League of Legends ARAM Mayhem is here to stay, as Riot reveals the Shyvana rework, a city-building minigame, and new anti-griefing tools

Riot has just dropped the full details for League of Legends 2026 Season One upon us, and there’s plenty to be excited for. The new ‘For Demacia’ update is here, and alongside the much-anticipated Shyvana rework, there’s confirmation that ARAM Mayhem will be extended for at least a while longer, and a look at exactly what we’ll be doing in the Demacia Rising event. If Riot is able to deliver on everything it’s been teasing, then 2026 is shaping up to be a pretty transformative year for the long-running MOBA.

We were already treated to the new cinematic for League of Legends 2026 Season One, ‘Salvation,’ which introduced the new-look Shyvana in stunning style. We’ll be waiting a little longer for her, as she’ll be arriving with Act 2. As a long-time fan of champs with unique transformations, I’m very pleased to see Shyvana’s visual overhaul. Along with the redesign, you can expect a minor gameplay rework, which studio head Andrei ‘Meddler’ van Roon compares to those for Dr. Mundo and Volibear.

“We really wanted to focus on connecting her two forms better throughout her kit,” executive producer Paul ‘Pabro’ Bellezza explains. This can be seen most clearly in her ult – Shyvana gains Fury when using abilities and when taking down champions, cannons, and monsters, and can use it “to transform into an actual dragon this time” (as opposed to her comparatively underwhelming look of old) as she breathes a line of fire down on everyone below her.

Her passive works fairly similarly to her old form, too, with Shyvana now earning defensive stats and max Fury as she defeats champions, cannons, and neutral monsters. “We wanted to preserve her ability to be played both as a bruiser or as a mage,” Meddler remarks. “That said, in terms of her core champion theme we want her bruiser build to be the primary choice.” We’ll have to wait until the full Act 2 reveal to see the rest of her changes, however.

Demacia Rising is a new, season-long metagame that’s planned to evolve as the weeks progress. It puts you in the shoes of a young Lux as she’s taught by her aunt, Tianna. The result plays out as a simple city-building game, with you gathering resources, building structures, completing research, and recruiting heroes to help you defend the kingdom in autobattling combat as it grows from a small settlement into a flourishing kingdom.

But what about the game itself? As Riot previously discussed, you’re going to be getting into the action faster at the start of matches, and there’s been a push to cut down on “objective overload.” That means no more Atakhan or his blood roses, and Feats of Strength are likewise gone, while Baron and dragons will be stronger to compensate. All three lanes will now have specific role quests in addition to those for jungle and support, which grant rewards upon completion.

There’s also some fantastic news for anyone who’s been enjoying ARAM Mayhem, which has continued to prove popular. “Tons of you have been playing it, and you’ve been telling us a lot about how much fun you’re having with all the wacky augments,” Pabro says. It’s therefore going to be sticking around “for a while longer,” with a larger update planned for the mode that we’ll see in patch 26.3 – more on that closer to the date.

Riot has one more experimental change that it’s trialing “in some regions” from the start of this season. This is dubbed ‘Lobby Hostage Intervention,’ and attempts to tackle some of the biggest bad actors. It’ll allow lobbies to be terminated if it’s deemed there’s a troublemaker that’s threatening to ruin the match.

The exact specifics of how this works is being kept under wraps, but Meddler notes that it includes text intention and players picking bad spells on champions they never play. “If somebody says, ‘I’m going to run it down,’ we’re actually going to trust them on that one.” A terminated lobby will return you to the queue in a similar fashion to when someone dodges.

“If you enjoy playing viable off-meta picks, don’t worry about it,” Pabro adds, “we still want experimentation to thrive in League, so we’ll be closely monitoring how this system works with manual reviews. Alongside this new intervention trick, Riot has also made further changes to counteract griefing, including removing the ability to ban a champion that’s being hovered by an ally, and the autofill status now persisting through dodging.

The dev update ends with a replay of the pair’s discussion about the bigger League of Legends changes that are planned for its longer-term future. If you’re curious about those, be sure to read through Lauren’s thoughts on why they sound enough like a sequel to have us excited, even if Riot won’t actually dub it League of Legends 2.

League of Legends Season One 2026 is live now along with LoL patch 26.1. If you’ve been out of the action for a while, it’s sounding like the new season is a good time to test the waters again – just remember to be nice to your teammates; it’s rough out there for us all.