Riot Games secure former World of Warcraft Lead Producer for League of Legends MMO project

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 20/01/2026

Former World of Warcraft Lead Producer, Raymond Bartos, has joined Riot Games to work on the upcoming League of Legends MMO.

First revealed in 2020, the announcement is the first significant piece of news regarding the MMO in some time, reassuring fans that the game is still in development.

Riot continue work on League of Legends MMO behind the scenes

If you had not heard of the League of Legends MMO, you’d be forgiven. The game was first revealed, not by a huge cinematic trailer, but by a tweet in 2020.

Then VP of Riot Games, Greg Street, shared the following message on then Twitter, “My recent job at Riot has been to help develop the League universe, which we’re going to need! Because it is time. My new job is to kick off a big (some might say massive) game that many of you, and many Rioters, have been asking us to create.”

As if the implication of massive was not enough, he later shared, “It’s an MMO.” Since then, little information regarding the title has been released.

The silence was interrupted in 2024, as cofounder and CPO Marc ‘Tryndamere’ Merrill tweeted that the game has undergone a significant reset.

Merill explained his decision, “The initial vision just wasn’t different enough from what you can play today. We don’t believe you all want an MMO that you’ve played before with a Runeterra coat of paint.”

That announcement saw Fabrice Condominas take over as Executive Producer for the project. More silence followed…

That more or less takes us up to today’s news, which sees Bartos join as Senior Game Producer on the LoL-themed title.

Bartos reunites with his fellow WoW-head, Orlando Salvatore, who had been Lead Software Engineer at Blizzard.

Bartos provided the following statement on LinkedIn regarding his new role:

Dear Internet,

I’m incredibly excited to be joining Riot on the MMO team!!!

From my very first conversation with Riot, I immediately gravitated toward their values—and I was genuinely impressed by how clearly those values showed up throughout the interview process. It made it obvious that kindness, respect, and care aren’t just words here, but something the team truly lives by.

I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to join such an inspiring group of people, and I can’t wait to get started—showing up every day to provide value for Riot gamers and help deliver an MMO experience players truly enjoy.

And as a fun bonus, I’ve been barely able to contain: I’ll be re-queuing with my long-time duo partner, Orlando Salvatore. Given our track record on World of Warcraft, I have a feeling we’ll be moving fast on day one.

When is the League of Legends MMO coming out?

Considering the 2024 developmental reset, we shouldn’t expect any announcement soon.

The game is still likely many years away, in part due to the scope of making an MMO in 2026 and partially due to the self-imposed standards Riot Games are putting themselves under.

Innovating in the MMO space has not proved an easy task for those challenging World of Warcraft, or even for Blizzard itself.

So let’s give Bartos and his new colleagues some time to cook.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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