The League of Legends Patch 26.21 Preview is here. While we’ve not even started Worlds yet, this is the first “post-Worlds patch”. Riot Phroxzon on X with the Patch 26.21 Preview.
Lee and Qiyana have been 2 of the strongest junglers, especially in higher levels of play and especially in certain regions.
We’re nerfing here, but also (especially in Qiyana’s case) being mindful of not double nerfing too hard with the Bastionbreaker nerfs also in the patch.
Yasuo and Yone have been picking up Shieldbow first a lot more and it’s been looking pretty strong on them.
Overall, we’re pretty supportive of this as feeling like their passive can kick in early feels great for their fantasy.
Secondly, having access to early lifesteal in lane, (eg. with vamp scepter for bork) makes their lane play lower quality.
Finally, it’s good to open up structural weaknesses for them before they complete first item, but allow them to be quite strong when they get there (and have power in durability vs straight up “kill you power”).
Overall, we don’t really think Viktor needs a major nerf here and the pattern of his long range hard to dodge poke is always going to be frustrating.
We think that’s a pattern that’s worth preserving for Viktor and something that his players really enjoy about him.
We think making his weakness more apparent (his inability to move around the map and weakness to ganks), while preserving his strengths is an appropriate way to keep players holistically happy without reducing Viktor’s satisfaction overall.
We’re opting to nerf Yone this patch, but not Yasuo, as while Yasuo rates highly on banrate, Yone is showing up significantly higher on our frustration surveys.
Players are also more likely to play against a competent Yone than a Yasuo, so that factors into the overall perception of how powerful he is.
Locke
Locke has overall landed pretty well
One area we think is a bit off is his mana costs and how little consequences there are when he messes up.
We do like his ability to have pop off moments and really high burst when he can meet his success conditions, but it should feel more risky when he messes up (eg. poor usage of W’s and spells in general).
We’re intending this to be an relatively power neutral adjustment and incentivizing Locke to rank up E second and have a higher amount of power in landing E1 (his W second is more powerful in many cases).
LoL Worlds 2026 Pick’Ems are here ahead of Worlds 2026. This time, the Crystal Ball adds another layer to the event, with even more rewards.
As always with Worlds, we, as players, get the chance to make our Pick’Ems for a selection of rewards. This year, a perfect set of Pick’Ems will even net you every single Ultimate Skin as a reward.
To help you on that adventure, we’ve picked our Pick’Ems, to help you judge your calls. We’re not going to guarantee a win here, but if there is a choice you’re not too sure about, maybe we can help guide it.
Worlds 2026 Pick’Ems
Image Credit – Riot Games
Pick’Ems are broken down into three sets. Play-Ins, Swiss, and Knockouts. The Play-Ins stage ends on October 15th, so make sure to get those picks in soon. Here is the breakdown of the dates.
October 10th: Pick’Ems and Crystal Ball start.
October 15th: Crystal Ball and Play-In predictions end.
October 18th: Swiss predictions start.
October 23rd: Swiss predictions end.
October 31st: Knockout predictions start.
November 3rd: Knockout predictions end.
November 14th: Worlds ends, and rewards are given out.
Here are our Play-ins picks.
UB – Semifinals – FUR vs MVK – FUR and C9 vs KC – C9
UB – Finals – C9
LB – Semifinals – KC
LB – Finals – KC
Finals – KC
Overall, we think KC will take it. Looking at the data and what other people are suggesting, this is likely the result. C9 will have the home crowd buff, which is why we think they beat KC the first time, but KC will come into the Grand Final off the back of two wins, and then get revenge on C9.
Riot Games has dropped “Know My Name”, performed by True Damage, alongside the official Worlds music video on the League of Legends YouTube channel. The track is also out now on all the major streaming platforms.
It’s True Damage’s first release since “GIANTS” back in 2019, and it’s a first for Worlds too. “Know My Name” is the 13th Worlds anthem, but it’s the first time Riot has handed the job to one of its own virtual artists.
Worlds 2026 Anthem
The video follows Faker on the road to T1’s historic three-peat. It isn’t just a highlight reel of trophy lifts either, with Riot promising a look at the setbacks he had to battle through to get there.
True Damage will perform “Know My Name” at the Worlds 2026 Final Opening Ceremony at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on 14 November. Before that, Worlds gets underway with the Play-In Stage in Los Angeles on 15 October.
Mayhem Set 3 is set to continue the dominance of the game mode within the wider LoL framework. While Mayhem was supposed to be temporary, it has turned into a major pillar of what’s on offer within League of Legends. A client that is starting to become its own small game collection.
Set drops with patch 26.20, bringing loads of new augments to the game, alongside a new pass full of cosmetics. Unlike the pass used by the main game, the Mayhem pass will be free, though much shorter as a result.
LoL Mayhem Set 3 New Augments
The key part of any new Mayhem set is the Augments that come with the game. So let’s take a look at the new ones for Set 3. Note that these are from before the official release, so exact wording might change.
Prismatic
Big Shot (Damage) gives you 35% Critical Strike Damage and 25% bonus Attack Damage. 75% of your Attack Speed is converted into Critical Strike Damage.
Totentanz (Utility) gives you A Dance with Death, which lets you blink forward and become Unkillable. You need to earn a champion takedown within 5 seconds, or you die.
Bouncing Bees (Damage) makes your next auto attack after using an ability bounce to the nearest enemy. Quest: bounce auto attacks onto enemy champions. Reward: +30 AD and an extra bounce per Quest Level.
Group Hug (Ally) means healing or shielding an allied champion with “spell” also heals or shields 2 more allied champions.
Mosh Monster (Resilience, Utility) gives you bonus Health and champion size and slows nearby enemies when you use “spell”. Takedowns permanently increase this effect.
Third Times the Harm (Damage) makes every third consecutive attack against an enemy champion deal true damage and permanently increases the damage dealt by this effect.
The prismatic Augments are the big ones, and there’s an interesting selection that mostly focuses on damage. Totentanz is the most interesting; it added a level of jeopardy alongside the positive.
In Gold and Silver Augments, there are way too many to just list, so here are some highlights.
Gold
Here is a tiny sample of VFXs I made for the new ARAM Mayhem augments. 😁 Shout out to the entire Mayhem team, they're genuinely wonderful people. 🫶 I particularly loved making the Get Jinxed VFX, hehehehe~ 🚀 I'll show more soon! pic.twitter.com/snkLOASD5Q
BEES!!! (Utility, Damage) Makes your next ability hit against an enemy champion periodically launch a hive of Bees that explodes, slowing and dealing magic damage for a short duration. Bees apply on-hit effects.
Get Jinxed (Damage) gives you Get Jinxed, letting you ride a rocket that explodes after hitting an enemy, structure or wall. Enemies within the blast radius take significant damage.
Heavy Is The Crown (General) grants increased Attack Damage, Ability Power and Attack Speed for every takedown, but greatly decreases your Move Speed. This effect is reduced on death.
Take’em Down Down Down (Damage) makes attacks and abilities deal bonus magic damage and apply stacks to enemy champions. At max stacks, your next attack deals even more magic damage and heals you for the damage dealt.
Enchanting Butterflies (Damage) builds up Butterflies around you when you heal or shield allied champions. After collecting 7, damaging an enemy champion fires all of them to deal adaptive damage.
Silver
Ultimate Recursion (Utility) gives you 50 Ultimate Haste.
Lonely Warrior (Resilience) gives Attack Speed, Armour and Magic Resist for every nearby enemy champion.
Fruitify (Utility) makes the slain champion explode into fruit when you score a takedown. Fruit heals and restores Mana.
Mayhem Set 3 Pass
The Mayhem Set 3 pass will come with a few free rewards, icons, Orange Essence and Superstar Fame. The event will also lean into the True Damage and music theme. We’ll share the full details once the patch is live and the news is official.
Patch 26.20 notes for League of Legends are here. (Source)
Private Replays
“Starting with this patch, you will only be able to access replays from matches you played in. Other players will no longer be able to download your replays, and third-party apps & sites will lose access to replay downloads entirely.
We are making this change, alongside some restrictions on third party access to game memory, to close some security vulnerabilities that have recently been exploited by cheat developers and other bad actors to build unauthorized tools around League game data. You can read more about the full context in our Game Memory Removed for Third Party Apps Player Support article.
Rest assured that this change will not impact your ability to VOD review your own matches by downloading and watching your replays directly in the League client!”
Ashe is one of the premier marksmen in pro play at the moment, and we’re seeing her output too much raw damage given her position as the highest utility marksman in the game.
Our changes two patches ago to Cassiopeia have been pretty good directionally, with most players being proportionally less impacted from those adjustments than pros. We’re taking another swing at her early resources because of how dominant she still is in early laning, making her work a little harder to create an advantage.
Stacking the odds a bit more in his favor with his signature spell (in Riftbound) and offsetting Rocketbelt changes that he’ll be a bit less excited about.
Kindred is currently a bit weak, so we’re giving them buffs in areas that won’t make them much more overwhelming in early invades. Optimistically, they’d also make a pretty unique addition to the meta.
Warding off this warden from being as reliable as a blind pick in coordinated play – hurting early mana and consistent W damage reduction, which should be skewed for elite audiences.
Last patch we looked to inject a bit more power into the deer, but didn’t quite see the movement we were looking for. We believe there is a bit more room for her to really prance around various levels of play so we are following up with another buff that’ll really help her shine.
Last patch’s adjustment to help normalize mid and bot performance ended up landing as a nerf for bot lane, so we’re following up with a buff to make up for the lost power.
Windows between Mordekaiser’s ultimates make it hard to keep up with the pace of much of his opposition. His bread and butter (Q) can also feel less impactful as the pace of the game increases, so we think it can do more damage later on.
Smolder has lost quite a bit of power over the last few patches, with the Cleaver ranged nerf and bot lane meta changes disfavoring him significantly. We’re further encouraging crit builds to bring his bruiser and full crit builds closer in power.
Passive – Dragon Practice
Super Scorcher Bonus Magic Damage: 25 – 55% (+0-9% with IE) of Dragon Practice Stacks, scaling with Crit Chance ⇒ 25 – 60% (+0-10.5% with IE) of Dragon Practice Stacks, scaling with Crit Chance
Flap Flap Flap Bonus Magic Damage: 8 – 12.8% (+0-1.44% with IE) of Dragon Practice Stacks, scaling with Crit Chance ⇒ 8 – 14% (+0-1.8% with IE) of Dragon Practice Stacks, scaling with Crit Chance
As one of the tank supports with the lowest health regen, and many health scaling values on his abilities, Tahm Kench lost out on the recent adjustments to the support item. We’re giving him compensation for that.
Vayne has settled into a fairly weak spot, and while we still aren’t totally happy with her top vs bot skew, we’re getting closer. We’re adjusting her base stats to help in bot where she needs to weather harass, and reverting a mana cost to her Q that simply felt way too bad.
Yunara is the leading candidate for “handshake hyperscaler do nothing” and we want to avoid that becoming the dominant meta, especially heading into worlds.
Active On Hit Damage: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 (+20% AP) ⇒ 3 / 8 / 13 / 18 / 23 (+20% AP)
W – Arc of Judgement
Slow Stacking: Stacks with other slows ⇒ No longer stacks with other slows
Items
Items
Experimental Hexplate
We’ve been fairly unhappy with how this item has played out for ranged users, especially as a first rush in top lane where it makes them too resilient to burst and too lethal during all ins.
Ranged Mod: 70% of Value (35% Attack Speed, 14% Move Speed) ⇒ 50% of Value (25% Attack Speed, 10% Move Speed)
Hextech Rocketbelt
Rocketbelt continues to be used a bit too much as an escape compared to a risky engage tool, so we are pulling back on its generic value in favor of emphasizing aggressive action with it, especially for AP Bruisers who rely on it for all ins.
Ability Haste: 20 ⇒ 10
Active Damage: 100 (+10% AP) ⇒ 135 (+15% AP)
Runaan’s Hurricane
This item was slightly overbuffed, so pulling back on that a bit.
Attack Damage per Bolt: 65% ⇒ 60%
Scoreboard Cleanup
Our recent systemic buff-bar clarity work moved a lot of numbers from buffs onto items. These numbers began terrorizing your scoreboards (thanks, Death’s Dance). The scoreboard should show strategically relevant information, not noisy in-the-moment combat state, and we’re hiding most item numbers on the scoreboard to reflect this principle. Strategically relevant item numbers, like Tear of the Goddess items and Mejai’s Soulstealer, remain on the scoreboard icons.
The following items’ icon counters are now hidden on the scoreboard:
Death’s Dance
Haunting Guise
Liandry’s Torment
Riftmaker
Kraken Slayer
Terminus
Guinsoo’s Rageblade
Fiendhunter Bolts
Echoes of Helia
Dead Man’s Plate
Spear of Shojin
Overlord’s Bloodmail
Hullbreaker
Jak’sho the Protean
Force of Nature
Classic Patch Notes
NEW Aatrox
Aatrox was just a baby, 3 patches old, when we chose to snapshot him for League Classic. He only ever had four balance changes before his rework in 2017 and subsequent rework in 2018, and we’re excited to see how he’ll perform again. He’s an attack-focused fighter, damaging himself to gain attack speed and revive when he would be killed
Passive – Blood Well: Aatrox’s basic abilities damage himself to fill his Blood Well, which gives him bonus attack speed. If he’s killed, he empties his Blood Well to revive on the spot.
Q – Dark Flight: Aatrox flies up and crashes down, damaging and knocking up enemies in the area.
W – Blood Thirst / Blood Price: Toggle between Blood Thirst and Blood Price, each of which have bonus effects every three attacks. Blood Thirst heals Aatrox, increased when he’s low on health. Blood Price deals bonus damage and self-damages.
E – Blades of Torment: Aatrox fires out two projectiles that damage and slow all enemies they touch.
R – Massacre: Aatrox damages all nearby enemy champions and gains bonus attack speed and attack range for several seconds.
NEW Caitlyn
Classic’s version of Caitlyn was live from 2011-2015. Did you know when she first came out, some players were upset that she was too similar to Miss Fortune?
Passive – Headshot: Every few attacks, Caitlyn fires a headshot, dealing bonus damage. Headshot charges up faster while attacking from brush.
Q – Piltover Peacemaker: Catilyn fires a piercing shot that deals less damage to each subsequent target.
W – Yordle Snap Trap: Caitlyn puts a trap on the ground that roots and damages the first enemy champion to walk over it. She can have up to 2 traps down at a time.
E – 90 Caliber Net: Caitlyn fires out a massive net, knocking herself back in the process. The net damages and slows the first enemy it hits.
R – Ace in the Hole: Caitlyn channels then fires a single bullet at an enemy champion, which deals tons of damage, but can be intercepted by other enemy champions.
NEW Irelia
Welcome back the 2010-2018 version of Irelia! The original Trinity Force poster child is here to even the odds no matter how bad they look. She’s been Q-max, W-max, and E-max at various points in time, so see what build order works for you! She’s a fast but deceptively durable fighter who loves to be the underdog.
Passive – Ionian Fervor: Irelia gains bonus Tenacity based on how many visible enemy champions are nearby.
Q – Bladesurge: Irelia dashes to an enemy, dealing damage and applying on-hit effects. If it kills the target, Bladesurge’s full cooldown and some of its mana cost are refunded.
W – Hiten Style: Passively, Irelia restores some health with every attack. While active, her attacks deal bonus true damage and restore even more health.
E – Equilibrium Strike: Irelia damages and slows a nearby enemy. If they have higher %HP than her, she stuns them instead..
R – Transcendent Blades: Irelia sequentially fires out four blades in a line, each damaging all enemies they hit and restoring some health to Irelia. This is definitely not just a wave clear tool.
NEW Karma
Karma came out just two patches after Caitlyn and was only live for just over two years before being reworked in early 2013. Karma is arguably League’s first battlemage, rewarding her for getting in the thick of it and making her stronger the more health she’s missing.
Passive – Inner Flame: Karma gains bonus AP based on her missing health.
Q – Heavenly Wave: Karma fires out blades in a fan, err, cone in front of her, damaging all enemies it hits. If empowered with Mantra, it also heals all allies (herself included), scaling with their missing health.
W – Spirit Bond: Karma bonds with another target, giving allies (herself included) move speed, slowing enemies, and creating a tether between the two. Any champion caught in the clothesline is hasted or slowed as if they were the initial target. Enemies who get caught in the clothesline are damaged. If empowered with Mantra, all move speed effects are doubled.
E – Soul Shield: Karma shields a target. If empowered with Mantra, it also damages all enemies around her target.
R – Mantra: Mantra is available at level 1 and can hold up to two charges. She can cast it to empower her next basic ability.
Quinn and Valor
Quinn and Valor have returned, having only existed in this form for just over two years, from 2013-2015. Quinn is a ranged and evasive auto-attacker, while her ultimate calls in Valor to fight as a blistering-fast melee skirmisher instead.
Passive – Harrier: Valor periodically marks nearby enemies, whom Quinn can attack to deal bonus damage.
Q – Blinding Assault: Valor flies out to damage and blind enemies in an area.
W – Heightened Senses: Passively gives Quinn bonus attack and move speed whenever she triggers Harrier. Activate to briefly reveal a large area around her.
E – Vault: Quinn dashes to and then vaults off an enemy, damaging, knocking back, and slowing them. Valor then marks the target with Harrier.
R – Tag Team: Quinn retreats from the battlefield, sending Valor in her place. Valor has substantial bonus move speed, permanently has an empowered version of Heightened Senses’ attack speed buff, and casts modified versions of Blinding Assault and Vault. Re-casting (R) casts Skystrike, damaging all nearby enemies and returning Quinn to the battlefield.
NEW Quinn and Valor
Quinn and Valor have returned, having only existed in this form for just over two years, from 2013-2015. Quinn is a ranged and evasive auto-attacker, while her ultimate calls in Valor to fight as a blistering-fast melee skirmisher instead.
Passive – Harrier: Valor periodically marks nearby enemies, whom Quinn can attack to deal bonus damage.
Q – Blinding Assault: Valor flies out to damage and blind enemies in an area.
W – Heightened Senses: Passively gives Quinn bonus attack and move speed whenever she triggers Harrier. Activate to briefly reveal a large area around her.
E – Vault: Quinn dashes to and then vaults off an enemy, damaging, knocking back, and slowing them. Valor then marks the target with Harrier.
R – Tag Team: Quinn retreats from the battlefield, sending Valor in her place. Valor has substantial bonus move speed, permanently has an empowered version of Heightened Senses’ attack speed buff, and casts modified versions of Blinding Assault and Vault. Re-casting (R) casts Skystrike, damaging all nearby enemies and returning Quinn to the battlefield.
Fiora
Fiora is still the game’s most dominant top laner even after her last set of nerfs, so we’re back for one more round. We don’t want to take down her explosive ultimate any further, so we’re just going for a generic damage nerf.
Graves came out swinging, being both wildly popular and arguably the game’s strongest champion. We’ve got some feel-good changes to his animations, especially his critical strike one, and some less-feel-good nerfs as he desperately needs them. We’re looking to preserve his bursty shotgunning and unique aspects as a tanky ADC, so that means we simply have to reduce his sustained damage.
Base Stats
Basic Attack and Critical Attack Animations: Sped up
Fizz came out right behind Graves as a super strong performer, but mostly as an AP assassin in mid lane. We want to preserve both his assassin and fighter playstyles, so we’re skewing our nerfs toward his higher-AP builds. We’re pulling in lighter versions of a couple of nerfs from 2013 and 2015, aimed at bringing his guaranteed burst down to size, since he has so much reliable damage already with Deathfire Grasp and 75% AP ratio Lich Bane.
Q – Urchin Strike
Ability Power Ratio: 60% ⇒ 40%
W – Seastone Trident
Active Ability Power Ratio: 35% ⇒ 20%
Kennen
Kennen hasn’t quite reached the same heights as his other ninja compatriots and we’re confident he isn’t performing as well as he should. AD Kennen needs substantially more help than his other builds, so we’re skewing his buffs in ways to help those players out most of all
W – Electrical Surge
Passive Damage: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80% total AD ⇒ 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 + 100% bonus AD
Nautilus
Unlike his other water-themed friends, Nautilus didn’t come out swinging. Sometimes that anchor just weighs him down… Ultimately, he’s weak in all three of his main roles (Support, Jungle, Top) and we’d like to help those latter two most of all. So we’re fixing one major bug while pulling in buffs and reverting nerfs from early in his lifetime, giving him more reason to soak up experience and wade into the thick of the fight.
Passive – Staggering Blow
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where the empowered attack was critting for too much damage.
W – Titan’s Wrath
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where the shield wasn’t factoring in armor or magic resistance.
Damage over Time: 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 / 100 + 40% AP ⇒ 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 + 40% AP
Shield Bonus Health Ratio: 10% ⇒ 15%
Shield Duration: 9.75 ⇒ 10
Classic Items
Several of our tank items are underperforming. It turns out, they’ve got too little health regen, so they’re being increased. And we have a shop display bugfix for Banshee’s Veil so you can find it when searching for health items.
Worlds 2026 is here, and all the teams are locked in as we prepare to head to the USA. T1 claimed victory in 2025, but can Faker and the team upset the odds once again to claim it? Or will Worlds being back in the West give a Western side that edge?
Nineteen teams have punched their ticket to Worlds 2026, and every one of them took a slightly different road to get there. Some won their league outright, some scraped in on Championship Points, and one Korean team got in thanks to someone else’s MSI trophy.
Korea and China send four teams each, the LEC, LCS and LCP get three apiece, and Brazil brings two. Here’s who’s going, region by region, and how they actually earned it.
Worlds 2026 Teams
Region
Team
Seed
How they got in
Starts in
LCK
Gen.G
1
LCK Season champions
Swiss
LCK
Hanwha Life Esports
2
MSI 2026 champions
Swiss
LCK
T1
3
Third in LCK playoffs
Swiss
LCK
Dplus Kia
4
Fourth in LCK playoffs
Swiss
LPL
Anyone’s Legend
1
LPL Grand Finals champions
Swiss
LPL
Bilibili Gaming
2
Championship Points
Swiss
LPL
Top Esports
3
Regional Finals winners
Swiss
LPL
Invictus Gaming
4
Regional Finals runners-up
Swiss
LEC
G2 Esports
1
LEC Summer champions
Swiss
LEC
Movistar KOI
2
LEC Summer runners-up
Swiss
LEC
Karmine Corp
3
Third in LEC Summer
Play-In
LCS
Team Liquid
1
Top three in LCS Summer
Swiss
LCS
LYON
2
Top three in LCS Summer
Swiss
LCS
Cloud9
3
Top three in LCS Summer
Play-In
LCP
Team Secret Whales
1
LCP Split 3 finalists
Swiss
LCP
CTBC Flying Oyster
2
LCP Split 3 finalists
Swiss
LCP
MVK Esports
3
Championship Points
Play-In
CBLOL
LØS
TBC
CBLOL playoff finalists
Final on 10 October decides
CBLOL
FURIA
TBC
CBLOL playoff finalists
Final on 10 October decides
LCK (Korea)
Credit – Riot Games
Korea has historically dominated Worlds, and coming off the back of the T1 win in 2025, Korea comes in strong once again. Gen.G take on the first seed, while Dplus Kia and T1 take the remaining two placement seeds. Hanwha Life Esports become the fourth team from Korea to head to Worlds, after their MSI 2026 victory.
Despite coming into Worlds as the regional outsider, Dplus Kia comes to Worlds off the back of a victory at the Esports World Cup. Lucky for them, they secured the spot thanks to Hanwha Life Esports’ victory at MSI 2026.
LPL (China)
China has been chasing Korea for years now, and the LPL sends four teams again in 2026 to try to chip away at Korea’s lead. Anyone’s Legend took the first seed after winning the LPL Grand Finals, while Top Esports and Invictus Gaming fought their way through the Regional Finals for the third and fourth seeds. Bilibili Gaming took the second seed on Championship Points, giving LPL a strong chance to push the LCK to the very end.
Invictus Gaming are the ones to watch. After a rough start to the year, the squad of TheShy, Wei, Rookie, JiaQi and Meiko finally clicked in Split 3, and they booked the final LPL spot by beating JD Gaming 3-1.
LEC (EMEA)
Image Credit – G2 Esports
Europe has come close to lifting the trophy plenty of times, and the LEC sends three teams to Worlds once more. G2 Esports take the first seed after winning the LEC Summer playoffs, while Movistar KOI take the second seed as runners-up. Karmine Corp round out the region in third place. It’s become a familiar trio for Europe these days, as Fnatic appear to fade into the annals of history.
Despite having one of the loudest fanbases in the world, Karmine Corp face the hardest road of the three. Finishing third sends them to the Play-In in Los Angeles, where they’ll need to win a four-team bracket before they can even think about the Swiss Stage. That said, Karmine Corp showed up at the Esports World Cup; finishing second place could give them the end in the USA.
LCS (North America)
North America gets home soil advantage this year, and the LCS sends three teams to fly the flag. Team Liquid takes the first seed after a dominant playoff run, while LYON take the second seed. Cloud9 round out the region as the third seed. LYON were a surprise package at the recent Esports World Cup, so could be an outsider to watch at Worlds 2026.
Despite knocking LYON into the lower bracket with a 3-1 upset, Cloud9 finished third, which sends them to the Play-In. Lucky for them, it’s being played in Los Angeles, so they’ll have the home crowd behind them while they fight for the last Swiss spot.
LCP (Asia-Pacific)
The LCP is still finding its feet as a merged league, and it sends three teams to Worlds hoping to prove the region can mix it with the big boys. Team Secret Whales take the first seed, while CTBC Flying Oyster take the second seed after the pair met in the Split 3 final. MVK Esports become the third team from the LCP, earning their spot through Championship Points.
Despite missing the Split 3 final, MVK Esports earned enough points over the year to edge out GAM Esports. That consistency gets them a ticket to Worlds, but it also sends them to the Play-In.
CBLOL (Brazil)
Brazil picked up an extra Worlds slot this year, and the CBLOL sends two teams to the US. LØS and FURIA both qualified by reaching the CBLOL final, which is played in Rio de Janeiro on 10 October. The winner takes the first seed and goes straight into Swiss, while the loser heads to the Play-In.
Despite LOUD being the bigger name, it’s LØS who come in with the momentum after beating them 3-2 to become Brazil’s first confirmed team. FURIA then finished the job by knocking LOUD out in the lower bracket, so Brazil’s most famous team is watching from home.
Who should you keep an eye on?
The most obvious pick is T1. It doesn’t matter what happens over the course of a year; T1 are always a side well worth their weight at these events. The side just shows up when it counts, especially when everyone else is counting against them.
Anyone’s Legend (AG.AL) need to fly the flag for China at Worlds, because the region struggled at the Esports World Cup and can’t afford to slip again. The region has three Worlds Championships already and is chasing Korea’s ten.
In the West, a North American roster will look to push hard on home soil, but the region will once again enter Worlds as the outsider among the “big” regions.
For the LEC, G2 Esports will once again be flying the banner for Europe. The roster keeps showing why they are so good, yet continues to not make it happen all the way. We saw the best of G2 Esports at MSI, until the Grand Final. Can they go one step further at Worlds 2026 and bring in the trophy they ultimately desire?
With speculation about who would sing the Worlds 2026 anthem, Riot Games has sought to confirm that it will be True Damage. The popular hip-hop collective will perform the song “Know My Name” as the official 2026 Worlds Music Video.
The song will premiere on October 8th, and will feature LoL Icon Faker. The song will be the 13th official Worlds Anthem released by Riot Games. This is the latest from an internal virtual artist.
The main focus of the video is Faker’s journey to T1’s historic three-peat Worlds Championship victory. The video will focus on Faker’s career, his resilience, and his ability to rise from defeat. The theme will look at how he took those defeats to rise to the world’s biggest stage. Becoming a World Champion once again.
The song marks the long-awaited return of True Damage. The band features five League of Legends champions as artists, each bringing their own sound to the hip-hop collective. Akali (rapper), Ekko (rapper), Qiyana (vocalist, rapper), Senna (vocalist), and Yasuo (DJ, producer).
As for the real-world artists at the helm, Riot Games has procured some top talent to bring True Damage to life.
SOYEON – Rapper and lead producer of multinational five-member group i-dle. In addition to establishing i-dle with chart-dominating EPs and singles. SOYEON has also embarked on solo ventures since 2021 and has played a prominent role in Riot’s virtual groups K/DA and True Damage.
Coco Jones – GRAMMY Award Winning multi-hyphenate singer/songwriter and actress who has captivated the world with her timeless artistry, sensual voice, and emotive songs to become R&B’s breakout artist.
Vic Mensa – GRAMMY-nominated musician, actor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist from Chicago whose work spans music, film, business, art, and advocacy.
Sofía Reyes – Mexican singer-songwriter and actress who has established herself as one of the leading voices in contemporary Latin pop, recognized for her distinctive sound, artistic versatility, and global approach to music.
The League of Legends Patch 26.20 Preview is here. This is the second of two patches that prepare the game for Worlds. League of Legends Esports closes out the year. Riot Phroxzon on X with the Patch 26.20 Preview.
Lucian’s best pairings (eg. Enchanters like Milio) have received a large nerf as a result of the 26.19 changes and so we’re returning some power back to Lucian in generic power.
In combination with the Support laning changes from last patch, Lucian’s early kill threat has gone down significantly and so we think we can buff him up a bit.
Vayne also received a nerf recently due to her strength in Top lane in both Pro Play and high level SoloQ.
We’re being very careful about adding more Ranged tops back into the meta as that has been something players have been complaining about, but think that a generic buff + a nerf to Hexplate will make her neutral there (or at least have to go for squishier builds) while buffing Vayne bot back up.
Lillia’s changes last patch were a good start, but we feel we can go a bit further on the Sleep changes.
Overall, we want to do a better job of balancing Lillia between skill levels and Lillia typically struggles at the higher skill brackets, especially after we made her early clears a lot weaker.
Average play Lillias often don’t get the most out of her Sleep duration, whereas higher skill players are much better at coordinating around it.
Smolder has also been on the weaker side after we made a bunch of adjustments to Black Cleaver and Deathfire Touch several months ago.
We’re continuing to add more power to him, but into his Crit builds as his Bruiser builds have worse counterplay given his scaling profile.
System
Hextech Rocketbelt
– We’re adjusting rocketbelt to be much more about the go in aspect of it and less power budget in the haste
– The haste is adding a lot to the repeatability for mages in particular, but also as a burst oriented item, it means that the item broadly isn’t creating the right tradeoffs with other items like Cosmic Drive, etc. that should be purchased for the higher haste values
We’re further nerfing Experimental Hexplate to allow us to buff up some champions that have been balanced around it (Vayne top). This will also allow us to give Vayne bot a buff
Hurricane was a little overbuffed, and so we’re pulling back the buff ever so slightly (not by a huge amount here). We’re also featuring a Yunara nerf in the patch, but we’re being careful not to overdo it there in combination
Patch 26.20 is on the way, and it brings another major new set of skins in a returning skin line. HEARTSTEEL Live My Life Skins are the next major set, and they come alongside the latest music-themed skins.
We had our first music-themed set of skins in 26.17, when Ocean Song Jinx and Soraka joined Heartsong Seraphine. We expect to see KDA return at some point at Worlds 2026, which will be the highlight of LoL’s music-themed content.
Lol 26.20 New Skins
So HEARTSTEEL is the next major set, and Riot Games is going big on it. HEARTSTEEL first appeared in 2023, with skins for Kayn, Ezreal, Sett, K’Sante, Aphelios, and Yone, who got a standard and Prestige skin at the time.
Now, in 2026, the skin line is back with a new set of skins for the returning members of the band. Ezreal, Kayn, Aphelios, Yone, and Sett get the standard and prestige skins this time around.
The new HEARTSTEEL skin line will be released on October 7th, alongside Patch 26.20. Each of the skins will cost 1350 RP ($10). Prestige Sett will be part of Season 3 Act 2 Paid Battle Pass.
It’s also likely that the old HEARTSTEEL skins from 2023 will be made available for the same 1350 RP price. However, the Prestige Yone will likely be available via the token store.
Locke has been out for nearly four months now, but has Locke’s win rate improved and has he finally found his place in the meta?
We first looked at Locke just after he was released, and his win rate was… terrible, to say the least. He was brought in as a mid laner, but his kit seemed to struggle at first. When it came to other lanes and roles, it also felt like he wasn’t an ideal fit.
Riot did a number of tweaks, buffs, and targeted nerfs, and now, four months on, how is Locke doing?
Locke Win Rate
Locke sits at 30/59 of the mid lane picks when it comes to win rate. It’s a pretty large jump from his awful win rate a few weeks after release. It’s a combination of the character finding a place, plus players are now starting to learn how to play as him. That is leveled off by the other players learning to counter, and a just over 50% win rate is probably about fair.
Locke also comes in at S+ in our Tier List, and he has over 22,000 matches worth of data in patch 26.19, placing him 9th among mid laners. Not much has changed this patch, either; his win rate was the same in 26.18, so it looks like he has found a place.
So, as it stands, Locke is in a good place in the mid lane. We might see changes to get that win rate up to 51%, but right now he seems to be in a good place.
Locke Win Rate Outside of Mid Lane
Locke was made to play in mid lane, and his win rate in other roles reflects that. So let’s look at an overview from patch 26.19.
Patch 26.19
Top Lane: 46%
Jungle: 47%
ADC: 47%
Support: 43%
It’s pretty clear that Locke is a mid laner, and probably not much more than that. Jungle: There is some potential, and top lane is one of those roles where there is always a place for something different. But Locke looks to have found his place in mid lane, and that seems to be what Riot Games wants.
Locke in Pro Play
Credit – Jens Stentoft
With Worlds coming up very soon, Locke is well placed to go into the major event as a key pick. We have a few months of data on him now, so how is he performing at the very top level of League of Legends?
As of publication, Locke has been picked 75 times in pro-level games in the mid lane, and three times as an ADC. We will just focus on the mid lane picks for this article. Overall, his win rate sits at 52%, which is pretty solid and mirrors his solo queue win rate.
A few pro players have had some serious success on Locke. Tangyuan (LGD Gaming), Cracker (HLE), and Quid (Team Liquid), all have 100% win rates with more than one game. Tangyuan has played and won four times with him.
Some notable pro players have played him to varied levels of success. Recent Hall of Legends inductee Caps has a 0% win rate in two games on Locke. While Chovy sits at 100% with one game, Faker has played him three times, winning twice.
Worlds is up next, and as the most recent Champion to come to League of Legends. It will be interesting to see how much we see of Locke on the biggest stage.
