Author: Geekmandem

League of Legends Mayhem Set 3 Keeps Popular Game Mode Thriving With New Augments and Pass

Posted on by Geekmandem

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

  • 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.

All Worlds 2026 Teams Confirmed as USA Awaits League of Legends’ Season-Ending Event

Posted on by Geekmandem

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

RegionTeamSeedHow they got inStarts in
LCKGen.G1LCK Season championsSwiss
LCKHanwha Life Esports2MSI 2026 championsSwiss
LCKT13Third in LCK playoffsSwiss
LCKDplus Kia4Fourth in LCK playoffsSwiss
LPLAnyone’s Legend1LPL Grand Finals championsSwiss
LPLBilibili Gaming2Championship PointsSwiss
LPLTop Esports3Regional Finals winnersSwiss
LPLInvictus Gaming4Regional Finals runners-upSwiss
LECG2 Esports1LEC Summer championsSwiss
LECMovistar KOI2LEC Summer runners-upSwiss
LECKarmine Corp3Third in LEC SummerPlay-In
LCSTeam Liquid1Top three in LCS SummerSwiss
LCSLYON2Top three in LCS SummerSwiss
LCSCloud93Top three in LCS SummerPlay-In
LCPTeam Secret Whales1LCP Split 3 finalistsSwiss
LCPCTBC Flying Oyster2LCP Split 3 finalistsSwiss
LCPMVK Esports3Championship PointsPlay-In
CBLOLLØSTBCCBLOL playoff finalistsFinal on 10 October decides
CBLOLFURIATBCCBLOL playoff finalistsFinal on 10 October decides

LCK (Korea)

2026 Worlds anthem true damage
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)

G2 Esports LEC Champions
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?

MSI 2026

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?

Worlds 2026 Anthem to be Performed by True Damage

Posted on by Geekmandem

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.

Worlds 2026 Anthem

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.

Patch 26.20 Preview – League of Legends

Posted on by Geekmandem

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.

Champions

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.
Diana mid is in a mostly fine spot, but Diana Jungle, which plays more like a bruiser and builds a lot more health needs a little more help.
Overall, we’re not looking to add a ton of power to Diana as she does get a bit statchecky when strong.
Neeko support (and Mid) have been a bit worse for wear.
Neeko support has become a lot weaker, especially at the higher levels of play after we made adjustments to her Clone and its interaction with vision.
We think Neeko could use a little more power as a result.
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

Posted in LoL

LoL Patch 26.20 Skins – HEARTSTEEL Live My Life Skins come to the Rift

Posted on by Geekmandem

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.

Aphelios

K’Sante

Ezreal

Kayn

Yone

Sett

HEARTSTEEL Live My Life Skins: Release and Price

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.

A Look at Locke’s Win Rate Three Months on

Posted on by Geekmandem

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

Hall of Legends Caps
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.

ARAM: Mayhem and Arena 26.19 patch notes: Arena Gets the Focus

Posted on by Geekmandem

In a twist from the usual, the LoL Patch 26.19 ARAM Mayhem and Arena updates mostly focus on Arena, with Mayhem taking a major backseat.

ARAM Mayhem has been incredibly popular since it launched, and it may stay as a permanent spot. But this week, the focus is on Arena, so let’s take a look.

ARAM: Mayhem

One of the biggest changes is that High Roller is getting nerfed again. Riot reckons it still snowballs way too hard if you grab it early, so its drop rate has been cut further. This should mean it shows up as a first augment way less frequently.

Mad Scientist is one of the notable bug fixes: it was meant to give you 30% Adaptive Force but was handing out 30% AD and 30% AP at the same time. That’s been fixed, so if it felt suspiciously strong on hybrid champs, now you know why.

Removing Upgrade Ravenous no longer leaves you with negative Life Steal on all your items, which is a sentence that should never have needed writing. Bel’Veth players with Ultimate Awakening will be happy to hear her Q now resets properly after ulting, too.

Arena

Guests of Honor

Three new Guests have shown up, and all of them change how rounds play out:

  • Ivern spawns brush wherever a team is standing when they lose a round, and it stays for the whole game. Expect the map to get very leafy by the late rounds.
  • Senna opens three portals to the Death Realm that anyone can hop into, then pop out of any portal to get back.
  • Thresh lets downed players throw a lantern to allies every 8 seconds. It shields anyone nearby, and clicking it pulls you to your downed teammate.

New Augments

Twelve new Augments join Arena in patch 26.19. Ten are Mayhem imports (Hellbent, Surge Field, Sonata, Shark Bait and friends), so if you’ve been playing ARAM lately, you’ll recognise plenty of these. Shark Bait is a good one for pure chaos: you die, turn into a zombie for 3.5 seconds, then a giant shark bursts out of the ground and knocks everyone up. At max level, your whole team goes shark on death.

The other two are brand new and were made with VestionOCE and SoyJamiie, winners of the For The Win Creator Invitational:

  • Death Dealer replaces Flee. Pop it on an enemy to drag you both into the Death Realm, with 2 seconds of invisibility on entry. At max level, killing your target gives your team another revive and delays theirs.
  • Got That Dog In Em spawns a hot dog every 3 seconds that makes whoever eats it breathe fire. Anyone can pick them up, enemies included, and if an enemy eats one, they can damage their own team. Die while breathing fire, and you explode. We are going to see some absolutely unhinged teamfights.

Champion changes

The headline nerf is Bel’Veth. Her R passive bonus AD ratio drops from 3 to 1, and her E on-hit effectiveness is cut to 8 – 16 (from 12 – 24). It’s a pretty major nerf, so you should see her a little less often.

The stackers are getting reined in too. Veigar drops from 12 to 10 passive stacks per round with a longer E cooldown, and Sion goes from 133 to 111 stacks per round. Zed, Rell, Ornn, Dr. Mundo, Lillia and Rammus all take smaller nerfs.

On the buffs side, Elise is the big winner with her E cooldown slashed from 12 – 10s to 8 – 6s and W down to 10s. Neeko’s Q secondary-hit AP ratio doubles to 50%, Locke’s passive damage goes up across the board, and Aphelios gets a proper stat bump to his health and AD growth. Lee Sin’s W shield also scales much harder with AP now (80% to 120%), so AP Lee enjoyers, your time has come.

Augment balance

Scavenger doubles from 500 to 1,000 gold, which makes it a genuine pick now. Spellcraft gets a shorter cooldown and more base damage, while Giant Slayer takes a 5-point nerf at every rank. Chroma Flux has also been demoted from Prismatic to Gold.

One sneaky systems change: bonus Energy regen based on missing health now caps at 400% (up from 100%). Energy champs like Zed, Lee Sin and Kennen will barely run dry when they’re low.

G2 Esports Claims LEC Summer Title Once Again – Domestic Golden Road Completed

Posted on by Geekmandem

G2 Esports have done it again, to the surprise of no one. The side swept Movistar KOI 3-0 at the LEC 2026 Summer Grand Final.

G2 Esports’ latest LEC title is their fourth consecutive LEC championship, matching their previous record. The LEC Summer victory completes the Domestic Golden Road, having previously won the LEC Versus and LEC Spring Splits.

G2 Esports Claims LEC Summer

Overall, this is G2 Esports hitting yet another peak as a LoL organisation. This is their 20th LEC championship, once again pushing them well ahead of any other Western side in terms of domestic achievement.

The victory was also a big moment for Rasmus “Caps” Winther, who recently was honored in the Hall of Legends. This was his 18th LEC Championship to go alongside his mural in Copenhagen.

While Caps is often the one to get the praise, it was not an MVP series for him this time. It was, in fact, the chance for a support to make it under the lights. Labros “Labrov” Papoutsakis claimed the MVP after three strong series, going deathless in two of the games. It’s not common to see a support take a series MVP, but it gives you an idea of just how good he was.

As for G2 Esports, it’s time to prepare for Worlds. LoL Patch 26.19 is the first of two Worlds patches, as the game starts to prepare for the biggest event in League of Legends Esports.

The victory was also the first title victory for Luka “Perkz” Perković, who took up the role of head coach at G2 Esports after MSI. Perkz is no stranger to winning titles with G2, having been a part of a dominant G2 side in the late 2010’s.

Patch 26.19 Preview – League of Legends

Posted on by Geekmandem

The League of Legends Patch 26.19 Preview is here. It’s the first of two pre-Worlds patches that will be deployed. Worlds will be played on the next patch, 26.20. Riot Phroxzon on X with the Patch 26.18 Preview.

Role Changes

Support HP Regen

After Support roaming was nerfed in 26.16, pre grub spawn Support roaming is all the way back down again, especially in Pro Play which is what we were after.
That said, Enchanters and Ranged supports are now dominating the meta again.
So we’re making some targeted adjustments to melee supports so that they are able to engage and withstand some poke, rather than get poked out and not be able to engage again.
Overall, this isn’t going to be a giant swing, but hopefully enough of a nudge up for Melee Supports that players think about dynamics of the lane a bit differently.

Top Role Quest

For quite a while now, in some regions, especially at higher skilled play, Top has been a decent amount weaker than Bot (who are the natural counterparts).
That said, Top in regular play is both very popular and very powerful, and we’re not looking to change the dynamic very much (and also why we’re not nerfing bot lane overall).
So we’re giving a targeted adjustment to the more skill skewed aspect of Top lane, through the Teleport and upgraded Teleports from the Role Quest, which are typically used more effective in skilled play (where Top needs the help).
That should allow Top to exert its influence on the map more reliably, especially in split push scenarios.

Ranged Top

We hear a lot of the complaints about Ranged Top laners and agree that when these champs get too powerful it leads to pretty degraded “low gameplay states”. That said we do think it’s reasonable for Ranged Top laners to be a thing you can play there viably, it just needs to be at the appropriate power level with the appropriate power curves.
We don’t feel comfortable taking a large swing here, especially before Worlds, but just wanted to let y’all know that we’re working on some small changes to make it a bit more tolerable for melee champions.
This will hopefully allow us to also buff some of the ranged champions that are normally played bot who were nerfed due to their top lane performance (eg. Vayne), but we won’t be able to do this until this set of systems changes is released.

Class Changes

Simple Champions & Nasus

In the post the other day about simple champions, I mentioned that we think it’s good to have simple champions be strong at all levels of play. Not all of them, but some.
This can often be frustrating, especially when in moment-to-moment combat, their play patterns are very straightforward and feel lower counterplay if they can meet their success condition.
Our philosophy is that if a simple champion is overpowered and causing frustration, then that might be a cause for nerf.
However, if a champion is frustrating and simple, but not overpowered, if it doesn’t have an unintended design flaw, we’re likely to leave it as it is (eg. Viktor).
Viktor is strong in lane, but he’s also easy to gank and weak in early skirmishes; we think this is a reasonable strength and weakness profile and also, over the last few years, we’ve taken (imo) too much power out of early game trading from many champions, which has caused the laning phase to lose texture broadly across the game.
Nasus however, has been strong according to this principle, even when accounting for his mastery curve and he has more sharp success conditions now with Q 4 stacks; in lanes where he can stack freely he becomes more of a threat, while in lanes where he’s contested, he’s easier to keep down.
This often means when you run into Nasus in a good matchup, he’s often scaled without much holistic counterplay for the team (only his lane opponent).
So while we think this shape of Nasus is broadly correct, it does warrant sitting at a slightly lower resting power level due to these considerations.
There was a lot of discussion about Lucian when the notes were revealed yesterday.
Our current approach is to make Lucian’s reliance on specific supports much less tightly bound.
Lucian Mid and Top are also at extremely low power levels (high 30’s/low 40’s) which would be considered borderline griefing if picked.
So we’re trying to make the lives of Solo Q Lucian pairings more pleasant, while also trying to keep the list power neutral overall for Bot Lucian.
This change is better framed as an adjustment, rather than the nerf that was listed yesterday.
For a long time (even after we removed Duskblade, which caused us to put this functionality in in the first place), Master Yi’s Q Cooldown has scaled negatively with ability haste.
Now that Duskblade isn’t in the game we don’t think this functionality is necessary anymore.

Team Voice is Finally Coming to League of Legends, but not Everyone will get it

Posted on by Geekmandem

Team Voice is finally coming to League of Legends in 2026, though the limited rollout will see the feature skip certain regions.

We first talked about Team Voice back in March 2026, and it’s finally coming. The feature will drop with Patch 26.20, alongside the usual changes.

The news dropped in the latest Dev Update, which was shorter than normal but included a number of other bits of news.

Team Voice Comes to North America and Oceania

Sadly for fans not in those regions, you will have to wait a little longer. For now, Riot is testing the feature in its home region, and its closest other English-language counterpart. The feature will be active for anyone who has an Honor Level of three and above.

The feature itself allows the five players on a team to communicate by voice, rather than the usual text chat. Interestingly, the feature will also launch with the ability for players to modify their voice.

After Riot’s recent push to have the Valorant-style “instant punish” system, voice chat will be the latest addition to take advantage of it.

As a note, anyone on the team can listen to voice chat, even if they don’t opt in, or if they are under Honor Level 3. Korea, Latin America, and Brazil will follow “soon”. Riot noted that EU regions will get the feature later due to the system requiring more work for voice detection in the region. We assume due to the vast array of languages and dialects.

Riot Games on Moderating Team Voice?

Here is what Riot Games had to say on Team Voice:

“We’re listening to your concerns…. So we’re going to extensively work, test, and iterate to make this a feature worthy of your trust. Some of this work includes meeting with players around the globe to get feedback on their concerns and making sure Team Voice meets their expectations. Other options we’re exploring to ensure quality include rolling this feature out one language/region at a time, making it great in each one before introducing it to the next. Additionally, no matter what, players will have to be in good standing in order to access Team Voice. We’re working through the exact criteria for evaluating that now, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated.”

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