base AD: 58 ⇒ 55
Sylas is one of the champions who has come out worse for wear since the start of Season 2. We think he is still a powerful early lane bully, but he’s lost enough power that his scaling is critically low to the point he’s completely one note, so we are helping him out there.

Q – Chain Lash

Initial Damage: 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 (+40% AP) ⇒ 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+45% AP)

W – Kingslayer

Heal Amount: 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 (+20% AP) (+5% Sylas’ Bonus HP), increased by up to 100% based on Sylas’ missing health ⇒ 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 (+30% AP) (+5% Sylas’ Bonus HP), increased by up to 100% based on Sylas’ missing health
Pass the ball, Ori! Syndra has had some of her more reliable damage stripped away recently in W and R, so we want to give her the tools to start pushing for that scaling fantasy with Dark Sphere, her highest variance bread and butter ability. We’re hoping this mix of exciting and functional buffs gets players across skill brackets interested in her untapped power.
Base Stats
Base Health: 563 ⇒ 583

Q – Dark Sphere

Damage: 80-220 (+65% AP) ⇒ 90-230 (+70% AP)
it’s been two years since we’ve seen marksmen run over the mid meta, and while we absolutely don’t want to go back to that world, we do feel like some marksmen in mid make for an interesting flavor of game. Tristana makes for a good candidate as she’s been absent since we added mana costs to her Q in a couple seasons back. We’ll be pulling back on some of those nerfs here and improving her level scaling generally.
Base Stats
AD Growth: 2.9⇒ 3.4

Q – Rapid Fire

Mana: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50⇒ 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35
Varus has steadily become the highest priority ADC & top laner over the course of the year among the top tiers of gameplay. While the changes to Experimental Hexplate should help alleviate his dominance in top lane, in bot lane, we’re looking to further disincentivize oppressive early game focused lethality builds, while being relatively less impactful to the most common on-hit builds and helping them scale a bit better.

Passive – Living Vengeance

On Non-Champ Kill AD and AP: 10% of his Total AS ⇒ 11% of his Total AS
On Champ Kill AD and AP: 25% of his Total AS ⇒ 33% of his Total AS
On Non-Champ Kill AS: +50% AS ⇒ +30% AS

Q – Piercing Arrow

Damage: 53.33 / 100 / 146.67 / 193.33 / 240 (+100% bonus AD) to 80 / 150 / 220 / 290 / 360 (+150% bonus AD) ⇒ 53.33 / 100 / 146.67 / 193.33 / 240 (+80% bonus AD) to 80 / 150 / 220 / 290 / 360 (+120% bonus AD)

W – Blighted Quiver

On-Hit Damage: 8 / 17 / 26 / 35 / 44 (+15% bonus AD) (+25% AP) ⇒ 4 / 13 / 22 / 31 / 40 (+15% bonus AD) (+25% AP)
AP Xin Zhao continues being far too strong in mid lane. We are following up last patch’s adjustment with a straight nerf this time to his ability to sustain both his health and mana in lane.

Passive – Determination

Healing: 3 / 4 / 5% Max HP (+45 / 55 / 80% AP) ⇒ 2 / 3.5 / 5% Max HP (+40 / 50 / 70% AP)

W – Wind Becomes Lightning

Mana Cost: 60 / 55 / 50 / 45 / 40 ⇒ 60

E – Audacious Charge

Mana Cost: 50 ⇒ 60
As the only champion in the game with built in Heal/Shield power, Yuumi was hit hardest by the Moonstone Renewer mechanics changes in 26.09. We are giving her AP ratios a compensation buff to help keep enchanter items optimal for her.

Passive – Feline Friendship

Heal Amount: 20 – 110 (+25% AP) (Levels 1 – 18) ⇒ 20 – 110 (+30% AP) (Levels 1 – 18)

E – Zoomies

Shield Amount: 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 / 165 (+30% AP) ⇒ 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 / 165 (+40% AP)
Posted in LoL

Faker Joins Messi, LeBron, and Other Sports Icons on TIME100 Sports List

Posted on by Geekmandem

The legendary League of Legends star Faker has been named in the TIME100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026 list. This inaugural list highlights the best of the best in sport, of which Faker is one.

Lee “Faker” Sang-Hyeok has been the undeniable “GOAT” of League of Legends Esports, if not Esports, for some time now. This inclusion in the inaugural list puts him alongside a number of fellow greats. From football royalty in Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, F1 stars like Lando Norris, to LeBron James.

Faker is not only on the list but also included under the “Icons” banner, which includes LeBron, Messi, Caitlin Clark, and Nikki Hiltz. It’s a big moment for Faker, and an incredible list to be part of.

Faker Image Credit - Riot Games

Faker, a Sporting Icon

“The Unkillable Demon King,” as TIME notes, is a six-time World Champion with his side T1. He was also inducted into the Esports League of Legends Hall of Fame, the first to be inducted. But despite this long career, Faker remains one of the greats and is still actively performing at the top level for T1.

Faker is the only Esports person in the TIME list, and it’s hard to deny that his inclusion isn’t justified. He has always transcended Esports. In his home of South Korea, he was voted as the fifth most influential and famous person in the country.

Faker is 30 now, but having signed a contract with T1 till the end of 2029, his career isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. With another year of major tournaments, from MSI, the Esports World Cup, and Worlds still to play for, Faker could end 2026 with even more trophies to his name.

Posted in LoL

Locke Kit Revealed – The Latest Mid-Lane AP Demon Enters the Rift

Posted on by Geekmandem

Locke was just officially revealed by Riot Games, who have taken no time at all to also drop his full kit. Rumoured for some time that he was an AP mid-lane Assassin, things have become a lot clearer now.

With a focus on setting up the attack, rather than pressing R and hoping for the best. Locke is set up to be an interesting champion for people to master. With him being the only new champion coming to League of Legends in 2026, there will be a lot of people interested in what Locke can bring to the Rift.

Locke Abilities

Passive – Silver Stake


What it does: Locke pins enemies’ souls with his attacks, dealing bonus magic damage On-Hit, increased based on the enemy’s missing Health.


How it works: A simple passive, dealing heavy bonus magic damage on-hit.

Q – Ritual Nails


What it does: Locke readies a set of Soul Nails to throw forward, dealing magic damage and marking enemies hit. The nails apply a slow based on stacks. Attacking the enemy consumes the Soul Nails, dealing magic damage per stack. Restores a portion of cooldown and mana for unspent Nails.


How it works: Locke’s key ability, and while it has a short range, it can travel through enemies. This will be his key trading tool; damage scaling on Ritual Nails will likely determine how strong Locke is.

W – Soul Ignition


What it does: Locke releases his own seals, gaining Move Speed decaying over time. While this effect is active, he suffers % health true damage per second but heals back a portion of the damage taken, plus an additional amount based on missing health and time passed. The seals remain unbound for a few seconds and can be Recast to end early.


How it works: Soul Ignition is the primary way Locke will punish his enemies. While the damage numbers to him will dictate how good this is, the burst of move speed is likely to guarantee a good few extra auto-attacks.

E – Ashen Pursuit


What it does: Locke blinks to a location, dealing magic damage around him. After, his next attack dashes to his target, dealing magic damage to all enemies in his path. Each of these hits consumes Soul Nails. Cooldown resets on takedown.


How it works: Combined well with his W, Ashen Pursuit is going to be what makes Locke so difficult to get away from. His kit, ultimately, is like Vayne, if she were designed in 2026.

R – Purgatory


What it does: Locke kicks a binding artefact to a location that opens on arrival, shooting chained Soul Nails at enemies in the area, dealing magic damage and slowing. Marked Champions that are brought below a threshold are pulled inside and killed. If a champion is executed, the duration of the binding is reset on other affected champions. After a few seconds, the artefact seals itself and is left on the ground if a Champion was sealed. If Locke picks up the artifact, he permanently increases the execution threshold and refunds a portion of his current cooldown for each Champion sealed.


How it works: The final part of his kit is Purgatory. A deadly ultimate that scales, making him an ideal snowballing champion. This could also make him a glass cannon, especially when you consider his very minimal forms of “support” lacking crowd control outside of a minor slow.

Locke, like any new champion, will get the usual series of buffs and nerfs post-release, but he feels like an interesting champion so far. His kit makes him appear to be a solo-queue demon, rather than a pro-play champion, but time will tell.

First Look at Locke – The Long-Awaited Next League of Legends Champion

Posted on by Geekmandem

Riot Games has given us the first look at the next champion coming to LoL, Locke. Making a debut in a new “Back from the Brink” cinematic trailer, Locke fights alongside Vayne in a highly stylised trailer.

Much like the Act 2 trailers’ style, this latest Locke trailer follows on the format from the Season 2 Pandemonium update.

Locke League of Legends Release Date

Locke is due for release on the Rift on June 24th. He will take on the role of a mid-lane AP assassin. Similar in gameplay style to Diana or Ekko, though with an entirely unique kit.

The champion has been rumoured for some time, with a fair few leaks on X from the start of 2026. He has also been officially confirmed now by Riot, with Head of League Studio Andrei “Meddler” van Roon noting he’s perfect for “fans of assassins that offer high burst, if you get your setup right.”

It’s worth flagging: per a Reddit comment from Meddler, there will only be one champion released in 2026 overall, and that’s presumably Locke. So if you’ve been patiently waiting for a new face on the Rift, this is your moment.

Locke’s Abilities and Playstyle

Riot has kept ability specifics close to the chest, but the design intent is clear: Locke is a conditional assassin whose damage ceiling is high but gated behind proper execution. Think less “jump in and hit R,” more “set everything up perfectly, then absolutely delete someone.” That framing puts him in the same conversation as champions like Zed or Akali, where mechanical depth separates the player who pops off from the one who just feeds.

From earlier leaks, we do have a rough idea of what his kit involves. His Q is a skillshot called “Soul Nail,” involving tossing a giant nail forward. His second form, which is still unclear, also involves nails spinning around him during the transformation.

There’s also a “sealed artifact” interaction hinted at in leaked footage, though the full details of his abilities remain unclear. Executive Producer Paul “Pabro” Bellezza described Locke as “slinging nails and taking names.” It’s a vibe.

Locke’s Launch Skin

Locke’s debut in Patch 26.13 will also feature a launch skin from the popular High Noon line, and he’ll share this thematic release with Akshan, who is also receiving a High Noon skin in the same update. Launching with a High Noon skin on day one is a solid sign that Riot has confidence in the character commercially, and it means you won’t have to wait around if you fancy picking up a cosmetic right away.

Posted in LoL

Patch 26.12 Preview – League of Legends

Posted on by Geekmandem

The League of Legends Patch 26.12 Preview is here, and it’s a big one as the game prepares for Act 2 and MSI. 26.12 will see 15 changes to champions, which will be the near sole focus of the patch. Full details from Riot Phroxzon on X.

Champion

Last patch, we had a change to Moonstone that fixed it being doubly impacted by either Grievous Wounds or Heal and Shield Power
Yuumi is one of the few champions who has Heal Shield power baked into her kit and so she was disproportionately impacted
As a result, we’re compensation buffing her
On 26.10, we made some adjustments to Lee Sin that gave power back to some of the fun elements in his kit that lost a lot of power over the years (namely the amounts of dashes he has access to, etc.)
This made Lee Sin a pretty strong champion in higher levels of play again and in a way that we think is fantasy aligned for him
However, the magnitude is a bit too much, so we’re pulling it back slightly
We’re happy with the shape of the changes and how it’s affected his power curve though
Some of the slow stacking changes to Hwei were a lot more power impacting (negatively) than the buffs that he received in the positive direction
As a result we’re adding a bit more power back into his utility aspects that allow him to be a jack of all trades, rather than just being a master of none
Tristana, has a bit of room in bot lane and especially in the midlane where changes to the role quests (that favor a bit more utility/roaming > farming) have been a bit unfavorable there
One of the changes that impacted her negatively was adding a mana cost to Q and so we’re adding a bit of that back to give her a bit more pushing power
This is especially impactful because of Tristana’s low base and scaling mana pool
Ryze is a bit too durable, especially in the early game and he often wins lanes/gets push by simply autoing champions and hitting them with guaranteed damage through W’s, E’s and autos
Ryze will still be on the durable side, especially with his early catalyst purchases, but these nerfs are intended to make him work a bit harder for it

System

Teleport

Especially in Pro play recently, we’ve been seeing some usages of Teleport at very short ranges to prepare quite large shields for tactical usages in combats (such as objective fights)
While this is a cool usage of the spell, it’s a pretty unintuitive behavior and we want to skew its usage to be better to use for its cross-map and “joining fights” capabilities
As a result, we’re reducing the duration of the shield and increasing the shield amount by a bit to compensate

Mid Meta

  • For average play, AP Xin Zhao has been tearing up the rift with a lot of his power budget in healing, especially in the early lane, creating some pretty uninteractive lane states.
  • We’re tapping this down, as well as some of the top-end healing in the later game.
  • Otherwise, a few adjustments to the champions who have a bit of room in Solo Queue, like Hwei, Sylas, Syndra and nerfs to some of the top end, like Cassio (who really benefited from Deathfire Touch being added), Ryze and Ori, who have been strong for pretty much the whole season.

Top Lane Meta

  • Aatrox has been generally a little on the weaker side, especially for higher levels of play, and so these changes are targeted at rewarding him for matchups where he’s already favored and able to get sweet spot hits off more reliably.
  • Gwen is also being buffed a bit with her early laning strength (which we walked back pretty significantly in an earlier patch). With K’Sante rising in priority (from DHelm buff and other meta shifts), we’re also positioning Gwen as a good pick into these tanky Sion and K’Sante style picks.
  • Similarly, Jax is getting more throughput in early trades both in regular matchups and in some of the matchups that favor short trades (eg. ranged matchups).
  • Overall, we expect the Top meta to have a few more fringe and counterpick options available.