The 2022 preseason is passing by quickly, and League of Legends fans already have their eyes set on the coming year and the next season of ranked play. Season 12 promises tons of changes for players with new dragons, items, and more. When does Season 12’s ranked play start, and when can fans expect patches in 2022?
Season 12’s start date for ranked doesn’t have a specific day just yet, but fans can expect it to start about two weeks into January. Riot Games takes time after the new year to stabilize the game from its preseason state before opening the flood gates to League of Legends players trying to climb to that next ranked division.
Ranked itself is getting a few slight changes heading into 2022, as Riot previewed earlier this year. The rank reset in 2022 will be harder than 2021’s, with early season 11 being plagued by strange placements and inconsistent ranking climbs. Instead, players’ ranked information will be more fully reset to allow them to push the boundaries of their skill ceiling without the weight of previous rankings weighing them down.
Challenges will also add points of interest outside of ranked, rewarding players for completing specific missions and tackling accomplishments.
As veterans League of Legends players will be used to by now, patches generally come every two weeks, with some small gaps for holidays and international events on a few occasions over the course of the year. Patch 12.1 will kick off on January 5, 2022 followed by patch 12.2 on January 20. From here the schedule should remain consistent until a large gap in March between patches 12.5 and 12.6.
The full patch release schedule is available through Riot Games’ support site. The final patch of the 2022 will be in early December just like it was in 2021, with the possibility of a B-patch in the middle of the month should preseason changes require it.
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