Everything we know about League of Legends Season 2023

Nicholas James Published 09/01/2023

Riot Games has released its annual preview video, showcasing many of the changes and upcoming additions to League of Legends for Season 2023. Here’s everything we know.

Every year, Riot Games takes the time to lay out a roadmap of all the updates, new champions, and changes being brought to Summoner’s Rift and beyond over the course of that year. The League of Legends developer has released its Season 2023 video in the LoL Pls series, and here are all of the brand-new and exciting things you can expect from this year in the world’s largest video game.

Season 2023 preseason changes

Riot Games recapped all of the changes being made to the overall League of Legends experience.

Firstly, Chemtech Drake has made its return after being removed in 2022. This new version of the dragon empowers the plants on Summoner’s Rift and gives champions increased Tenacity and damage the lower health they are once its Dragon Soul has been claimed.

At the same time, new pings were added to increase the diversity of communication that players could make, along with jungle changes to make League of Legends’ most different role more beginner-friendly.

https://youtu.be/X67xunE30Es

Ahri visual rework

Ahri’s visual rework has been announced for a while, and the Season 2023 video was many fans’ first look at the Vastaayan seductress’ new form. Overall, Ahri’s new appearance and VFX are very close to her previous iteration, just with more graphical fidelity, smoother animations, and increased visual cohesion between her skins.

Her new look for her base skin seems heavily inspired by her appearance in Airship Syndicate’s Riot Forge game Ruination, in which she is one of the main playable characters who set out on a quest to defeat Viego.

New skins and old classics return

Riot Games also took the chance to point out new skin lines that are on their way in 2023. Champions who haven’t gotten a skin in a long time like Aurelion Sol, Ivern, Kled, and Kalista were called out specifically as getting new skins. One will be a fairy-oriented bright and magical skin line for Kalista and Karma, the other is the return of the Cats vs Dogs skin line that brought Pug’Maw, Meowrick, and similar skins.

Three new champions announced

Riot Games briefly touched on the new Aurelion Sol rework, and if you’re looking for all the details, check out our article on his new kit. The next thing spotlighted by Riot Games was three new upcoming champions, two of which we’ve already briefly seen previewed.

The first champion of the year is Milio, an upbeat fire-wielding male Enchanter from Ixtal who is described as “bearing the hopes of his family on his back, as well as his trusty backpack.”

The second character is Naafiri, the previously announced Darkin assassin. This video doubles down on the idea of Naafiri having an unusual body, or bodies, that help her try and track down her Darkin siblings, with art showing many sets of red eyes peering out from the night on Shuriman sands.

This increases the likelihood that at least one of her forms will be canine-like, given the previous language used to describe her in the Preseason 2023 video from 2022. Naafiri will be a mid lane assassin focused on macro gameplay and game knowledge.

Finally, a “hangry” jungler and an “artistic” mid laner were previewed, with pieces of art depicting a gothic castle reminiscent of Castlevania, and tall tower in gold and charcoal inscribed on a scroll, respectively. That’s all the developer was willing to say about the new mid laner.

Skarner VGU

Skarner has an upcoming VGU, which will be remaking him from the ground up in both gameplay and appearance. Riot showed off a few possible forms for the crystalline scorpion, but fans are unlikely to see his actual appearance until much later into Season 2023.

Nicholas James

About Nicholas James

Nicholas James is a gaming writer with a passion for all things geekdom, as well as live theater. Nicholas is best known for covering League of Legends and other top MOBA titles, but his expertise covers numerous games across multiple genres. When not watching the LCS or playing the latest new release, Nicholas can be found doing some tabletop gaming and painting his favorite miniatures. Nicholas has also published with Hotspawn, TheGamer, Dexerto, Esports.gg and other industry outlets.

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