Month: March 2026

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