While the League of Legends competitive eSports scene is in collective hibernation, publisher Riot Games continues to work on providing the game with new content during the New Year break
It’s been a month and a half since the last official match in the League of Legends eSports context, the Worlds final between T1 and Weibo Gaming.
Since then, the competitive scene has been in a deep sleep. Instead of the results of the weekly league, roster changes for the individual teams and updates from developer Riot Games for the new season dominate the headlines.
Even in 2024, the focus of the individual changes is primarily on the jungle and its inhabitants. Last year, it was primarily the implementation of the Chemtech and Hextech dragons that shook up the established gameplay and brought a breath of fresh air to the Rift. This year, developer Riot Games is coming up trumps with changes to the dragon counterpart, the Baron Nashor.
From the new season, he will appear in three different versions, which differ primarily in their attack patterns and accessibility. In addition, the appearance of Baron Nashor changes the entire jungle in such a way that both Red and Blue Buffs are corrupted by the Void.
In addition to the announcements about the general gameplay, the release of the 165th champion caused a stir in the scene. Hwei, a mid-lane controller mage with eleven abilities instead of the usual five, entered the Rift just over four weeks ago and is making the hearts of players who like things complicated beat faster. However, while the developers were more cautious about new champions in 2023 than in 2022 – four champions: Milio, Naafiri, Briar and Hwei were released last year – Riot Games seems to have set its sights higher for 2024.
At least that’s what a newly surfaced short video suggests
A new dragon in the Rift
Yesterday afternoon, a short clip appeared quite surprisingly on the official League of Legends X page. It probably featured the latest champion, Smolder. A little dragon musing about how great his race is
Smolder’s kind of a big deal 😤🥺 pic.twitter.com/V6QFgN5TO8
– League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) January 4, 2024
Official confirmation from Riot Games that the Spyro-like mini dragon will indeed be the latest champion is still up in the air, however. However, the hype that the developer has sparked in the community with the short clip is enough to fill the next few weeks of the winter break with enough life
