League Next, the long-awaited update to Riot’s flagship MOBA, now has an official name: League of Legends: New Dawn. It will bring a new (likely integrated) client, an overhaul to Summoner’s Rift, updated champion visuals and gameplay, and more. Here’s everything we know about the New Dawn update.
League of Legends: New Dawn release date
Riot hasn’t publicly announced when the massive update is going live. However, we do know that it won’t be the first Season of 2027.
This leaves Seasons Two and Three, which places League of Legends: New Dawn’s release date anywhere between April and August 2027. This section will be updated once Riot reveals more information about New Dawn’s release date.
What is League of Legends: New Dawn?
League of Legends: New Dawn, previously known as “League Next,” is a massive overhaul to the client and game. It was revealed during the Grand Final of Worlds 2026, and we expect it to release sometime around mid-2027.
Preliminary information sent by Riot Games to esports.gg tells us that New Dawn will be an overhaul of League as a product.
New Client
We are finally getting a new client after a decade. The last time the client got an update this big was in 2017.
While Riot did not reiterate it, preliminary information about League Next heavily suggests that the client will be integrated into the game, instead of being a different program. Think more modern games like VALORANT, Overwatch, Dota 2, and Deadlock, whose lobby and party screen are completely unified with the game executable itself.
Hopefully, this brings an end to the seemingly endless amount of bugs we’ve had with the League Client.
New Summoner’s Rift
The map is getting a visual refresh, modernizing the game’s textures and shaking up the geography again.
Of course, Riot couldn’t help themselves and changed the jungle again. This time, though, there’s new terrain and possibly new mechanics.
Most importantly, the Dragon pit is now located along the length of the river (as opposed to the side). This eliminates the differences between the Blue and Red sides when it comes to entering and gaining priority over the Dragon pit.
We don’t know yet if the Baron pit is getting a similar change, which would make it closer to the Roshan pit from Dota 2. Regardless, this is one of the biggest changes to the Epic Monsters we’ve ever seen, possibly having the same or more impact than the Elemental Dragons and Baron Nashor variants.
New Champion and entity visuals
From early sneak peeks provided to esports.gg by Riot Games, we can tell that champions are getting new in-game visuals and models. Some of the champions’ modernized looks seem to be taken from League of Legends: Wild Rift, but it’s unclear whether the new engine supports the direct copy-paste or whether each model had to be ported over.
In the first scenario, then perhaps we can expect some Wild Rift-exclusive skins (like the K/DA HEATBRINGER skinline) to make their way over to League of Legends once New Dawn goes live.
The following champions and entities are confirmed to get new models:
- Ashe
- Ahri
- Blitzcrank
- Irelia
- Kha’Zix
- Master Yi
- Morgana
- Dragon
- Minions
League of Legends: New Dawn, previously known as League Next, goes live in mid-2027.
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