Challenges are Coming to League of Legends with Patch 12.9

Ever since Riot changed the matchmaking Queue, and minimized and moved the role selection, the screen has been feeling extremely empty. The place was being prepared for the Challenges announced during the preseason, whose release date is now, finally set in stone.

The Challenges system is a new system in League of Legends that rewards you for all the impressive activities you participate in and out of the game, beyond the ranked system. People seem to forget that League of Legends is more than just winning and losing LP in the eternal ranked grind, and Challenges is the way Riot want to use to remind us all of that fact.

How Many Challenges Will League of Legends Have?

As it stands now, the Challenges system will try to cover everything under the sun, regarding everything done during a match. Do you want that sick pentakill immortalized in your profile, which, we hear can be done one-handed these days, or perhaps the clutch Baron steal? There will be Challenges commemorating just that, and much more, with more than 300 individual challenges, almost 2700 tokens, and over 100 titles up for grabs.

Here are some of the examples of Challenges Riot have provided:

• Pop Goes the Poro: Cause a Poro to explode in ARAM and earn the title “Poroyalty”
• Give ‘em Shell, Shelly: Take Turrets with Rift Herald (aka Shelly)
• Icon of the Rift: Obtain 100 Summoner Icons and you can become “Iconic”
• Stacks on Stacks on Stacks: Fully stack Mejai’s Soulstealer before 20 minutes
• Superior Supporting: Finish your support quest faster than the opponents
• Nashor Slayer: Kill Baron Nashor solo and you can be the “Baron”
• Aggressive Positioning: Get multikills after flashing toward an enemy and rock the “Flashy” title
• Solo Carry: Deal 40%+ of your team’s champion damage in an ARAM

What Changes Will Challenges Bring to League of Legends?

Aside from earning various rewards from the Challenges themselves, and giving players something to grind out, what practical changes can we expect to see in the game? Well. the changes influence everything aside from the matches themselves:

• Lobby
  • Some time ago Riot updated the Lobby to make room for the Challenges and their rewards. Now, while your Summoner Icon is still the centerpiece of your identity the Challenge Crystal has been added right below your Summoner Icon. Hovering over a player's Summoner Icon will display a tooltip showing current and past rank, Summoner Icon info, and detailed Challenges information including their rank for each of the five categories.
• Loading Screen
  • The loading screen now has player information displayed on three sides, instead of the previous two, with the new, third side, containing information on finishes Challenges and acquired titles.
• Post Game Lobby
  • Riot have split the Post Game Lobby into two screens. One for your personal progression and one for the game’s scoreboard. The Progression Page still displays all the things you’re used to, such as Ranked progress, Champion Mastery, and Summoner Level on the left, with the Honor, received in the lower right. The big change is the progression carousel, which shows you the challenges and Eternals you leveled up, brought close to leveling up, or had a standout performance on.

When Will Challenges Go Live?

As per Riot's own words, Challenges are set to ship worldwide on patch 12.9, just in time for MSI. The timing of the Challenges going live will likely match that of the Void event we are expecting will follow the release of the new Void jungler champion. To say that we are excited would be an understatement. After all, we're already sinking so much time into League of Legends, getting some shiny stuff in return can only be a bonus!