The League of Legends 2022 season is getting bigger and better.
If you missed what happened last night, Riot Games announced the start of its 2022 season with a live stream that talked about what players can expect from League of Legends this year. Aside from the introduction of Zeri a few days ago, Riot also teased three new champions that will be making their way to the Rift in the near future.
The first is going to be an Enchanter-style support champion. While Enchanter supports are usually brightly-coloured and whimsical, Riot will be changing things around with a darker, more sinister twist. Based on the teaser, this champion has been lurking behind the scenes, pulling invisible strings to ensure it's in total control. Riot also released a new image of the said champion, which is cryptic, to say the least; make of it what you will.
As for the next champion reveal, Riot decided to do things a little differently with League of Legends’ lead champion producer, Ryan Mireles getting possessed during the live stream to talk about a purple city, which is directly related to the new champion - a jungler who could be from Runeterra's Void. Lastly, Mireles also spoke briefly on a new, non-traditional bottom lane champion that they will be releasing sometime this year. Much like the other upcoming support champion, all Riot has to show for it is a mysterious emblem.
It's also worth pointing out that while these three new champions are slated to come out sometime in the 2022 season, Mireles has stated that Riot's priority is to ensure all champions that they release are polished and complete before they head to the Rift. This means that Riot won't hesitate to delay the introduction of a new champion if they feel that it isn't fully ready yet.
League of Legends 2022 season
Aside from the three new and upcoming champions for this season, Riot is also bringing in a new type of event passes that will look more like a battle pass hybrid. Both Prestige Points and Gemstones will soon be a thing of the past as Riot is introducing Mythic Essence, which will now be used to purchase high-end content like Mythic skins.
Players will earn Mythic Essence the same way they used to earn Prestige Points and Gemstones, through Hextech or Masterwork chest drops, as well as through the many battle passes that will be released this year. Unfortunately, there won't be any bonus Mythic Essence when players purchase bundles like there was for Prestige Points. Instead, Riot will be boosting the odds of dropping Mythic Essence from Masterwork chests for a limited time.
Do take note that Prestige Points will eventually expire and they won't be converted to Mythic Essence so it'd be best to spend them all before they are gone. However, gemstones will be automatically converted into Mythic Essence so there's no need to use them right now.
Riot will also be including a new shop where players can spend their Mythic Essence while also reworking the gemstones into the Mythic Shop. There will also be a rotating section of Unvaulted Prestige skins, which will give players a chance to purchase older prestige skins that they may have missed out on. There will be two Prestige skins unvaulted every month.
The first six unvaulted skins will be released all at once when the new Mythic shop opens. This includes K/DA Kai'Sa, Project: Irelia, Pulsefire Thresh, Battle Queen Diana, Spirited Bloom Teemo, and Arcanist Zoe.
As for the event passes, Riot will now be turning them to look more like traditional battle passes. The new event passes will give players a rewards track where players can earn experience points while playing. Fret not as tokens will still be part of the event and can be earned via the rewards track.
Riot will also be introducing some changes to the new events' Prestige skins. Aside from the usual gold colourway, the new prestige skins that come with events will feature a new thematic layer to give it greater value in the long run. Masterwork chests will also be reworked to ensure that the more you open, the better the loot you will get.
While we're still in the first week of 2022, Riot has already shown its hand on what it's capable of producing this year. Only time will tell if they will deliver on all these promises but given Riot's track record, it wouldn't be surprising to see all of these come to fruition one day soon.
Check out the full opening day live stream here.
