The 2022 Preseason is on the way for League of Legends, and with it comes some sweeping overhauls to existing systems, both in-game and out-of-game, as well as some new updates such as more meaningful progression rewards and similar expansions. Here's what players should expect in the near future.
Whereas the last two Preseasons of the popular MOBA game focused on reimagining classic base-game elements in League of Legends, this year will be doing things slightly different. Rather than focusing on revamping one particular area in a major way, significant changes will instead be brought to a variety of smaller areas, strengthening pre-existing systems and building upon them rather than starting from the ground up. That said, the level of work in LoL's 2022 Preseason will not be downscoped compared to previous years but merely spread out more significantly.
The first change to existing systems will be seen in League of Legends' Dragons, which were expanded upon significantly in "Rise of the Elements" during the 2020 Preseason. Largely, this year's focus will be on creating new terrain features in the dragon space, as well as examining how the game plays out following a map transformation. More updates regarding the dragon space will be coming later this year. In another effort to encourage unique games, objective bounties will also be overhauled in LoL to become more meaningful this year.
What Else League Of Legends Preseason 2022 Changes
Other existing systems that will be getting overhauled in the 2022 Preseason are items and runes, both of which will be reworked and adjusted to provide more support across a wider range. Items, in particular, will be receiving a larger expanse of options following the Mythic Forge update's changes to itemization. On top of these changes, though, new systems will also be introduced or otherwise updated during League of Legends' next Preseason. Challenges are one such addition, which will reward players for achieving particularly difficult or unique goals throughout their games.
The system is being designed to assess a broad spectrum of League of Legends fans and players, aiming to find a way to reward the largest player base possible. While Challenges are meant to be shipped with this year's preseason, it's possible that depending on player feedback they won't be fully implemented until early 2022. Progression Identity changes, as introduced earlier this year, will also be seeing quite an update in LoL's 2022 Preseason. While earlier updates added more customization options for players, this Preseason's changes will integrate it with the upcoming Challenges feature, introducing a series of identity changes that will more easily allow players to customize how others see them at a glance by showing off specific Challenge accomplishments or things like titles, tokens, and ranks.
An overall Challenge score will also be added and Ranked and Prestige levels will be seeing an update later on in the Preseason to better tie in with other gameplay systems. Overall, it seems as though this Preseason's changes will be adding something for all types of League of Legends fans to look forward to, something that will undoubtedly be seen as welcome following the somewhat underwhelming conclusion of this year's Sentinel event.