Absolutely horrible change that removes:

Spectating or watching games from people on your friends list

Watching and learning from pros on your champion or pros in your region

Many of the helpful, accessible resources online like 'Challenger Replays' channels on YouTube

This is a huge hit to Educational content in League.

Read about it more in the patchnotes here.

Edit: Also think it's hilarious this is a change that was hidden in the subtext of a patch notes with little to no communication otherwise, despite it being easily the most impactful change of the whole patch.

the leaker "BigBadBear" is a Riot leaker who was believed to have insider connections to Riot Brazil, they have leaked pretty much every single new announcement, event, champion, etc that Riot has made weeks before they became public, most recently Locke.

As shown on his twitter his Riot account has been HWID banned and Rioter Drew Levin has confirmed that this ban was given deliberately.

https://x.com/BigBadBear_/status/2065881581458190377

BigBadBear has also released a video saying that they are gonna delete their channel after getting multiple copyright strikes on their account.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIizO41iYAs

It's gonna be interesting not having everything leaked in the upcoming split.

Optional new modern movement scheme, potentially the biggest league change ever made.

"Flash has 3 settings, "Cursor", "WASD with Cursor Enhanced", "WASD with Cursor Fallback". Unsure what they do

Can still click to move under WASD

Has a toggle to smart cast to shoot in the direction your character is facing"

Source: SkinSpotlights

Riot Phroxzon tweeted:

Mages Bot and Approach for 26.16

26.15 Rundown releasing later tonight; got a bit delayed this week

Mages Bot in Pro Play

• While Mages Bot at MSI only represented ~20% of picks (and often felt like much more), we have been seeing a significant uptick in their presence and priority at EWC and Kespa Cup and it seems only likely to continue increasing

• This presence has also started to trickle its way into Ranked play in a major way

• Only a few months ago in March, we were seeing a significantly Enchanter and range dominated support meta, which also resulted in ADC and hyper carries in bot lane being very powerful

• These champions benefitted a lot from the Season Start 2026 changes; from things like the ADC quest hyperscaling with Enchanters + changes to nerf roaming in the support role generally

• So in Patch 26.11, we made some adjustments to buff melee supports, nerf ranged supports, especially Enchanters

• But at the same time, some certain chefs were also cooking some clever ways to bypass some of the anti-roaming and lane swap controls that we added into the Support quests at the start of the year

• What resulted was 2 major swings towards roaming supports and away from ADC bot (it’s an interesting thought experiment for what would have happened if we had changed nothing about the First Stand Enchanter meta and had the roaming developments play out)

• While we overall like Mages bot being viable in some capacity, what we’re observing now is arguably too far of a swing in the other direction, players are familiar with and we still want to support ADC as being a primary supported class there

• All of the previously listed dissatisfactions with gameplay that led us to nerf support roaming in Season Start 2026 still stand and in that set of changes, we intentionally went a bit lighter on some of the anti-lane swap, anti-support roaming controls to avoid overly punishing either accidental roaming or unique playstyles

• We’ve also heard a lot of the Pro Player complaints about the meta and are taking that into consideration

• We don’t want to force them to suddenly completely swap subclasses by suddenly making ADC and that learnt skill expression unviable, so it’s a fine balance

• That said, for those who want to learn it, we want to encourage and allow for skill expression of Pros to play a variety of things resulting in more flexible comps, dynamic lanes, etc. and greater champ variety long term

Mages Bot in Regular Play

• A lot of this “excitement” has also made its way to regular play

• Players have been excited to try out Mages bot. That said, not everyone is excited about that; Mages represent a natural counter to ADC for a decent chunk of the game duration and people trying to replicate the Pro Play Support roaming style often causes more grief to their lane partners than benefit

• Overall, we like that Mages are playable bot as it adds to a lot of variety in the lane and the games that players play

• However, too many mages bot with them being too powerful in certain cases results in undermining a lot of the mastery and expectations of what can be played in the lanes

• We’re not looking to adjust this power dynamic significantly as a result (eg. Mages have earlier spiking, smoother scaling curves. ADC have later & stronger scaling, but sharper successes and failures), but we are looking to address some of the magnitude of differences to make some of them less extreme

• eg. Flattening the differences between Mages and ADC bot so they have the same smooth builds, the same amount of mana, similar levels of spikes, etc. is a quick way to make it so there’s no class differentiation, even if it would “solve the problem”

• The profile of Mages in bot lane is also quite dissimilar to how they manifest in Pro Play

• For several years now, Mages bot like Brand, Swain, Ziggs, Veigar, Seraphine, Xerath etc. often don’t win by allowing a support to roam (especially historically), they often win by either poking you out with the support or 2v2 killing especially in average play

• They also have higher winrates on account of having higher starting winrates for first time plays compared to ADC, shallow mastery curves and favorable matchups in some (but not all) cases against ADC

• Their winrates as a result, I think are misleading for their true power level, in the same way that one shouldn’t be alarmed by Malphite having a 52-53% winrate (high winrate as a novice, low skill growth)

What are we doing?

• In 26.16 we will be making some targeted adjustments to these dynamics; some examples

• Straight nerfs to support roaming using already established levers (starting at upping out of lane support gold/xp penalty from 25% until level 3 >>> 33% until level 5

• Buffs to some underpowered ADC tools (Berserker’s Greaves, Fleet)

• Buffs to ADC base MR, nerfs to MR growth

• Buffs to Heal

• We’re also testing a variety of speculative things; will share more later in the week once we’re more firm on tactics

Thank you to everyone for all your passion and thoughts on these topics. We want to strike the right balance between increasing and rewarding diversity of playstyles in the game; the rate of these adoptions and how much burden we’re putting on the player base and Pro Players for said diversity

Visual aesthetic, including characters, the user interface and battle arenas to be re-imagined to appeal to new players, as well as reworking technical underpinnings to make it easier to push out updates

Park : "Coach Leo failed to get his visa at the second interview. It will only be Poppy for TES at Worlds. ZUIAN has a 3rd interview but even if he gets the visa, he will miss the first 2 games of swiss. 369 has returned to TES base and started scrims and playing soloq again."

Translation from X.

----- Personal thoughts below

TES is going to have to pray to the RNG gods to get some weak matchups considering 369 is grinding CN soloqueue and struggling against Emerald Zed players.

The bad part about failing a visa interview once is its like a stain on your record, it's virtually impossible to pass it on your 2nd or 3rd attempt even if you do everything correctly. I know people who managed to secure a visa first time just because they owned land and had money tied in the country, and other similar aged people who have failed the US interview process more than 2 times.

Last patch, I began to run into an issue with the Riot Client.

Whenever I click on the League client in my taskbar, it causes the Riot Client to open instead, playing an animation for several seconds before I can manually click on League. Additionally, the Riot client stays open in the background when I play league (with no option to close it), and if I close the Riot Client manually, it will reopen itself when I close the League Client.

There is no way to disable this, and no way around having the Riot Client push itself to the front of my desktop.

When I initially thought this was a bug, I googled for solutions. Instead of fixes, however, I found out that this was an intended feature Riot has implemented as of May. From the FAQ page:

Starting in 2026, Riot Client will always be shown when you launch a game on PC, even if you are logged in and your game is up to date.

If you launch a Riot game from a desktop shortcut, you'll now open that game's page in Riot Client first. From there, click Play to launch your game.

I was not encountering a bug, but had been chosen for the latest rollout in July, and thus ran into the interface I mistook for a client bug.

We're rolling this out to players over time.

If your games now launch through Riot Client, you're part of the latest rollout group. We'll continue monitoring launch performance, reliability, and player feedback as we complete the rollout across all Riot PC games.

In other words, there is no fix to the "bug", because this is intended design.

I am posting this information so that others who are chosen for a rollout are aware that their sudden shift in Client behavior was not a bug, but in fact intended design.

After Viego bot lane got some popularity recently, the strength of the pick came out of abusing a bug where you would get the boots of enemy ADC and then you could sell these boots, making a kill on enemy with T2 boots worth +800 gold, completely snowballing the game after a single kill

this was popularized recently by Dobby youtube video and a post here on the subreddit, anyways Drew Levin tweeted the following:

"couple of things 1. Viego bots boots issue got hotfixed today

2. we’re gonna go find all the people who bug abused Viego bot and temp ban them. tbd on whether we can do it in a way that refunds LP to enemy team but will talk with folks about it tomorrow.

don’t bug abuse thanks"

https://x.com/drewlevin/status/2084839301440037173

commendable effort by Riot for a swift response to this situation, well done.

Edit: According to lolalytics.com , there has been at minimum 11k games where Viego bot lane ended the game with no boots [even tier 1]

League Classic Key Art - https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1uu77xe/league_classic_keyart/

On Phreak's latest video about Classic, Phreak briefly mentions that after it ends, it's VERY likely he is still going to work on League of Legends, specifically, on the SR team again, not anything like modes, for example.

Does this comfort you or scare you?

SkinSpotlights just tweeted a bunch of classic models have returned on the PBE. Champs include:

* Old Alistar (Black, Golden, Matador skins)

* Old Annie (Goth and ??? Skins)

* Old Dr. Mundo (Toxic skin)

* Old Evelynn (Shadow skin)

* Old Ezreal (Nottingham and Frosted skins)

* Old Gangplank (Minuteman skin)

* Old Katarina (Mercenary skin)

* Old Kayle (Silver and Viridian skin)

* Old Nidalee (Maid skin)

* Old Nunu (Grungy skin)

* Old Pantheon (Myrmidon skin)

* Old Ryze (Tribal skin)

* Old Sion (Hextech skin)

* Old Soraka (Dryad skin)

* Old Taric (Armor of the Fifth Age skin)

* Old Tristana (Riot Girl and Buccaneer skins)

* Old Twisted Fate (Jack of Hearts skin)

* Old Warwick (Tundra Hunter skin)

* Old Ahri (Midnight skin)

This is amidst rumors from Doinb and Uzi talking about League classic, seems confirmed with this recent datamine.

Edit: Assets (but no models) suggest some additional champs are part of this mode including:

* Old Anivia

* Old Ashe

* Old Blitzcrank

* Old Brand

* Old Cho’Gath

* Old Corki

* Old Amumu

* Old Fiddlesticks

* Old Garen

* Old Gragas

* Old Heimerdinger

* Old Janna

* Old Jarvan IV

* Old Jax

* Old Karthus

* Old Kassadin

* Old Kog’Maw

* Old Lee Sin

* Old Leona (guess not much changed here)

* Old Lulu

* Old Lux

* Old Malphite

* Old Malzahar

* Old Master Yi

* Old Miss Fortune

* Old Wukong

* Old Morgana

* Old Nasus

* Old Olaf

* Old Rammus

* Old Shaco

* Old Singed

* Old Sivir

* Old Skarner

* Old Sona

* Old Teemo

* Old Tryndamere

* Old Vayne

* Old Veigar

* Old Zilean

TL;DR: Riot is acting on roaming supports, not mage bots themselves, the meta was already reverting on its own. ADC system pieces (Berserker's Greaves, Fleet Footwork) are getting buffed regardless. Season 3 is a stabilisation window before Worlds, no major changes coming. Riot explicitly likes swingy games for pro play viewing experience. LP inflation was intended. Carry tops and AP junglers are the two pro-meta fixes being explored before Worlds. And marksmen will still be the default botlane class in two years.

• On whether the data changed since his relaxed MSI read: "This is a constantly moving target. There was a sharp spike of people playing mage bot in the two to three weeks after MSI, and now teams that are losing to mage bot are a lot better at playing with and against the roaming support. There does seem to have been a swing back toward traditional AD carries bot."
• The real target of the patch: "Regardless of how mage bots play out, mage bot through the avenue of roaming supports is something we're not super happy with and would want to take action on."
• The reasons is ADCs aren't designed as 1v1 champions : "a lot of kits just stop functioning properly when they're played 1v1" and roaming supports create negative follow-on effects like constant mid ganks with minimal consequences.
• What Riot wants mage bot to look like instead: "Even double ranged botlane can be a pretty powerful strategy. That's more the way we want mage bot to manifest, rather than Ziggs holding down the fort 1v2 weak side, just wave-clearing while Pyke runs around the map making everyone sad."
• On ADC agency, he pushed back on the premise: "If you're the better ADC, you can navigate a jungle gank better, draw pressure to your lane and set up a counter-gank. If they get to their spike, particularly two or three items unobstructed, they can be very powerful." But he admits the role balance is off: "ADCs broadly are still more powerful than top lane, both in agency and pure power level."
• On top lane island: "You can get the enemy top laner down 0-2, but if botlane has exploded repeatedly by 10 minutes, it can be hard for a top laner to impact the game. That's a dynamic we're trying to balance better."
• Two pro-meta fixes being explored before Worlds: carry top champions ("Jax, or moving Camille from support back to top lane") and AP junglers, which ties into weak AD mids. "Even when teams play mage bot, they don't play it with an AD mid. It indicates AD mids as a whole are pretty weak."
• On LP inflation: "Broadly, it was intended." The goal was narrowing skill bands in divisions like Diamond. "We knew that would result in Masters having too many people, or LP values getting pretty high. In the future we can add more divisions and take a swing at the inflation."
• On the swingy state of the game, it's a deliberate choice for pro play: "One thing we don't like to see is a game that ends 7-2, a 29-minute game where they basically played laning phase and won one teamfight. Not a great viewing experience. We do like games being pretty swingy, it results in quick decision-making, makes games more exciting, and it's just a much better viewing experience."
• On season three: "We're not looking to make super major changes, we're looking to stabilise the meta." A direct response to 2025 feedback that there was too much change. "Going into 2026 we're re-evaluating how much change is enough."
• On the ageing player base: tracked closely, and new player onboarding is a priority. "New-player onboarding has been pretty painful in recent years. If we don't have new players, it's hard for the game to have longevity."

Rapid fire standouts:
- fight-heavy pace here to stay? Yes.
- Marksmen still the default botlane class in two years? Yes.
- Role quests here to stay? Maybe.
- Does the ageing player base worry you? Yes.
- Can a single patch redefine a pro meta? Yes.
- Broadly happy with the state of the game? Yes.

TLDR :

• Riot Games made ~$434M profit in a record year.
• Paid ~$603M in dividends to shareholders (mostly Tencent).
• Dividends exceeded profit, paid from cash reserves.
• Revenue boosted by big titles like League of Legends and Valorant.

record performance + major shareholder payout.

SkinSpotlights tweeted about one of the items added to League Classic, Shushei's Mana Jug

Cost: 2600 gold

Recipe: Fiendish Codex + Chalice of Harmony

Stats: 60 AP, 40 MR, 15 mana regen, 20% CDR

Passive - Rabble Rousing: Restore health and mana on kill or assist.

Passsive - Mana Font: Increase mana regen by 1% for every 1% missing mana

This replaces Athene's Unholy Grail to honor the late S1 world champion, Shushei known for his Gragas. Gone but not forgotten.

Some bittersweet news: Tomorrow will be my last day at Riot. I learned a lot, made lots of friends, and had an amazing experience for over 9 years, but it's time for something new.

I very much appreciate all the players and all my coworkers, and maybe I'll be back one day.

• https://x.com/NickFridgeDev/status/2095709094346911976

I have nothing but appreciation and admiration for Endstep's work, and I always lit up when he released a Q/A on Saturday. I hope the best for him in the future and look forward to whatever he may do next.

So in the most recent patch preview, Phreak announced that he was invited last year to make part of a project in Riot, so he will be out of his position in the balance team for quite a while + his patch preview videos will stop for now.

Together we remember Season 1 World Champion, MVP, and beloved player Maciej “Shushei” Ratuszniak. To honor his legacy, players can unlock the “Shushei Forever” title for free, and additionally, play 3 games as Gragas to unlock his Fnatic Gragas skin. Thank you Maciej.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/leagueoflegends/posts/pfbid02d7fEkQa9sDNfuWkWZnavvXQc8vEpRSMtc1uNFutrs7nzGoKf2nJUf7mrG6Hk4ENal

SkinSpotlights found some new client tooltip strings that indicate you will no longer be able to ban champions your teammates hover.

Riot Auberaun responded with:

We're going to be experimenting with this around 15.20 on a few servers and monitoring things like dodge & report rates + your feedback. Overall thinking is valuing agency to play a pick more than agency to ban absolutely anything.

When your first interaction with a new team is having an ally ban the champion you want to spend the next 30 minutes playing, that already starts things off on a really negative note.

We're thinking about dynamics of how new champ releases play out, what else is on your mind?