Update to Summoner’s Rift headed to PBE

It’s nearly time to push a big update out to PBE and we want to provide context on what’s around the bend. As some of you have guessed, we've been working on an update to Summoner's Rift for a while now. This effort is a big part of our commitment to continually improve League of Legends. We’re focusing on preserving the spirit of Summoner’s Rift and evolving how the map communicates gameplay.

Given the importance of Summoner’s Rift to League of Legends, the fundamental structure of the map remains untouched. Flashable walls, turret ranges, lane sizes, brush interaction and ward placements are exactly as they are on the current map. The intention is to keep moment-to-moment League of Legends the same while improving gameplay through additional clarity.

What clarity translates to is the updated map doing a better job of drawing eyes to the most important information of the moment. When fights break out, the environment should be the background, allowing particle effects and champions to pop off the screen and feed players the crucial data they need to make the right play.

Beyond this, Summoner’s Rift should help players and spectators stay oriented. The western half of the map looks damaged by the emergence of Baron Nashor, while the eastern half feels ancient and overgrown. This, alongside each quadrant’s respective buff, gives every jungle section thoughtfully placed landmarks and subtle color cues. Speaking of the jungle, a cadre of new monsters made Summoner’s Rift home, sporting designs that more accurately reflect their respective gameplay characteristics. For example, the Krugs’ (double golem replacements) rocky exteriors look like the damage soaking mini-tanks they are--and they appear weaker than the hulking Blue Sentinel.

Once the update moves onto the PBE, we will begin sharing a series of features to give you insight into the development of the update. You can expect:

• Dev blogs written by artists, designers and producers on the team
• Live Q&A sessions with the developers
• PBE patch notes with the latest developments

The dev blogs will kick off soon, providing insight into the art and design of the update. We’re also creating a dedicated Community Beta environment for you to give us crucial feedback. On the technical side, new texture rendering tech requires a bit more RAM than the current map, but we’re working on optimizations to mitigate the impact. This update absolutely shouldn’t require you to upgrade your PC (or Mac) when it launches to live.

Even when this update ships to live we’ll continue to make updates. There’s always room for improvement and we’ll be looking to you for ideas.