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When was the League of Legends Season 15 release date? League of Legends has a legacy like no other, and as we enjoy the first phase of Season 15, or 2025 Season 1 as it’s now referred to, there are tons of changes to break down.
Whether you’re a die-hard League of Legends fan or have a passing fancy for MOBAs, a new season always brings something to be excited for, whether you’re poring over the best LoL champions for beginners, or are a seasoned pro. Season 15 is no different. With Summoner’s Rift getting new seasonal gameplay thematics, Baron taking a backseat to a new epic monster, and major ranked changes coming in, there is plenty to get your teeth into this season.
League of Legends Season 15 release date
League of Legends Season 15 launched at 12pm PST / 3pm EST / 8pm GMT on Thursday, January 9, 2025. The release date and time were confirmed with the 2025 Season 1 cinematic, Welcome to Noxus.
League studio head Andrei ‘Meddler’ van Roon previously hinted at the launch window, noting that the next we’d hear from Riot would be “in January, at the start of the season” during the Season 1 reveal video. This isn’t surprising, though, considering League seasons traditionally start at the beginning of January.
Season 14 began on Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024, while Season 13 before it began on Wednesday, Jan 11, 2023. As such, this January 9 launch date is well in keeping with the standard cadence.
New League of Legends seasons explained
Riot is going a little bit ‘Inception’ with its naming conventions in 2025, as Season 15 plays host to three separate mini-seasons – split into two acts – that each focus thematically on a specific Runeterran region. Each season brings with it a new champion from the spotlighted region, as well as updates to existing champions hailing from it.
Season 1 is being dedicated to Noxus, which shouldn’t come as a surprise if you’ve watched season two of Arcane. To make things feel suitably dark and imperious, the Hextech-themed turrets and inhibitors we’ve come to know and love are being replaced by robust metal contraptions doused in blacks and reds. Even Boris the shopkeeper has been replaced by his Noxian cousin, Noris (we don’t actually know what his name is, but it works).
The seasonal theme is also reflected visually in the client, which has had a broader makeover to streamline the user experience and make it easier to track story, event, and battle pass progression. Riot says that current seasonal events like Lunar Revel and April Fools will still run as usual.
It should also be noted that patches are no longer referred to in season/patch format (14.23, for example), but year/season/patch. The first patch of 2025 Season 1 is denoted as 25.S1.1, the first patch of Season 2 25.S2.1 etc.
LoL Season 15 gameplay changes
Feats of Strength
League’s gameplay for Season 15 Season 1 is also taking its cues from the war-loving nation of Noxus, removing the existing first blood and first tower gold bonuses in favor of a new system called Feats of Strength. Now, if your team gets two of either first blood, first tower, or first epic jungle monster (drake, herald, void grubbies), you’ll be granted access to new boot upgrades.
Initially, your tier-two boots automatically gain a small stat boost (regardless of whether you have them already or buy them later). Then, once you’ve finished two legendary items, you can further upgrade your boots to tier three. The upgrade isn’t nearly as impactful as Zephyr – think of them more as the old boot enchantments (iykyk).
Here’s the example Riot offers with Plated Steelcaps:
- Tier two boot bonus: +5 Armor
- Tier three boot upgrade: Costs 750 gold, grants +5 Armor, +5 Movement Speed, and a unique passive that grants 10% max health physical shield for five seconds after taking physical damage from a champion (ten-second cooldown).
Cass mains, don’t worry, you’ll also be able to access upgrades despite your lack of bootable feet.
By the looks of things, the system provides smaller, smoother power spikes to feat completionists throughout the game. It’s too early to judge, but early feedback seems to indicate these are slightly overtuned. League is an objective-based game, so if anything it’s a polite reminder to play for neutrals.
New epic monster, Atakhan
Season 14 saw the introduction of Void Grubs, and now in Season 15 we’ve gotten a brand new epic monster – Atakhan, Bringer of Ruin. Legends of Runeterra players will already be well-acquainted with the demonic character, who has taken Baron’s minute 20 respawn spot, pushing the big purple worm back to minute 25.
Atakhan spawns either in the top or bottom river, depending on how much action (damage and kills) the game’s seen up until the 14-minute mark when his pit will spawn. To really make things spicy, Atakhan has two different forms – Ruinous and Voracious – that have different abilities and rewards. Ruinous Atakhan spawns in high-action games (top river), while Voracious spawns in low-action games (bottom river).
Alongside Atakhan, Riot’s introduced Blood Roses. These are a new plant type that grants your entire team a small amount of XP and a permanent stacking Adaptive Force buff. These spawn in areas where champions have died, around Atakhan’s pit, and are awarded for killing Ruinous Atakhan. Here are the differences between the two Atakhan forms:
Ruinous Atakhan
- Wide AoE spinning attack (fight him up close).
- Permanently increases effects from epic monster rewards when slain.
- Spawns Blood Roses when slain.
Voracious Atakhan
- Deals less damage than Ruinous Atakhan.
- Gains an increasingly powerful drain ability based on missing health.
- Grants a one-time, team-wide Guardian Angel-style revive when slain.
It’s too early to tell just how impactful Atakhan’s buffs will be, but having the Voracious GA up for Baron sounds incredibly potent. The old Chemtech Drake soul gave us more than enough insight into the power of a team-wide revive, though this looks to be a far more muted iteration.
Nexus turrets respawn
Nexus turrets now respawn with full health after a set amount of time in the same way inhibitors do. This change has the potential to be incredibly significant not only because it reduces the likelihood of a backdoor, meaning you can eventually leave your base, but it also means you can still have a crack at contesting major objectives even when you’re on the verge of losing the game.
Rune changes
In Season 15 Riot’s removed Nullifying Orb (Sorcery), Eyeball Collector, Zombie Ward, and Ghost Poro (Domination). In their stead, the devs have introduced Axiom Arcanist, Deep Ward, Sixth Sense, and Grisly Mementos respectively. Here’s what they do:
- Axiom Arcanist: Buffs ultimate ability’s damage, healing, or shielding, and refunds some ult cooldown on takedown.
- Deep Ward: Makes Stealth Wards that you place in the enemy jungle Deep, granting them bonus HP and duration. From level 11, Stealth Wards you place in the river will also be considered Deep, granting the bonuses.
- Sixth Sense: Automatically tracks a nearby enemy ward you can’t already see/track (300s cooldown for melee, 360s for ranged). From level 11, this rune will not only track the enemy ward, but it will also reveal it for ten seconds.
- Grisly Mementos: Grants an infinitely stacking five Trinket Ability Haste upon takedowns. In modes that don’t use Trinkets (ARAM, etc.) the rune grants three Ultimate Ability Haste instead.
Teleport change
Teleport’s a bit of a problem child when it comes to being able to balance it effectively, so Riot’s implemented a new lever to make it less nightmarish. Rather than blinking you to a location after channeling, Teleport now makes you visually travel across the map.
With this change, normal Teleport moves you considerably slower than Unleashed Teleport. Because of this long travel time, Riot’s reintroduced the ability to target wards and minions before TP becomes unleashed. Bot lane fiestas are (sort of) back on the menu, folks.
Multiplayer Practice Tool
During the Season 1 reveal video, Meddler and LoL executive producer Paul Bellezza revealed that Riot’s experimenting with a multiplayer update to the Practice Tool. There are no guarantees that it’ll be bug-free in time for January’s season start, but the devs promise to keep us in the loop. Soon, you and your team will be able to practice those tricky combos and build synergy without having to sprint it down a flex game.
LoL Season 15 ranked changes
We weren’t massive fans of Season 14’s three-ranked-split system. Game quality was consistently inconsistent, and the grind back to the previous split’s rank seldom felt rewarding. It was also incredibly time-consuming, so you were out of luck if you lacked the free time to queue every split.
The good news is Riot recognized three splits aren’t it, and has reverted to a single ranked reset per year at the start of the season. Oh, and there are still three Victorious skins to collect – these are now be tied to the three mini-seasons. To get each season’s Victorious skin all you need to do is win 15 ranked games.
LoL Season 15 loot changes
Perhaps the most controversial change that came to League in 2025 is the introduction of a new permanent battle pass system that sees the removal of earnable Hextech and Masterwork chests as well as Event Passes.
The new permanent pass refreshes every act, which equates to every four patches – that’s six pass refreshes per year. Passes last twice as long as current Event Passes, giving you a more leisurely time completing it as the rate of progression remains the same, but you have longer to get through it.
The new pass has both a free and premium reward track, bringing Riot’s reward offering in line with pretty much every other live service game out there. Each pass refresh has 50 levels in total. Pass rewards include skins, titles, borders, emotes, icons, loot orbs, banners, and more.
Here’s everything you can earn from the free pass track:
- One thematic Earnable Skin Permanent
- One random 1350 RP or lower Skin
- One Title
- Two Emotes
- Two Mystery Emotes
- Three Icons
- Two Mystery Icons
- Four Champion Capsules
- 4,750 Blue Essence (plus infinite repeating levels at the end of the track)
With two earnable skins per act on the free pass, that equates to 12 free skins over the year (not counting the three obtainable Victorious skins). Riot says the average free-to-play player currently gets nine free skins per year – a three-skin improvement under the new system.
Of course, these free skins won’t mean much if you don’t play the champions they’re for, whereas the RNG-based chest system can at least spit out one or two skins for champs you do. It’s too early to judge if this is a net positive for no-spenders, but it’s going to vary from player to player, pass to pass.
Premium pass pricing
- 1,650 RP: Premium Pass.
- 2,650 RP: Premium Pass, ten pass levels, champion receiving the Prestige, Prestige Emote.
- 3,650 RP: All of the above, 25 Mythic Essence, Prestige Chroma.
Here’s everything you can earn from the premium pass track:
- Everything from the Free Pass
- Three Ancient Sparks
- One Prestige Skin
- Three Reward Skins
- Three Borders
- Seven Loot Orbs
- One Banner
- One Ward Skin
- Two Emotes
- Two Icons
- 1,000 Orange Essence (Plus an infinitely repeatable 25 OE every 5 levels after 50)
Considering Ancient Sparks – the currency used to pull on the super fancy cosmetics in the Sanctum – cost 400 RP a pop, you’ve already nearly made your investment back on those alone (provided you have any sort of interest in League’s super expensive skins).
If you’re not bothered about them or the extra earnable skins (which presumably include 1,350RP+ offerings as it’s not explicitly stated they’re exempt like on the free pass), you can safely skip the premium tier.
You can read more about Riot’s other reward system changes here.
LoL Swiftplay
Considering TFT has Hyper Roll and Valorant has Swiftplay, it was seemingly only a matter of time before Riot introduced a League version of every time-strapped player’s favorite mode. Yoinking Valo’s naming convention, League of Legends now has a Swiftplay mode as of 25.S1.1 (Patch 15.1 in old money).
A considerably faster version of Summoner’s Rift, Swiftplay starts pretty standard but quickly accelerates as gold and EXP are accrued at progressively increasing rates throughout the game. Additionally, turret plating falls earlier, major objectives spawn sooner, it only takes three drakes to secure soul, and support/jungle quest items complete faster to name some other tweaks.
To ensure Swiftplay isn’t a total snowball fest, players who are behind earn more gold and experience from most sources, while simultaneously becoming worth less gold the further down they are. Farming that 0/10 Yasuo is suddenly a terrible idea, although that is his power spike, so maybe keep an eye out anyway.
Initially, Swiftplay has replaced Quickplay in regions with an always-on unranked SR queue. If you’re a Quickplay don, we’re sorry (blind pick calls).
So there it is, everything you need to know about LoL Season 15. If you’re making a break for the top of the ranked ladder, make sure you’re using our League of Legends tier list. If reading about the new season has got you in the mood to try League of Legends for the first time, check out our League of Legends beginner’s guide. Whether you’re Unranked, Silver, or Challenger, we look forward to seeing you on the Rift.
