League of Legends Brings Back Its Team Deathmatch Mode for Two Months

Posted on by Geekmandem

League of Legends Patch 25.6 will see the return of the Brawl game mode. Brawl was first added in May 2025, before leaving the game in June of 2025. With the recent success of ARAM Mayhem, Riot Games looks to be trying to keep fans engaged with more game modes.

Brawl Returns in Patch 25.6

Brawl Returns

Brawl is back, baby! Grab your friends, grab your enemies, they’re brawling everybody out here! Brawl will be live from March 4, 2026 through April 28, 2026.

The team-deathmatch mode will return to LoL between March 4th, and April 28th 2026. A similar period to 2025. The mode focuses on quick combat, condensing the LoL MOBA format into one lane. The draft-based format is the same 5v5 gameplay, but with an added escort element. The pre-game works much like Swiftplay does in the current client, with players picking a loadout, picking a champion, runes, and summoner spells.

Players can choose between Cleanse, Flash, Ghost, Heal, Ignite, and Barrier. If you are playing in a party, you do all of this before matchmaking, as there is no champion select screen. Once 10 players are found, the game starts after an AFK check.

Brawl Features

Set on one large lane, with terrain separating it into smaller sections, teams will fight in a team deathmatch format. The entire map is visible to both teams.

The aim of the map is to reduce the enemy team’s health to “0” by killing each other or minions.

  • Killing an enemy champion does 5 damage to the enemy team
  • Killing minions does 1 damage to the enemy team
  • Escorting your own minions to the enemy pandle portal will deal 1 damage

IF one team is losing by enough, they will get a buff that increases their damage by 20% and reduces the damage they take by 20%. This effect will last until the health difference has normalised.

Teams are able to surrender at 15:00, with a 4/5 requirements to pass the vote.

Champions and Minions

Brawl was first shown off in 2025 (6:19 in the above video)

As with any special game mode, it comes with a few changes to the way champions and minions work.

  • Champions start at level 3
  • Attack speed is capped at 3
  • 0:20 into the game, Homeguard is active, granting a 165% movement increase for 2 seconds inside the spawn
  • On Fire is a buff awarded when players chain together takedowns. The buff gives bonus movement speed, attack speed, and HP, alongside halved basic ability cooldowns. You will take increased damage, however, and be worth a large bounty.
  • All champions chain the following buff
    • +100 summoner spell haste
    • Increased base mana by 100%
    • 5 experience per second, increased to 7.5 after 5:00
    • Gold 150 per 10 seconds, increased to Gold 200 after 5:00
    • Minion gold is shared between allies nearby
    • Empowered Recall

Minions will also get a few changes.

  • Spawning starts at 0:30
  • Minions take 75% increased AoE damage
  • Minions waves spawn every 25 seconds and feature two caster and two melee minions, with a siege minion spawning every alternate wave between the sides.

As with any mode, there are hundreds of individual champion buffs and nerfs. For example, Teemo does 5% reduced damage, and his Noxious Traps recharge at a slower rate.

Patch 26.5 Notes – League of Legends

Posted on by U.GG

Patch 26.5 notes for League of Legends are here, including buffs to Mel and Lilia (Source)

“Welcome to the official patch of First Stand, the first major international tournament of the year! This patch we’re making some pro-focused changes, but not as many as we would for a larger tournament like Worlds, which means we’re re-tuning a small handful of mid laners and a single bot laner. Otherwise, we’re continuing to sweep across the roster and delivering buffs and nerfs to each role’s biggest outliers.

We also have the return of Brawl, some adjustments, buffs, and nerfs for ARAM: Mayhem, bugfixes for Arena, some fancy new skins on the Season 1 Act 2 Battlepass, updates for Demacia Rising, the arrival of last hit indicators (no excuse to miss canons now), and we have an update to how we’re punishing severely abusive chat.”

Patch Highlights

BRAWL RETURNS

Brawl is back, baby! Grab your friends, grab your enemies, they’re brawling everybody out here! Brawl will be live from March 4, 2026 through April 28, 2026.

Champions

Akali

See Highest Win Rate Akali Builds
Currently, Akali’s re-stealth timer on her Shroud scales with game time. And since we’ve adjusted Summoner’s Rift’s pacing and League now has multiple modes with varying start times, we think everyone’s favorite ninja deserves a bit more flexibility when it comes to her sneakiness.

W – Twilight Shroud

  • Restealth Timer: 1s / .9s / .825s / .725s / .625s after your last attack or ability (at game times 0:00 / 8:00 / 11:00 / 20:00 / 30:00) ⇒ 1s / .9s / .825s / .725s / .625s (at levels 1 / 7 / 10 / 13 / 16)

Azir

See Highest Win Rate Azir Builds
Azir marks one of a very few changes we are making specifically due to First Stand. We want to preserve Azir’s high points and core strengths of sustained late game damage while opening up late-game weaknesses to AP assassins in the hope that we see some exciting counter picks at the tournament.
Base Stats
  • Health Growth: 119 ⇒ 108

Garen

See Highest Win Rate Garen Builds
Garen is moderately popular but statistically underpowered, and we’d like it if he was as powerful as other straightforward top lane juggernauts. We’re continuing on the trend of making traditional fighter items more comparable to his crit builds and giving him better trading power before he has access to tools like Stridebreaker and Phantom Dancer.

Q – Decisive Strike

  • Move speed duration: 1 / 1.65 / 2.3 / 2.95 / 3.6 ⇒ 1.4 / 1.95 / 2.5 / 3.05 / 3.6

E – Judgment

  • Damage per spin: 4 / 7 / 10 / 13 / 16 (+ 38 / 41 / 44 / 47 / 50% AD) ⇒ 4 / 7 / 10 / 13 / 16 (+ 40 / 43 / 46 / 49 / 52% AD)

Kha’Zix

See Highest Win Rate Kha’Zix Builds
Kha’Zix has evolved with the season changes and overcame all his worthy prey to take the top spot of solo queue junglers. We think he has room to go down in clear speed as the game progresses, as well as overkilling isolated targets without hurting him where he’s already weak in teamfights. We’re also making the bug less speedy to hit higher skill brackets.
Base Stats
  • Move Speed: 350 ⇒ 345

Q – Taste Their Fear

  • Bonus AD: + 110% (231% isolated bonus) ⇒ + 105% (220.5% isolated bonus)

Lee Sin

See Highest Win Rate Lee Sin Builds
We’re in the fortunate position where Lee Sin is buffable for both regular players as well as pro, which means we’re going to deliver some simple power. We want to reinforce his primary strength of early game power and lethality, so we’re buffing his highest fantasy early game damage ability.

Q – Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike

  • Base Damage: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 ⇒ 65 / 95 / 125 / 155 / 185

Lillia

See Highest Win Rate Lillia Builds
We overshot Lillia’s Q nerf and historically gave her power in places she’s less likely to appreciate, all of which has led to the speedy deer feeling limp. We are reverting her ultimate buffs from 25.19, which were fairly small, as well as Q nerfs from 26.02, which were much more impactful. The hope here is that this net buff lets her live out her sustained fight fantasy as we believe that weaving in and out of fights doing damage with Q is closer to that rather than needing to land large scale R’s.

Passive – Dream-Laden Bough

  • Monster heal bonus AP ratio: 9% ⇒ 15%

Q – Blooming Blows

  • Bonus AP ratio: 30% ⇒ 35%

R – Lilting Lullaby

  • Base damage: 100 / 150 / 200 ⇒ 150 / 200 / 250
  • AP ratio: 45% ⇒ 40%
  • Cooldown: 150 / 130 / 110 ⇒ 140 / 120 / 100

Mel

See Highest Win Rate Mel Builds
Mel’s recent update and follow-up balance work has succeeded in creating more counterplay and thus reducing her frustration and ban rate with a similar win rate to the preceding patches. With the initial dust now settled, it’s time to bring her up to a more reasonable power level. We’re looking toward her proactive damage, especially with champion level, to skew these buffs strongly toward the mid lane. We’re also sliding in a small compensation to her passive’s minion mod in order to not push her Q-driven wave clear any higher than it already is.

Passive – Searing Brilliance

  • Minion Damage Modifier: 0.6x ⇒ 0.5x

Q – Radiant Volley

  • Base Damage per Bolt: 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 ⇒ 5 / 7 / 9 / 11 / 13
  • Total Q Base Damage: 90 / 132 / 176 / 222 / 270 ⇒ 90 / 145 / 200 / 255 / 310

R – Golden Eclipse

  • Initial Base Damage: 100 / 150 / 200 ⇒ 125 / 200 / 275

Neeko

See Highest Win Rate Neeko Builds
Neeko has been a dominant force in pro play through her combination of strong laning, teamfight utility, and vision control, while also being deadly enough to succeed more than the average champion for regular players as well. We like her explosive and high-spectacle teamfights, with the occasional 7th minion engage or wolf flank, but want to tap down the utility her clone provides. This change should still let her engage in trickery, while introducing a tradeoff to when clones stare people down from a bush on repeat, as we explore the best solution that limits her vision control but retains satisfying mechanics.

W – Shapesplitter

  • Slightly-Less-Tricksy-Neekoses: Cooldown now starts on clone expiration, instead of on cast
  • Fun Eliminated: Neeko can no longer use Ctrl+5, which plays the joke expression for clone only. Neeko can still joke, dance, recall, to make their clone initiate said actions.

Nocturne

See Highest Win Rate Nocturne Builds
Nocturne’s underperforming considering how easy to pick up and play he is, so he’s made the cut for buffs in this patch. In an effort to help him succeed in moderate fight durations, we’re upgrading his ability to stick to his enemies under the Dusk Trail and run them down with basic attacks.

Passive – Umbra Blades

  • Cooldown: 13 ⇒ 12

Q – Duskbringer

  • Bonus move speed: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35% ⇒ 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%

Orianna

See Highest Win Rate Orianna Builds
Orianna is arguably the defining mid pick of the current pro meta, receiving the highest total picks and bans in First Stand-qualifying leagues. As with Azir and Taliyah this patch, we’re hoping to broaden the top-tier pool and allow teams to have different takes on mid lane. In the hands of a true expert, her laning phase can feel unassailable, so we’re focusing on her early game in the hope of opening up some weaknesses.

Q – Command: Attack

  • Cooldown: 6 / 5.25 / 4.5 / 3.75 / 3 ⇒ 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3

Samira

See Highest Win Rate Samira Builds
We’re giving Samira some love in the form of QoL and minor bugfixing around her Q! Sometimes Q doesn’t do what you want which can be a bit frustrating, and we’re hoping to fix some of the extreme end of feels-bad cases by adding some additional logic on the decision of when to use her Sword and when to use her Gun.

Q – Flair

  • The Right Tool for the Job: Samira Q will now do multiple additional checks to see if there are units on both the right and left of her. If there are, and importantly if there are no units far in front of her, she will use Sword Q. If a unit is far in front of her, she will still use Gun Q regardless of units on the right and left.
  • Itchy Trigger Finger: Samira Q is now properly sealed during her passive. This resolves a case where Samira Q can go on cooldown despite not being used if pressed during her passive’s animation. This also applies to an instance where her ultimate was cast after her W.
  • Can’t Out-Walk Me: Samira Q will now do a check to see if the enemy is walking away from her and in the very last part of her Sword Q’s range. If so, she will instead use Gun Q. This should resolve the extreme cases where champions can simply walk away from her Q at very low move speed (higher move speeds will still likely be able to do so, rightfully.)

Taliyah

See Highest Win Rate Taliyah Builds
Taliyah joins Azir and Orianna as pro-focused mid nerfs for First Stand with the goal of opening up the mid lane pool to more than just control mages in the first games of a series. In an effort to pro-skew her nerf this patch, we’re attacking her early wave control, making it less likely she can always be first to every Scuttle Crab fight. We’re also compensating her monster damage to keep her jungle clear at similar speeds.

Q – Threaded Volley

  • Base Damage: 55 / 72.5 / 90 / 107.5 / 125 ⇒ 50 / 67.5 / 85 / 102.5 / 120
  • Bonus Monster Damage: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 ⇒ 23 / 28 / 33 / 38 / 43

Varus

See Highest Win Rate Varus Builds
Oh, Varus. Look, canonically you’re kinda three people at once, so having three times the balance changes of other champions is only fair, right? We’re nerfing Varus’s lethality build as it’s the most pro-dominant ADC in the current patch. However, because on-hit Varus in bot lane is weak, we’re compensating AD on-hit Varus to keep that build afloat.

Q – Piercing Arrow

  • Maximum damage: 80 / 160 / 240 / 320 / 400 (+ 130 / 140 / 150 / 160 / 170% bonus AD) ⇒ 80 / 150 / 220 / 290 / 360 (+ 150% bonus AD)

W – Blighted Quiver

  • On-hit damage: 8 / 17 / 26 / 35 / 44 (+ 25% AP) ⇒ 8 / 17 / 26 / 35 / 44 (+ 25% AP + 15% bonus AD)

Volibear

See Highest Win Rate Volibear Builds
Volibear’s last set of nerfs were effective at hitting jungle harder than top, but ended up a bit over the line still. We’re aiming to make laning a bit more satisfying for top Volibear with mana changes, and still trying to open up some bruiser builds so it’s not always wizard bear.

Q – Thundering Smash

  • Bonus physical damage: +140% ⇒ +160%

W – Frenzied Maul

  • Mana cost: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 ⇒ 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40
  • Wounded bonus: + 15% per 100 bonus AD ⇒ + 25% per 100 bonus AD

E – Sky Splitter

  • Mana cost: 60 ⇒ 50

Items

Hubris


Hubris appears to be the weakest AD assassin item, especially when you consider it should look amazing statistically due to being a situational snowball item. We’re continuing the slow and steady trend of letting assassins spike their items earlier, and especially in the case of Hubris, get the snowball rolling early on.
  • Combine cost: 950 gold ⇒ 750 gold
  • Total price: 3000 gold ⇒ 2800 gold

Locket of the Iron Solari


Bandlepipes has been a well received addition for first-slot support tanks (and others who don’t really want AP) but it’s overshadowing first-slot Locket more than we’d like. We’re choosing to front-load some of Locket’s power so that it looks more attractive as the first purchase, while keeping its later-game power pretty similar.
  • SHIELD: 200 – 360, scaling after level 1 ⇒ 290 – 360, scaling after level 8
  • Functional Shield Level 8-18: 265 – 360 ⇒ 290 – 360
Ranked and Matchmaking

Aegis of Valor

Players who were eligible for the Aegis of Valor rewards have those rewards voided if they’re reported for disruptive behaviors and the reports are validated.

Autofill and Secondary Matchmaking Improvements

“As we mentioned at the start of this year, we’re going to start rolling out improved positional matchups in game for autofills and secondaries, e.g. trying to match autofill jungle vs autofill jungle. We’ll be starting with EUW.

We’ll keep an eye on how it’s performing, and will let you know when we feel like it’s ready for a global rollout.”

Posted in LoL

League of Legends Chat Bans Are Being Replaced With Something Much Worse

Posted on by Geekmandem

League of Legends Patch 26.5 bans are about to level up. Riot Games has revealed plans to punish people who are abusive in chat with huge bans. Starting in Patch 26.5, gameplay bans will be given for players who are “severely disruptive” in comms, rather than just chat bans.

Why are Riot Games Making These Changes

No longer will chat bans be issued for players who are highly toxic in chat. Instead, Riot Games is getting serious and will now issue full gameplay bans for players who are severely abusive in chat. The change comes as part of the new Community Pact guidelines with a clear message: Play with respect, or don’t play at all.

Previously, players would be issued a chat ban, essentially muted, and informed that their team they were muted. This new change looks to finally take action against players who ruin the game for others. This could mean a player could use hate speech against another player or a threat of violence, and they would only get muted. Riot has finally admitted that this “doesn’t align with player expectations.”

League of Legends Patch 26.5 bans

Riot Games has been cautious in its language to distinguish between what “mild flame” and “severe offences” are. So, you can still call your jungler an “idiot”, while discouraged, you won’t get banned. However, the following forms of communication will get you a gameplay ban:

  • Hate speech
  • Threats of physical violence
  • Severe and egregious aggression towards another player

One other change is that this ban won’t just look at your public chats. Direct Messages (DMs) will also be taken into account, though not until later in 2026. This should stop players from adding another player just to flame them after a game.

This isn’t the first time Riot Games has claimed to be strong on chat abuse, sadly. Since 2025, when the “Escalation Ladder” came into effect, a four-strike system was implemented to move players up bans, from 10 to 25-game chat bans, to suspensions and permanent bans.

Riot Games also has a zero-tolerance approach in Valorant, with “real-time mutes” since 2022; however, that game has a similar reputation to League of Legends when it comes to toxicity.

It remains to be seen if these changes will help, but they can’t make things any worse.

Source: League of Legends News

Posted in LoL

Riot Moved Thousands of League of Legends Players Out of Their Ranks

Posted on by Geekmandem

Riot Games is looking ahead to Ranked in 2026, alongside how the changes they’ve already made have impacted the game.

A number of positive changes were discussed; there was also a mention of the EUW-ranked “trial”, which got a more detailed update in the follow-up blog post.

LoL Ranked Changes 2026 Impact

The changes Riot Games has made to ranked have had an impact on the game already. According to Riot Games, they’ve seen:

  • Time to get into the game is down about 30% on average
  • Dodged lobbies dropping from 19% to 4%
  • MMR distribution at the top and bottom of the ranked ladder
  • 14% of players are in Iron, Riot want to change that, as most of these players are actually veteran players
  • For now, Riot has moved those players into Bronze, to keep Iron as the “new player” rank
  • The skill gap between Diamond IV and Diamond I was roughly the difference between Bronze IV and high Silver. Riot has moved those in Diamond I into Master
  • Master MMR range has been widened, making the LP requirement for Apex higher
  • New top and bottom tiers could come in future
  • More adjustments to LoL ranked are expected in future

Overall, Riot Games talked about the varied range of skill levels in League of Legends. The redistribution of ranks seems to be a major issue that they’ve solved.

MMR, Autofills, and Secondary Roles

On the changes to autofill and matching up players, alongside secondary role parity. The only news was that the change is coming, and that autofilled players should be more likely to play against an autofilled player. This should also impact players in secondary roles. Though, as of publishing, that hasn’t gone live yet, with the update still awaiting official release.

EUW trial has now gone live in 26.4, with OCE and VN servers to follow. If the testing of this goes well, it will roll out to other regions in 26.5.

On X, Matt Leung-Harrison, Lead Gameplay Designer for LoL confirmed that testing had “gone quite well (it is now fully Live and chugging along).” Matt continued with some examples of the impact.

So far, we are seeing a dramatic reduction autofill vs primary mismatches, eg. Autofill JG vs Main JG in high MMR (Master+) go from 35% >>> 5%. ie. Players should expect >90% of games to have role assignment balance. Outside of high MMR, this was already happening, so not much is changing.

Riot Flew Shyvana Mains to Los Angeles to Get This Rework Right

Posted on by Geekmandem

Riot Games has officially given the details of the full Shyvana Rework kit. The release is set to be released in March, and the rework brings an end to one of the longest waits in League of Legends history for a rework.

The rework has been in the works for nearly a decade, being announced alongside Volibear, Udyr, and Fiddlesticks.

Shyvana Rework: Abilities

Passive – Scalemail

When Shyvana secures takedowns on enemy champions, large minions, and large monsters, she is granted Scalemail stacks. Permanent stacks that grant Armor and Magic Resist.

Q – Emberstrike

Human Form – Shyvana’s new Q will deal damage to the primary target and those in the area around her. The attack will also reset her auto-attack.

Dragon Form – An additional recal that deals increased single-target damage, rather than the current design.

W – Inferno Aegis

Human Form – Grants a shield and increases movement speed before detonating in an area around her after a short delay.

Dragon Form – The explosion from the shield will now also heal Shyvana if it hits an enemy champion or monster

E – Molten Burst

Human Form – A fileball that now also slows enemies when hit

Dragon Form – The fireball now passes through targets and explodes at the end of the cast. This leaves a trail of fire from Shyvana.

R – Dragon’s Descent

Human Form – Transform into a dragon and leap forward, fearing enemies along the path.

Dragon Form – All basic abilities are now empowered

One note on the Syvana Rework in Riot Games’ video is that Shyvana is a dragon now. As such, she will use all parts of her form to attack, like her claws, wings, etc.

Speaking about the rework, Riot Games talks about working with fans to make sure their favourite champion wasn’t changed too much. They noted, though were not specific, about times in the past where this had happened and upset champion mains. This included flying out Shyvana mains to the Riot Games HQ in Los Angeles to provide feedback on changes and the design.

Shyvana Rework Release Date

The rework will drop with patch 26.6 on March 18th. We have Patch 26.5 still to come, meaning the Shyvana rework is just two patches away at the time of publishing.

Shyvana’s Rework Finally Has a Date, and Riot Dropped New Skins Too

Posted on by Geekmandem

During the LCK Playoffs, Riot Games gave fans a glimpse at a few new skins, alongside a good look at the Shyvana Rework coming on March 18th.

These new Warhounds skins will offer up a chance to support League of Legends Esports, while we also get to look at April Fools Blitzcrank, and the Corrupted Petricite skins for Xereth and Maoki.

Warhounds Senna, Warwick and Naafiri Skins

The first three skins shown for the Warhounds skin line, with skins for Senna, Warwick, and Naafiri shown off. These are due to release alongside the Shyvana Rework on March 18th.

These new Warhounds skins will also see a percentage of the sale go to League of Legends Esports teams. The new skin line will allow fans to support the global esports scene in another way outside of the usual World Battle Pass.

Blitzcrank April Fools

The end of the trailer gives us a horrifying look at this year’s April Fools skin. Blitzcrank is the one to get the skin this year, and it’s very on-brand.

Shyvana Rework

The reveal also gave us a much better look at the new Shyvana Rework. Showing off her abilities, alongside her Dragon Form.

We also get a brief look at the Corrupted Petricite Xerath & Maokai skins during the trailer, which we knew were coming but have only really seen as splash art until now

League of Legends Fans Waited 10 Years for This Shyvana Rework

Posted on by Geekmandem

We’ve known for a long time that the Shyvana Rework was the next major League of Legends character to get a rework. Now, Riot Games has finally given us the first details with a reveal trailer.

Shyvana Rework Release

Shyvana’s Rework is set to drop on March 18th in the second Act of the Demacia story. The rework to Shyvana the Half Dragon, is a VGU/rework that aims to bring the character more in line with modern characters. The new rework is expected to drastically change both the human and dragon form. At the end of the trailer above, we get a pretty good look at what she’ll end up like in-game.

Gameplay details have not been made public; however, some leaks suggest the majority of her kit will be reworked. Her human form Q is rumoured to be an empowered auto-attack. The Dragon Form is likely to offer a similar ultimate, seeing Shyvana fly across a large area and do massive AoE damage.

The other note from Riot Games was a look at fixing the “visual clarity” of Shyvana, specifically on her Flame Breath (E). Shyvana’s rework is a very long time coming. In fact, it was announced nearly 10 years ago alongside Volibear, Udyr, Fiddlesticks and more. Those three have had theirs for a long time, which has made Shyvana’s wait even harder for fans of the half dragon.

As for why she needs a rework, Shyvana has been at the lower end of the scale when it comes to Jungle performance for some time.

Sitting at B in our Jungle tier list currently, with a fairly poor Pick Rate, it looks like only diehard Shyvana mains are sticking with her for now. Which is most likely inflating the poor win rate to a somewhat respectable level. Regardless, the rework will be sure to increase her pick rate. So be prepared to see a lot of Shyvana when she releases on March 18th.

Posted in LoL

Riot Confirms League of Legends for a $20 Million Esports Tournament

Posted on by Geekmandem

Riot Games confirmed League of Legends for the 2026 Esports Nations Cup, which takes place in November 2026. A total of 32 national rosters will compete.

The Esports Nations Cup Format

The tournament runs from November 21 to November 26. The event begins with a 32-team bracket. First, 24 teams fight through the Play-in stage, where organisers split them into four groups of six. Each group plays a double round-robin format, with all matches set as best-of-one.

League of Legends Esports Nations Cup 2026

The top two teams from each group move into the Group Stage. There, they join eight seeded teams who enter the competition at this point. In the Group Stage, organisers divide the 16 teams into four groups of four. Each group plays a best-of-three round-robin. The top two teams from each group will advance to the playoffs.
Eight teams then enter a single-elimination playoff bracket. All matches are best-of-three, except for the Grand Final, which is best-of-five.

Qualification and Team Selection for ENC League of Legends

16 sides will be given a direct invite to the event, which will be based on the ENC national team ranking. The top eight of these will go directly to the Group Stage, with the remaining eight going into the Play-in stage. The remaining 14 slots will be done via a regional online qualifier, while two Wildcard slots will be reserved.

The Wildcard slots will be decided by the Esports Nations Cup, and will take into consideration ENC national team ranking and “global and regional LoL competitions.” Official Riot Games competition will be used to decide these points for the first year of the ENC.

The qualifiers will take place from June 19th to June 21st, with a double-elimination bracket being used. The best roster from each region will then qualify until the regional slot allocation is reached, as shown below.

  • North America (2 slots)
  • South America (2)
  • Europe West (2)
  • Europe East (2)
  • Southeast Asia + Oceania (2)
  • Asia (2)
  • Middle East + Africa (2)

League of Legends is the latest game announced for the ENC in November 2026. The event includes games like Valorant, Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2, and many more, with a combined $20 million in prize pool on the line.

Patch 26.5 Preview – League of Legends

Posted on by U.GG

The 26.5 full patch preview for League of Legends is out, with another handful of champion buffs and nerfs. From @RiotPhroxon on X Source

Ranked EUW Test delayed for another day, we’re playing it safe to land the changes without breaking anything

Volibear

  • Voli changes are targeted at balancing out his AD builds vs his currently strong AP builds; needs a bit more time to land

Lillia

  • We’re looking to pull back on some of the previous changes and bring Lillia’s power level most of the way back to where she was before

Orianna

  • Changes are targeted at reducing the power level of her early laning phase, especially when sitting on Rank 1 Q for several levels

Neeko

  • Neeko has been strong in Pro Play for a while while not being overly strong in regular play
  • We’re taking some power out of her vision outputs which are better used in Pro Play without overly impacting her regular play

Varus

  • Varus was overbuffed a while ago and so we’re practically reverting the buff to his Q damage
  • Lethality Varus has been the strongest ADC in Pro and so we’re tapping him down to not overrun the Pro meta

Ranked EUW Test

  • We ended up getting delayed and the new plan is to deploy around 6pm PST tomorrow (roughly 2-3AM EUW)
  • There will be about 5-10m of Ranked downtime, so we’re doing this in off peak and monitoring that things are working correctly

First Stand on 26.5

  • We made a significant number of changes on 26.4 and so 26.5 is a more conservative set of changes to ensure a good Pro meta for First Stand
  • Ori, Azir, Neeko, Lethality Varus are some of the strongest outliers in Pro Play currently, and so we’re tapping them down

Items

  • Hubris is looking just generally underpowered
  • It doesn’t really have an audience and also doesn’t exhibit the same properties that other snowball items like Mejais have (higher winrates because being purchased when snowballing)
  • Bandlepipes is looking pretty strong, especially on second item. Locket is one of its primary competitors so we’re giving it a buff on second item by flatting some of the shield value

Patch Followups

  • Lillia is looking a bit worse for wear after her buffs in a previous patch were over magnitude, so we’re giving her a bump back up (it may end up getting delayed to a future patch if we need more time to land on a higher quality changelist, but haven’t decided)
  • We’re looking to see what Mel looks like at a higher power level after making some of the frustration lowering changes in 26.3
Posted in LoL

League of Legends Players in EUW Are Getting a Major Matchmaking Overhaul

Posted on by Geekmandem

In a post on X, Matt Leung-Harrison, Lead Gameplay Designer on League of Legends, has announced some major changes to matchmaking specifically for the EUW region.

These changes will roll out in the next 24 hours and are aiming to “Improvement to Matchmaking that we need to pilot in a large region.” The intention of the update will be “better balance autofills vs autofills & secondaries vs secondaries, etc.”

There have been a lot of reports since the new season of LP gains not being high enough, and matchmaking being poor overall. Matt expects the rollout to cause issues and has shared a thread outlining “edge cases” that might show up during the test.

LP Gains in EUW

The next major issue is LP gains during wins and losses, and how lopsided they appear to be to some. “This change would get everyone back closer to +-20LP in wins/losses, rather than +10/-30LP that a few people are experiencing currently (about 30% of Challengers).”

This will also target those reporting <10 LP Gains; these shouldn’t be possible, but players have reported them in a number of EUW games.

Demotions

The last issue that will be addressed comes in how demotion tiers work. “Last year, we made some changes to how Tier demotions worked (eg, Silver 4 -> Bronze 1). It is possible to demote to 50LP, 25LP if your MMR is low enough relative to your Rank. We fixed some edge cases that were preventing that from being true, and so if you have a surprisingly large LP demotion, this is why.” We don’t yet know how quickly these changes will take effect, but as an EUW player, we’ll be sure to follow them.

We’ll update this post as more news comes through the night.