League of Legends kicks off Season 3 in Patch 25.17, pulling together the story told through previous seasons, including the earlier themes of Spirit Blossom Beyond and Welcome to Noxus. LeBlanc, Yunara, Atakhan and Xin Zhao will all play vital roles as the seasonal story unfolds.
The season also sets the stage for this year’s 2025 League of Legends World Championship, which returns to China in celebration of Worlds’ 15th anniversary. Games begin in Beijing on October 14, with the Finals taking place in Chengdu on November 9.
The Worlds Anthem will release on October 10, honoring and celebrating prolific players across League of Legends’ competitive history.
Gameplay Updates: Xin Zhao VU
One of League’s most enduring champions, Xin Zhao, receives a full visual update this season.
- His gameplay remains unchanged, but all of his skins have been updated.
- Xin Zhao’s current vaulted skins will be made available during patches 25.17 and 25.18.
- Improvements have been made to Commando and Imperial Xin Zhao (which will increase in RP from 520 to 750). Both legacy skins will be available at their original price until Patch 25.17, when the visual update goes live.
- A new Epic skin for Xin Zhao will also be released later in Act 1.
- Quality-of-Life Enhancements
- The following improvements will be implemented to help players track game information, with similar updates planned for later this year:
- Individual timers will be added for all jungle camps.
- Summoner spell usage will be easier to track through the death recap screen.
- The following improvements will be implemented to help players track game information, with similar updates planned for later this year:
- Doom Bots
- Back by popular demand, the PvE game mode Doom Bots returns with a brand-new update in Patch 25.17, featuring a slew of content, including a new difficulty mode, new curses, new bots and a new boss.
- The “Trials of Doom” include in-game challenges that will be introduced each patch with a unique objective for Doom Bots players to overcome.
- More information about Doom Bots can be found in a new dev blog live now.
- WASD Controls
- League will begin testing WASD movement as an optional alternative to traditional point-and-click controls in an effort to make controls more intuitive for new and returning players.
- WASD will release on PBE in a few patches and will then roll out to non-Ranked queues and eventually to Ranked.
- Both WASD and point-and-click control schemes will be monitored closely to ensure neither offers a competitive advantage.
- Further details about the development and rollout of WASD controls can be found in a newly released dev blog.
- Player Behavior
- Starting in Patch 25.18, League will begin taking action against accounts engaged in smurfing, including boosting — when someone else plays on another player’s account to climb to a higher rank — and hitchhiking — when a higher-skilled player uses a fraudulent account to play with a lower-skilled player to artificially increase the lower-skilled player’s rank.
- In situations involving multiple accounts, actions will be taken against all offending parties.
- Actions will also be taken against accounts that are botted, sold, purchased or shared.
- These efforts are powered by Vanguard’s improved detection capabilities and supported by player-submitted “Rank Manipulation” reports.
- Alternate accounts used in good faith will remain unaffected.
- Riot is further expanding tests for True Skill 2, a new matchmaking system improving MMR accuracy and placement speed, to help improve game quality in the long run.
- Players can learn more about these updates in a new dev blog.
- Starting in Patch 25.18, League will begin taking action against accounts engaged in smurfing, including boosting — when someone else plays on another player’s account to climb to a higher rank — and hitchhiking — when a higher-skilled player uses a fraudulent account to play with a lower-skilled player to artificially increase the lower-skilled player’s rank.
On cosmetics, new Prestige Skins for Sylas and Mel will be available through the Mythic Shop, while those for Jarvan IV and Zoe will be available through the Act 1 and Act 2 Passes, respectively. The 2024 Worlds Winner skins commemorating T1’s win will come out in September.
A Machine Herald Viktor will release in Patch 25.19 and will be gifted for free to players with Viktor Mastery Level 5+ (as of August 4). Some emotes and icons that were previously only earnable by completing past TFT Passes will return to the Mythic Shop.
Visit leagueoflegends.com or follow @leagueoflegends on all major social media platforms for the latest updates.
