Matchmaking, Seasons in 2025 & More | Dev Update - League of Legends

Summary

In the latest Dev Update, Riot Games discusses various topics including the future of game modes Arena and Swarm, with Arena returning next year and Swarm's potential future. Matchmaking improvements are highlighted, with a focus on autofill balance and testing of TrueSkill2. Teemo receives an art and audio update, with select skins' prices increasing. Worlds 2025 details are revealed, including the return of Pick'Ems and a new Global Power Rankings feature. League Player Days celebrates the community with themed days and special skins, with proceeds supporting the Social Impact Fund. Lastly, Season 2025 is teased with three thematic seasons, each featuring a new champion and gameplay updates.

Takeaways

• 📅 **Dev Update Date**: The update is from September 10th, covering topics up to that date.
• 🎮 **Modes Update**: Arena will not be made permanent but will return in the first half of next year with improvements. Swarm is also not permanent and its future is under consideration.
• 🔄 **Ultimate Spellbook**: It's coming back as the next rotating game mode, already on PBE and launching in the next patch.
• 🆕 **ARAM Update**: ARAM will receive some attention before the end of the year, though specifics are not detailed yet.
• 🎲 **Matchmaking Improvements**: Negative LP states have been resolved, and autofill balance has improved significantly.
• 👾 **Teemo Update**: Teemo is getting an art and audio update in patch 14.20, with no gameplay changes. Certain skins will increase in cost due to quality improvements.
• 🎶 **Worlds 2025**: The tournament starts on September 25th in Berlin, with various stages in different cities, and new features like Global Power Rankings.
• 🎉 **League Player Days**: A celebration of players' journeys, with themed days, missions for in-game content, and special skins.
• 💰 **Social Impact Fund**: Proceeds from the purchase of certain skins during Player Days will go to the Riot Games Social Impact Fund, with a 3x match from Riot.
• 🌟 **Season 2025**: League Seasons will have three distinct thematic seasons each with a new champion and gameplay updates, aiming to enhance the end-game experience.

Q & A

What is the current status of Arena as a game mode?

Arena will not be made permanent. Although it was popular, there was a significant drop-off in engagement after two months. It is planned to return in the first half of the next year with quality of life improvements and new augments.

What was the initial intention for Swarm as a game mode?

Swarm was never intended to be a permanent game mode. Despite surpassing Star Guardian and Odyssey in player engagement, there is no current decision on its return.

What is the next Rotating Game Mode after Swarm?

The next Rotating Game Mode is Ultimate Spellbook, which is already on PBE and will be released in the next patch.

What is being planned for ARAM by the end of the year?

While ARAM hasn't received much focus this year, the Modes team is cooking up something fresh for it by the end of the year.

What matchmaking issues have been addressed this year?

The issue of accounts entering negative LP states has been resolved, and significant improvements have been made to autofill balance, reducing games with a discrepancy of 2 or more autofill players to less than 0.1%.

What is the plan for improving matchmaking further?

The team will work on situations where one team has an autofilled player and the other doesn’t, especially in high MMR where the impact is greater. They are also evaluating the TrueSkill2 system for better new account placement and smurf detection.

What is included in Teemo’s art and audio update?

The update in patch 14.20 includes updated visuals, audio, animations, and splash art for Teemo. The cost of his Happy Elf, Recon, and Badger skins will increase to 750 RP due to the increased quality.

How can players get Teemo’s updated skins at a cheaper price before the update goes live?

Players can purchase Teemo’s Happy Elf, Recon, and Badger skins for 520 RP until the update goes live.

When and where is Worlds 2025 taking place?

Worlds 2025 starts on September 25 with Play-Ins in Berlin, followed by Quarterfinals and Semifinals in Paris, and the Finals in London.

What new features are being introduced for Worlds 2025?

Worlds 2025 brings back Pick’Ems and introduces 'Global Power Rankings' to help fans get up to speed on teams and regions.

What is the significance of League Player Days?

League Player Days is a celebration of players' journeys over the last 15 years, with themed days focusing on creativity, music, and esports, featuring stories, missions, and special skins.

How will League Seasons evolve in 2025?

In 2025, League Seasons will have three distinct thematic seasons, each with its own narrative, progression, and content updates, including a new champion and gameplay updates.

Outlines

00:00

🎮 Game Mode Updates and Matchmaking Discussion

In the first paragraph, Andrei and Paul introduce the Dev Update for September 10th, touching on a variety of topics including matchmaking, Teemo’s art and audio update, LoL Player Days, Worlds, and a sneak peek at Season 2025. Eduardo from the Modes team provides an update on game modes, stating that Arena will not become permanent but will return in the first half of next year with improvements. Swarm, initially not intended to be permanent, showed high engagement and may influence future game modes. Ultimate Spellbook is set to return as the next Rotating Game Mode. ARAM enthusiasts can expect something new by year-end. Riot Phroxzon discusses matchmaking, mentioning the resolution of negative LP states and ongoing work to balance autofill players. They also mention an evaluation of TrueSkill2 to improve new account placement and smurf detection.

05:02

🎶 Teemo's Update, Worlds, and Player Days Celebration

The second paragraph discusses Teemo’s art and audio update coming in patch 14.20, which includes visual, audio, and animation updates, but no gameplay changes. The cost of certain Teemo skins will increase due to the update, but they can be purchased at a discount before the update goes live. Worlds 2025 is also highlighted, with the event starting in Berlin and moving to Paris and London. A new feature, Global Power Rankings, is introduced alongside the return of Pick’Ems. The Worlds Anthem by Linkin Park is set to release. League Player Days, a celebration of the community's journey, is detailed with themed days focusing on creativity, music, and esports. Special missions will offer in-game content, including a unique Sivir skin. Additionally, three Player Days skins will be available, with proceeds supporting the Riot Games Social Impact Fund. The paragraph concludes with a mention of a Dev Q&A stream and a look forward to plans for 2025, which will include three distinct thematic seasons with new champions and gameplay updates.

Keywords

💡Dev Update

A 'Dev Update' refers to a developer's update or announcement about a game, typically discussing new features, improvements, and future plans. In the context of the video, it is the main theme as the speakers, Andrei and Paul, are discussing updates and changes to the game League of Legends.

💡Matchmaking

Matchmaking in gaming refers to the process of pairing players with others of similar skill levels for competitive play. The script mentions that the developers are working on improving the matchmaking system, including addressing issues with negative LP states and autofill discrepancies.

💡Teemo’s art and audio update

This refers to a specific update to the game character Teemo, which includes improvements to his visual design, audio effects, and animations. The update aims to enhance the player's experience without altering the gameplay mechanics.

💡LoL Player Days

LoL Player Days is a celebration of the League of Legends community, acknowledging the players' contributions and journeys over the years. The event includes themed days and activities that allow players to engage with the game and its community in various ways.

💡Worlds

Worlds refers to the League of Legends World Championship, an annual esports tournament that gathers the best teams from around the world to compete for the title. The script discusses the schedule and features of the upcoming Worlds event.

💡TrueSkill2

TrueSkill2 is a matchmaking system that the developers are evaluating for potential implementation in League of Legends. It is mentioned as a system that could improve new account placement and smurf detection.

💡ARAM

ARAM stands for All Random All Mid, a game mode in League of Legends where all players are given random champions and play on a single-lane map. The script hints at upcoming updates for this mode.

💡Rotating Game Mode

A rotating game mode refers to a temporary game mode that is periodically introduced and then replaced with another mode to keep the gameplay experience fresh. The script mentions Ultimate Spellbook as the next rotating game mode.

💡Global Power Rankings

Global Power Rankings is a new feature introduced for the Worlds event, which ranks teams and regions based on their performance. It serves as a tool for fans to understand the competitive landscape and compare teams.

💡Pick’Ems

Pick’Ems is a prediction feature for the Worlds event, allowing fans to predict the outcomes of matches and compete against others for prizes. It adds an interactive element to the viewing experience.

💡Season 2025

Season 2025 refers to the upcoming year of League of Legends, which will bring new content, champions, and gameplay updates. The script discusses the developers' plans to evolve the approach to seasons, making each one feel distinct with its own narrative and content.

Highlights

Dev Update for September 10th covering topics like matchmaking, Teemo’s art and audio update, LoL Player Days, Worlds, and Season 2025.

Modes team update with Arena and Swarm returning, but not as permanent modes.

Arena will return in the first half of next year with quality of life improvements.

Swarm surpassed Star Guardian and Odyssey in player engagement.

Ultimate Spellbook will be the next Rotating Game Mode.

ARAM will receive attention before the end of the year.

Matchmaking update addressing negative LP states and autofill issues.

Autofill discrepancy effectively eliminated in games.

Evaluation of TrueSkill2 system for better new account placement and smurf detection.

Teemo’s art and audio update coming in patch 14.20.

Cost increase for Teemo’s Happy Elf, Recon, and Badger skins post-update.

Teemo receiving a theme song to be released next week.

Worlds 2025 starting in Berlin with Play-Ins, followed by Paris and London.

Introduction of Global Power Rankings feature for Worlds.

Worlds Anthem by Linkin Park to be released.

League Player Days celebrating 15 years of League journeys.

Player Days skins available for purchase with proceeds going to the Riot Games Social Impact Fund.

Three thematic seasons planned for 2025 with distinct narratives and content updates.

Each season in 2025 will include a new champion and gameplay updates.

Plans to address the 'doomed' feeling in games with an exposed Nexus.

Transcripts

Hey, folks.

I'm Andrei, also known as Meddler.

And I’m Paul, also known as Pabro.

We're back with another Dev Update today.

It's September 10th, so everything after today won't be covered.

We've got a wide range of topics to cover today, including matchmaking,

Teemo’s art and audio update,

LoL Player Days, a bit on Worlds, and a quick look at Season 2025.

But first, let's hear from the Modes team.

Hey everyone,

Eduardo “Riot Cadmus” Cortejoso

here to give you an update on Modes.

It's been a big year for us.

Not only did Arena make its return for round 3, but we also launched Swarm.

These modes have been such a joy for all of us to work on,

and so on behalf of the entire Modes team, thank you all for playing.

Now let's get into the future of Arena and Swarm.

I'll start with the question everyone's been asking:

“Are you going to make Arena permanent?”

The short answer is no.

While Arena has been getting a lot of love from many of you,

once we hit the two-month mark we saw a pretty big drop-off in game hours

and engagement.

Unfortunately, even our mid-run content update

didn't quite inspire a lot of players to come back.

But don't worry, Arena won't be gone forever.

We're planning on bringing it back in the first half of next year

with some much needed quality of life improvements

and even some more wacky augments for you to play around with.

Now for Swarm.

So from the beginning Swarm was never intended to be a permanent game mode,

and that's still the case right now.

I know a lot of us, myself included,

look back fondly on both Star Guardian and Odyssey, but Swarm

actually surpassed both of these modes in terms of player engagement.

And while we don't have a decision on if or when Swarm will be back

just yet, given how much you all played we're taking some of the learnings

into consideration for future game modes and even the potential return of Swarm.

I also wanted to let you know

that Ultimate Spellbook will be returning as our next Rotating Game Mode.

It's already on PBE right now and will be going out next patch.

And before I go, I wanted to talk a little bit about ARAM.

We know ARAM

hasn't gotten much focus this year outside of regular balance updates.

But don't worry ARAM enjoyers, we’ve got something cooking for you

that will be oven-fresh before the end of the year.

That's it for the Modes team for now.

Make sure to check out the dev blog that comes out with this video

for more information on both Swarm and Arena.

And we'll be back in January to walk you through some of our plans in 2025.

Hey, everyone, I’m Riot Phroxzon

I'm here to talk to you about matchmaking.

Today we wanted to take a moment to look at

how some of the changes we introduced this season have landed

and to share the areas we're looking to tackle next.

Earlier this year

we had an issue causing some accounts to enter negative LP states.

This meant players would lose more LP per loss than they gained per

win, even if their MMR indicated they should be climbing.

As of today, we no longer see this problem,

Another problem we've been working on is autofilling.

We don't want games to be decided by which team has fewer autofilled players,

so we shipped some changes

in 14.17 to better balance the amount of filled players on each team.

At the time of recording, we've noticed some pretty good improvements,

with the amount of games with an autofill discrepancy of 2 or more players

dropping from 10-15% to less than 0.1%.

As of today,

games with 2:0 or 3:1 autofilled players have been effectively

eliminated!

This is a good first step, but we want to do more work in this area.

Next up, we'll be working on situations where one team has

an autofilled player and the other doesn’t,

with a focus on high MMR

where this problem is especially impactful because of the small player populations.

We've also got an evaluation underway on a system called TrueSkill2.

That could potentially help out meaningfully with things

like better placing new accounts and detection of smurfs.

As of now, we're actively testing its effectiveness

and determining how good a fit it is for League.

We'll let you all know once we have an update on what testing has shown.

And that's it for me today.

Make sure to check out the dev blog that just came out with a lot more details

on how our 2024 changes landed, and where we're looking to focus our efforts going forward.

All right, a slight change of pace.

Let's talk about Teemo’s art and audio update.

It's coming to the Rift in patch 14.20

with updated visuals, audio animations, and splash art.

Gameplay won't be changing,

so for those of you who love or hate Teemo, you're welcome

and/or we're sorry maybe.

When this update comes out we'll be increasing the cost of his

Happy Elf, Recon, and Badger skins to 750 RP given the increased quality on those skins.

As with Lee Sin’s update earlier in the year, if you don't own these skins yet

you can purchase them for 520 RP

until it goes live if you want to get them at that cheaper price.

if you'd like to learn more, check out our blog that's live today

that goes into a whole bunch of details

about our favorite little monster and making him look brand new.

Also, Teemo is receiving a theme song which will go live next week.

Here's a sneak peek.

Switching topics. we’ve got Worlds 2025 kicking off in 3 days on Sept. 25 with Play-Ins in Berlin.

After Berlin, it’s then Paris for both Quarterfinals and Semifinals, followed by London for the Finals.

This year we’ve brought back Pick’Ems, along with a new feature we’re calling “Global Power Rankings.”

That we think should be good if you want to get up to speed on teams or regions

that you’re less familiar with. Or maybe you just want to argue with our rankings

about how your favorite teams stack up against their competition globally.

We just dropped a dev blog that explains Global Power Rankings in more detail

We just dropped a dev blog that explains Global Power Rankings in more detail

so go check it out if you want to learn more.

And finally, the Worlds Anthem will drop tomorrow, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for that.

In case you missed it, this year’s Worlds artist is Linkin Park

Along with Worlds in October, we'll also be celebrating

League Player Days, a celebration of your League journeys

over the last 15 years.

Player days will be three themed days that celebrate players

of all kinds, from casual enjoyers to hardcore Ranked climbers.

The celebration will kick off with Creative Day with a focus

especially on artists, then Music Day to celebrate our true calling,

being a music company

and finally Esports Day to highlight the ultimate competition in League.

On each day, we'll share stories from players around the globe about what

League means to them.

There'll also be some missions you can complete for earnable in-game content,

including a very special Ann-Sivir-sary Sivir Skin.

Nailed it!

There will also be 3 Player Days skins available

for purchase with proceeds going towards the Riot Games Social Impact Fund:

These will be Cosplayer Neeko,

Esports Fan Trundle,

and finally, the skin

you've all been waiting decades for,

celebrating love for the music of K/DA, the one,

the only

Gragas

For every purchase of these 3 Player Day Skins from October 9th

to October 28th, 2024, Riot will contribute 100% of proceeds

as well as a 3x match to the Riot Games Social Impact Fund.

The festivities kick off on October 9th, which will also have a Dev Q&A

stream at 2pm

Pacific Time.

Join to have some fun with League devs,

hear some stories from the old days,

celebrate all of you, and just hang out.

But we want to be clear there won't be any big announcements

or new games, so please stop by and say “hi.”,

chat about League, and meme with us or on us.

While Player Days is all about

celebrating your League journeys over the past 15 years,

we also want to talk a bit about our plans for next year.

Starting in 2025 we’re evolving our approach with League Seasons.

Throughout the year, we'll have three distinct thematic seasons, each

bringing its own narrative, progression, and content updates.

Our goal is for each season to feel distinct,

with different experiences, themes, moments, etc.,

highlighted.

So that means in 2025, each season will include a new champion

that’s a core part of that season's thematic,

with some connection to champions from other seasons as well.

Each season will also have gameplay updates too

of course. One thing we'll be tackling for the first season next year

is how a game can feel doomed once you have an exposed Nexus,

and quite often, people lose motivation to continue to fight.

So we're exploring options on how to solve this experience, and hope

to bring a more competitive feel right to the very end of the game.

Now we'll look at some larger scope changes as well, of course,

but we're going to be saving those for a little bit.

We know we didn’t get into too much detail on gameplay today,

we'll have a lot more on our January plans in a dev update

in November, a few days after the finale of Arcane.

All right, so that's it for now.

Don't forget to finalize your Pick’Ems, tune into Worlds, read the dev blogs,

and join us for Player Days.

As always, thank you for watching and we'll see you on the Rift.

See ya. Bye.