Cover-Credits:
Riot Games kickstarted its League of Legends Season 2022 Opening Day livestream with the season’s cinematic titled The Call. Andrei “Meddler” van Roon, the game director of League of Legends, briefly introduced the upcoming schedule lined up for League of Legends, Wild Rift, and their respective esports scenes. Riot also teased three new League Champions as well as a new world championship for the Wild Rift esports scene.
Unfortunately for South Asian and Indian fans, Riot didn’t reveal any details on Wild Rift’s release in these regions. Despite the game launching in multiple regions across the world in 2020 and 2021, it is still yet to make its way into the subcontinent. Similarly, Wild Rift's rumored console version was not mentioned in the livestream either.
League of Legends Season 2022: Gameplay Changes
Jeremy “Brightmoon” Lee, executive producer, recapped the changes that were introduced in the preseason including the introduction of new mythic and legendary items, changes to keystones, and the introduction of objective bounties and the new dragons - hextech and chemtech.
Talking about the new changes lined up for this year, Brightmoon explained that Riot was all for identity customization, indicating that the changes already released in Patch 12.1 for Ranked Crests and borders was a step toward this. He also detailed the concept of Challenges - a system that would track a player’s progress on the rift through unique challenges, letting them rank up from Iron to Challenger, with its own leaderboard. Challenges would also let players showcase their achievements in the game lobby and on the loading screen.
In addition, Riot announced that a player’s matchmaking rating (MMR) and league points (LP) will stay closer in ranked matchmaking, unlike last year, making it easier to climb.
League of Legends Season 2022: Mythic Content and Event Passes
Product lead for personalization and events, Jonathan “Bellissimoh” Belliss, revealed that Season 2022 would introduce new mythic content, event passes and loot milestones. He also revealed that Riot was completely revamping the mythic content and that Mythic Essence would replace gemstones and prestige points. In addition to revamps to mythic and prestige skins, Bellissimoh stated that a new seasonal mythic skin line called Ashen Knights would be released this year. Hextech skins will be replaced by seasonal mythics with new themes. Apart from this, he added that Ahri would be the recipient of a major visual update.
New skins and thematics include High Noon, Star Guardians, Bees, Battlebunnies, and Porcelain and Lunar Revel skins, according to the Rioter. The community can now vote for the next skin thematic revamp on the game client this week.
League of Legends Season 2022: Champion Releases
Rioter Ryan “Reav3” Mireles, lead of the champions’ team at Riot, unveiled the plans for new champion releases for 2022. Zeri was officially revealed with a rundown of her basic attacks and skillshots, following which Reav3 noted that a new enchanter support, one of a sinister and dark theme, would be brought in to balance out the cheery, colorful lineup of the already existing enchanters. Apart from this, a jungler and a non-traditional bot laner would also be released later this year.
He also shared the progress on the visual updates to Udyr and asked the community to choose a champion for the next visual gameplay update (VGU).
Season 2022: Changes to Wild Rift
According to Alan “Mirross” Moore, game director of Wild Rift, there would be new features for Wild Rift players including season 2 of Guild vs Guild, new champions, skins, and events. He revealed that Elemental Rift would make its way into the game, making significant changes to the rift. But, he noted that the elder dragon was still a work-in-progress.
Talking about new champions that would be released, he said Sett would make his way into the Wild Rift in Patch 3,0, followed by Yuumi in Patch 3.1. The Ionian champions Karma and Shen will also be introduced in Season 2022.
Mirross said that Firecracker skins would be released by the end of January for the Lunar New Year.
Season 2022: Wild Rift Esports
Leo “Noharris” Faria, global head of Wild Rift Esports, announced that the first official season of Wild Rift that would flag off this year. He noted that Season 1 of Wild Rift would feature eight regional leagues around the world and would run from January to May.
The first official Wild Rift Global Championship Icons will take place offline in Europe, with 24 teams from the regional leagues. Eight of the 24 teams will qualify directly for the main event, while 16 teams will compete in a play-in round. The main event will consist of a group stage, knockouts, and a grand final.
Season 2022: League of Legends Esports
Naz Aletaha, global head of League of Legends Esports, confirmed that the 12th season of pro play would kick off in Jan.
She also announced that for the tenth consecutive year, Riot beat the viewership record for Worlds. Riot also revealed that a series titled “Claim What’s Yours” featuring five episodes in conversation with pro players of the game will be released shortly.
Excitingly, Worlds 2022 will be returning to North America, with the tournament scheduled to take place in Mexico City, New York City, Toronto and San Francisco.
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