Is Riot Games Developing a New Game Mode for League of Legends?

The start of the new season in League of Legends was different this year. After Riot Games failed to communicate the Ranked start dates and time, and pushed out a cinematic that was below League of Legends' usual standards, the community took it upon itself to express how important the game is to the players. The players came together to voice how disheartening and sad it is to see the “downfall” of League of Legends. This overwhelming outpour was acknowledged by Riot Games and it released a video statement talking about where it went wrong and some of the corrective actions it plans to undertake in 2023. Over the years, players have been vocal about wanting more game modes in the game and Riot is finally addressing this. 

League of Legends‘ executive producer Jeremy “Brightmoon” Lee and head of League Studio Andrei “Meddler” van Roon issued an apology and addressed some of the pain points. One of the biggest talking points of this video was the confirmation of a new game mode. Therefore, players can expect to see a new game mode in League of Legends very soon.

What is the new game mode?

Some of the things that Riot Games has vowed to do in the coming months and season are as follows:

• A 2024 Season Start, champion-led cinematic.

• Improving events and new modes including one this summer.

• Continued investment in League's tech.

• Better communication (more regular, transparent, proactive, etc).

Riot Meddler acknowledged that one of the biggest missing pieces of the puzzle was the disappearance of game modes. He noted that League of Legends used to have a dedicated game mode team and that the team was moved on to build Teamfight Tactics (TFT). The developers said Riot’s been gradually rebuilding the game modes team but stated that it was not a priority. Brightmoon said, “The good news is that we have a [game] modes team who is staffed up and ready to execute. In fact, just this week, we played a prototype for a new game mode.”

Explaining the game mode further, Meddler said, “This is a mode that involves four teams of two players who get matched up against each other in a series of deathmatch-like rounds, buy items, and level-up and so on between rounds.” He added that it is currently “janky” but stated that the prototype is very promising.

If you are new to League of Legends and are unfamiliar with featured game modes, here's a list of game modes that Riot Games previously released to celebrate in-game events:

• Ascension

• Black Market Brawlers

• Dark Star: Singularity

• Definitely Not Dominion

• Doom Bots

• Hexakill

• Hunt of the Blood Moon

• Invasion

• Legend of the Poro King

• Nemesis Draft

• Nexus Blitz

• Nexus Siege

• Odyssey: Extraction

• One for All

• OVERCHARGE

• Snowdown Showdown

• Ultra Rapid Fire

• Ultimate Spellbook

Notably, Riot Games hopes to get this new game mode out and running by Summer 2023 and has promised to keep the player base informed through blog posts, teasers and the like. Featured game modes in the past were directly tied up with the release of a special event such as skins, story, or seasonal events.