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League of Legends Season 2 Update Teases WASD to Ranked, Role Quest Changes, Arena Updates and More
Earlier today, April 14, Riot Games released the gameplay trailer for the upcoming League of Legends 2026 Season 2 Act 1. The video unveiled the theme for the upcoming season, as well as skins for Annie, Kindred, Shaco and Vayne.
Now, Riot released a Dev Update discussing everything the players can expect coming with the upcoming season.
Let’s take a look at what we can expect from the upcoming season.
Battlepass Changes for Shorter Season 2 Act 1
For starters, the upcoming League of Legends 2026 Season 2 Act 1 will be shorter than the regular acts and will feature 6 patches instead of the usual 8. This allows for a longer future season later this year.
To compensate for the shorter season, the Battlepass will be faster to complete.
On popular demand, the non-prestige Battlepass skins will now be directly purchasable from shop. The Battlepass rewards will instead feature Fiendish Mystery Skin Orbs that will drop random demon-themed Epic skins.
Gameplay Changes
The existing role quests punish roaming/proxy champions making assassins or champions like Singed much less viable. To ensure this is not the case, Riot plans to adjust progression zones.
The lane quest/rewards for Top and Mid lane will also be tweaked/changed. The changes are as follows:
- Top Lane
- Granted more XP for teamfighting
- Mid Lane
- Quest Reward changed from Empowered Recall to 6% bonus to AD/AP
These changes allow for a wider variety of champions and playstyles.
The upcoming season will also see better support for alternative builds like AP Ezreal, ADC Kennen or Attack Speed Xin Zhao. This will be achieved by adding/adjusting items and adding/removing runes.
The key changes are as follows:
- Runes:
- Added Deathfire Torch
- Stormraider’s Surge (replaces Phase Rush in Sorcery Tree)
- Items:
- Adjustments to items (Dusk Dawn)
- New Starting items
- Omnivamp boots
- Trailblazer and Opportunity removed
These changes are aimed at improving Champions and Build diversity in every lane.
Arena Mode Updates
Arena Mode will also receive love in the upcoming season. First and foremost is the new system called Events which are essentially different modes of Arena.
The three planned Events are:
- 3v3v3v3v3v3 (3x6 mode)
- 6 teams of 3 players
- More team comp variety
- Bravery Mode
- Randomized champions (with limited reroll options)
- Rewards adaptability
- Swift Arena
- Only 4 teams
- Faster matches
Arena will also receive a new map: the Petrice Grove. Canonically located on the outskirts of Demacia, the new map features walls, hiding spots, and interactive mining bombs.
The new season also introduces levels to Augments. Moving forward you can upgrade existing augments instead of adding new ones. There are 30 new augments (some from ARAM: Mayhem, some brand new) and they will also appear more frequently.
A new crafting round will also be introduced to Arena, allowing players to add slots or sacrifice augments to power other augments up.
The Guests of Honor will be updated, with 20 reworks including Nocturne and Shaco.
WASD Arrives to Ranked
With League of Legends Season 2 Act 1, WASD movements will be coming to Ranked. Additionally, new features will be released for WASD to ensure they help newer players to transition to the game.
The features coming are:
- Champion-specific keybinds
- Expanded keybinding options
- Mouse remapping options
- Larger cursor sizes
While point-and-click reigns supreme, WASD performs similarly and will be tweaked to ensure parity between the two systems.
Anti-Trolling System
Riot Gaming has actively worked on improving the in-game experience for the players. This involves mitigating problems like trolling, intentional throwing and more.
The new system is designed to detect intentional feeding and game-ruining behaviour. If detected, players on the affected teams can vote to end the game early.
Once the vote passes:
- The game ends
- Team that initiated the vote receive LP-neutral results
- Enemies receive full LP
- The offender/s lose LP and are punished.
These changes ensures players are not held hostage in an unwinnable game.
Skins coming in the new season
New League of Legends season means new skins and the upcoming season introduces the following skins to the game:
- New Prestige Skins
- Shaco
- LeBlanc
- Veigar (coming with Season 3)
- Pandemonium Skins
- Annie
- Kindred
- Shaco
- Vayne
- Rain Shepherd Ivern
- Project Quinn
- Breadsticks Irelia
- Spaghetti-themed Vel’Koz
Discord Integration
Starting Season 2 Act 1, players will be able to connect Discord with their Riot Games account. This allows players to directly invite friends from the friend list and use Party Links to quickly form groups.
The Discord Integration will be rolled out to the US, Canada and Brazil first, and then later to the rest of the world.
You can watch the full Dev Update video here:
Season 2 Act 1 Release Date
The League of Legends 2026 Season 2 Act 1 releases with Patch 26.09 on April 29.
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Featured Image Credit: Riot Games
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