The League of Legends 2023 Season updates have been announced by Riot Games, including new champions, skins, esports changes and more.
The event acts as the official beginning of the League of Legends Ranked and tournament season for both everyday and professional players, respectively, and also serves as a moment to update players on upcoming content for the year.
This new League of Legends 2023 Season Split 1 begins with the release of patch 13.1.
The League of Legends team in a video also discussed the Ahri ASU (Art and Sustainability Update), the Aurelion Sol CGU (Comprehensive Gameplay Update), the Mid-Year Ranked Reset, the 2023 Champion roadmap and more.
In addition, LoL Esports previously announced a new competitive event, Season Kickoff, to celebrate the start of Season 2023, which will begin on Tuesday January 10th 2023.
We’ve listed more detailed info on this, plus upcoming champions, skins and more for the League of Legends 2023 Season.
League of Legends 2023 Season Esports Kickoff Event
From January 10-11th, the LCS, LEC, LCK, LPL, LJL, CBLOL, LLA, PCS and VCS will host a special two-day broadcasted event previewing the 2023 season and highlighting the players to watch this year, giving fans a first look at Season 2023 on the Rift, and a peek at what’s in store for LoL Esports in 2023.
All pro teams in each of the nine leagues will send players to compete in the Kickoff event. It’s up to each region to determine how teams are drafted, so you might see different methods in the LCS versus the PCS. The games will be best-of-threes on Summoner’s Rift with no champion bans or repeats. Each of the pro teams represented on the winning team will be able to create an emote with Riot’s designers to be added into League of Legends.
The Kickoff event for the League of Legends 2023 Season will replace the League of Legends All-Star Event.
“While All-Stars has provided players and fans with countless special moments over the years, the current calendar can be challenging for many All-Star players,” Riot said.
“Replacing All-Stars with the Season Kickoff event provides a much-deserved break for pro players and an exciting new platform for fans that will supplement the end-of-year local competitions and celebrations that regions typically hold during this period.”
League of Legends 2023 Season Ranked Changes and Rewards
The ranked season has officially begun. Players can begin their ranked climb with the League of Legends 2023 Season Missions and earn a mix of rewards.
Starting this year, there will be two ranked splits in League of Legends for 2023, with a ranked reset in between, with rewards to match.
Riot says this is ‘an effort to bring League up to modern-day expectations and to address pain points around the stress of avoiding decay or demotion in the middle of the year’.
When split two of the ranked season starts, the reset will not be as heavy as the one in January given that the game won’t change dramatically enough to warrant making players re-earn their rank to the same extent. The Mid-Year Reset will also be even less significant if a player hasn’t played many games since January.
Players can now earn full ranked rewards each ranked split, including icons and emotes, ranked borders, and a ranked skin.
Ranked rewards are earned through obtaining Split Points by completing games. You earn 10 Split Points for a win, and six for a loss. You can see the rewards in the ranked tab in the game client.
There will be two skins for ranked this year, as well as some extra rewards for the climb in the League of Legends 2023 Season.
Players will no longer have to reach the Gold rank requirement to earn a ranked skin (aka a Victorious skin) and can instead earn it based on a rank-dependent number of ranked games played. Chromas for this skin will still be granted based on a player’s final rank at the end of the split.
Riot told Esports News UK in a press call that there will now be bronze and silver chromas for this year’s Victorious skin, but no Iron chroma as such. Iron’s will effectively be the base version of the Victorious skin.
The ranked skin for Split 1 is earnable by players of all ranks, but the amount of Split Points required varies by rank: 80 points for Gold and above and 1,600 points for Silver and below. In addition, once you earn the skin, it remains earned even if you were to demote. The skin will be distributed after the end of Season 2023 – Split 1.
Other ranked changes:
- Promotion Series have been reduced from a best of 5 to a best of 3
- The restriction on duoing in Ranked Solo/Duo with an MMR of Masters or above is disabled until patch 13.3. Duo restrictions based on visible rank are still active, so a player who reaches Master or above will not be able to duo
- Visible rank is no longer used as matchmaking criteria, only MMR
- Career stats have been reset for the new ranked season
Also, the LoL rewards for ranked Season 2023 Missions are as follows:
- Two Hextech chests and keys
- Six icons:
- Precision Icon
- Domination Icon
- Sorcery Icon
- Resolve Icon
- Inspiration Icon
- Rune Book Icon
- 3,000 Blue Essence
- Eight Champion shards:
- Yasuo
- Zed
- Sejuani
- Pantheon
- Wukong
- Aatrox
- Yorick
- Katarina
- Season 2023 Kickoff Icon and Season 2023 Icon
- Mark Maker Ward skin
Riot also said later this year League of Legends players will be able to select their language in the in-game settings.
Also, Chris Roberts, game loop product lead, said in a press call that losers queue does not exist in League of Legends.
“Losers queue does not exist, nor does winners queue,” Chris said. “If we do our job well, you’ll have a 50% chance of winning [in League of Legends overall]. Someone is going to have heads 20 times in a row, which means you will see [win and loss] streaks. We’re always working on improving match making. But there’s no hidden intentional levers being pulled in the background to [help you lose or win matches].”
LoL Champions in 2023 Including New Characters and Visual Updates
In 2023, players can expect new champions Milio, a male enchanter from Ixtal, and Naafiri, a female mid-lane Darkin assassin (teaser image above), who is said to have ‘a body, or bodies’.
Riot also confirmed ‘there will be a monster’ champion in the League of Legends 2023 Season, and spoke about a ‘hangry jungler’ and ‘artistic mid-laner’ looming in the distance too.
Riot says it wants to ‘making a more diverse champion pool that’s inclusive of all cultures, genders, and in-game skill levels for every role’.
“Players can also look forward to more mid-scope updates to freshen up older champions’ gameplay fantasies and to modernize the roster overall,” Riot added.
In terms of updates to existing champions, Ahri’s ASU is almost here, bringing updates to her base model, skins, VFX and splashes.
Aurelion Sol mains can also expect an updated ability kit for Aurelion Sol in his upcoming CGU. And there will be updates to Nidalee and Varus coming in 2023 too, plus a mid-scope update for Neeko which will change her passive, so that ‘instead of just turning into other champions, she’ll be able to turn into other things, like a plant or a jungle monster or a ward’.
Riot also showed off some Skarner concept art for that champion’s update as part of the League of Legends 2023 Season.
Lexi Gao, lead champion producer, said: “We’re focusing a bit more on smaller updates to the champion roster that’s been left in the dust. So, more mid scope updates for 2023.”
In terms of League of Legends lore changes, Riot’s executive producer Jeremy Lee said: “Arcane and League of Legends the game felt a little disconnected, so we’ve partnered with the entertainment and game side of Riot to make it more connected in terms of lore, so there aren’t any lore discrepencies between things. Stay tuned for more in the future.”
LoL Skins in 2023
In 2023, Kalista, Aurelion Sol, Ivern and Kled will be getting skins.
Skin thematics coming in 2023 include the new Faerie Court skinline and the fan-favourite Cats vs. Dogs skinline.
For the first event of the new year, Lunar Gods and Mythmakers descend upon the Rift. The following skins will be landing in patch 13.1 and 13.2:
- Lunar Empress Ashe
- Lunar Guardian Kha’Zix
- Lunar Empress Qiyana
- Lunar Guardian Malphite
- Lunar Emperor Thresh
- Mythmaker Galio
- Mythmaker Garen
- Mythmaker Irelia (Legendary)
- Mythmaker Sivir
- Mythmaker Zyra
- Prestige Mythmaker Sivir
- Prestige Porcelain Lissandra
Riot’s 2023 Social Impact Challenge
To celebrate all the changes coming to the jungle, League of Legends is holding a special social impact challenge for players around the world.
For every 100 Season 2023 in-game missions players complete by January 24th, Riot Games will contribute $1 to the Riot Games Social Impact Fund, a donor advised fund account sponsored by ImpactAssets, to support environmental conservation efforts, up to $1m total.
League of Legends 2023 Season Announcement Video from Riot
There’s also more on the full League of Legends 2023 Season in the video from Riot below:
The news comes after the LoL 2023 Pre-Season Announcement was first made back in August 2022, bringing jungle changes and more to the game.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
