Riot Games might be preparing the biggest update in League of Legends history, and it’s not just another patch. According to a leak from insider Summoner Park on Weibo, League of Legends 2 could launch as early as the second half of 2026. The post was quickly deleted, but not before the League community captured screenshots and started speculating about what this means for the 16-year-old MOBA that still dominates the competitive gaming scene.
The rumor suggests this isn’t a traditional sequel that changes everything you know about the game. Instead, League of Legends 2 would maintain the core gameplay that made the original a global phenomenon while completely rebuilding the technical foundation. Think of it less like Overwatch 2 and more like when Dota 2 transitioned to Source 2, a massive engine upgrade that modernized everything without fundamentally changing how the game played.
What We Know About the Leak
The original post from Summoner Park appeared on Weibo and was captured by X user Igenico before it vanished. According to the leak, League of Legends 2 would feature several major technical improvements that address long-standing issues with the game’s aging infrastructure.
The most significant change would be a brand new engine. League currently runs on a heavily modified version of technology that dates back to 2009. Over 16 years of patches, updates, and additions have created what developers affectionately call spaghetti code, where fixing one bug can accidentally create three more because of how interconnected everything has become.
Park’s leak specifically mentioned that League of Legends 2 would eliminate years of outdated legacy code. For players, this means fewer weird bugs where abilities interact in unexpected ways or where visual updates somehow make minions invisible. For Riot’s development team, it means they could work faster and implement new features without worrying about breaking decade-old systems.
The Dota 2 Comparison
The leak compared League of Legends 2 to Dota 2’s transition from the original Source engine to Source 2 in 2015. That update, called Dota 2 Reborn, was massive. Valve completely rebuilt the game from the ground up while maintaining the gameplay mechanics that defined the MOBA. Players got improved graphics, better performance, a redesigned user interface, and support for custom game modes.
The transition wasn’t perfect. Dota 2 actually lost about 16 percent of its player base in the month following Reborn’s launch due to technical difficulties and bugs. But after patches and updates stabilized the game, the player count recovered and eventually exceeded previous highs. The move to Source 2 also enabled Vulkan support and made Dota 2 one of the first games to use that graphics API.
If Riot takes a similar approach, League of Legends 2 could be the biggest technological leap for the MOBA genre since that Dota 2 update. The leak specifically mentioned that this could represent a transformation comparable to Dota 2’s transition from 2D to 3D, which is a bold claim considering League has always been a 3D game rendered from an isometric perspective.
Champion Rebalancing and Optimization
Beyond the engine upgrade, the leak mentioned substantial optimization and balancing changes for champions. With over 170 characters currently in League of Legends, each with unique abilities and mechanics, that’s a monumental task. The goal would be to enhance fluidity and fairness while preserving each champion’s core identity.
This is where things get interesting for the competitive scene. League of Legends has always struggled with power creep, where newer champions often have more complex kits with multiple mechanics built into single abilities. Older champions sometimes feel outdated by comparison, leading to extended visual and gameplay updates that take months or years to complete.
A fresh start with League of Legends 2 could allow Riot to address these imbalances systematically rather than piecemeal. Imagine every champion rebuilt with modern design philosophy, consistent power budgets, and cleaner ability interactions. For someone like Faker, who just won his sixth World Championship with T1, it would mean adapting to a new version of champions he’s mastered over more than a decade.
The Massive Questions Nobody Has Answered
Here’s where this rumor gets complicated. League of Legends has been running for over 15 years, and during that time, players have spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars on cosmetics. Skins, emotes, ward skins, and other digital items represent a massive investment from the community. What happens to all of that in League of Legends 2?
Other live service sequels have handled this poorly. Overwatch 2 faced massive backlash over how it treated player progression and cosmetics from the original game. Counter-Strike 2 had to figure out how to migrate weapon skins that some players had spent real money acquiring. The most recent example would be Smite 2, which launched this year and had to address similar concerns from its player base.
Riot would need to answer several critical questions. Will all existing skins transfer to League of Legends 2, or will they need to be rebuilt for the new engine? What about ranked statistics, match history, and achievement progress? Will League of Legends 1 continue to exist alongside the sequel, or will it be completely replaced? These are make-or-break decisions that could determine whether the community embraces or rejects League of Legends 2.
Why This Makes Business Sense
Despite the risks, there are compelling reasons for Riot to pursue a technical overhaul. League of Legends remains one of the most-played games in the world with over 115 million active players, but the game’s technical limitations increasingly hold it back. Modern engines offer better performance, more efficient rendering, improved netcode, and easier content creation pipelines.
Riot has already committed to modernizing its other major title. Valorant, which launched in 2020 on Unreal Engine 4, is being upgraded to Unreal Engine 5. If Valorant deserves a newer engine, it makes sense that Riot’s flagship game, which generates billions in annual revenue, would receive similar treatment.
The competitive esports scene would also benefit enormously. Better performance means more consistent gameplay at the highest levels. Cleaner code means fewer tournament-disrupting bugs. Improved spectator tools could make watching professional matches more engaging for millions of viewers who tune in for events like Worlds, which just concluded with T1’s victory over KT Rolster in an incredible 3-2 series.
The 2025 Promise That Never Happened
Interestingly, Riot themselves teased that 2025 would change League of Legends forever in a very big way. That promise generated massive hype, but as we approach the end of 2025, no such transformation has materialized. The 2025 season brought changes like the new split structure, the Noxian Invasion theme, and various gameplay updates, but nothing that fundamentally altered the game.
Some players now wonder if that promise was actually referring to League of Legends 2 all along. Perhaps the plan was to announce the sequel this year for a 2026 release, and internal development timelines shifted. Or maybe Riot decided to hold the announcement until closer to launch to avoid creating too much anticipation too early.
The Challenges Ahead
Assuming this leak is accurate, Riot faces enormous technical challenges. Rebuilding a game with 170+ champions, thousands of skins, complex item interactions, map-specific mechanics, and 16 years of content is not a simple task. Every champion ability would need to be recreated in the new engine. Every skin would need new models, textures, and animations. Every map, including Summoner’s Rift and the various alternate modes, would require reconstruction.
The development workload would be staggering, which raises questions about how Riot will balance creating League of Legends 2 while continuing to produce new content for the current game. Will new champion releases slow down? Will visual updates and reworks be put on hold? These decisions directly impact player engagement and revenue.
Then there’s the testing and balancing nightmare. With 170+ champions interacting with each other, hundreds of items, various runes and summoner spells, the number of possible gameplay scenarios is astronomical. Riot would need extensive beta testing to catch bugs and balance issues before launch, and even then, problems would inevitably slip through.
FAQs
Is League of Legends 2 officially confirmed?
No, Riot Games has not officially announced League of Legends 2. The information comes from a now-deleted Weibo post by insider Summoner Park, and neither Riot nor any official channels have confirmed the rumor.
When would League of Legends 2 release?
According to the leak, League of Legends 2 could launch as early as the second half of 2026. However, this timeline is unconfirmed and could change based on development needs.
Will League of Legends 2 change the gameplay?
The leak suggests that gameplay would remain fundamentally the same. The changes would focus on technical improvements like a new engine, eliminating legacy code, improved performance, and champion rebalancing rather than changing core mechanics.
What happens to my skins and cosmetics?
This is unknown. The leak didn’t address how Riot would handle existing cosmetics, ranked progress, or player statistics. This remains one of the biggest unanswered questions about a potential sequel.
Why does League of Legends need a sequel?
The game runs on technology from 2009 that has been patched and modified for over 16 years, creating technical debt and legacy code issues. A new engine would improve performance, reduce bugs, and make future development easier.
How is this similar to Dota 2’s Source 2 update?
The leak compared League of Legends 2 to when Dota 2 transitioned to Source 2 in 2015. That update rebuilt the game on a new engine while maintaining the core gameplay, resulting in better performance and graphics without fundamentally changing how the game played.
Will the original League of Legends still exist?
This hasn’t been addressed. Some games like Overwatch completely replaced the original with the sequel, while others ran both versions simultaneously for a period before phasing out the older version.
Conclusion
The League of Legends 2 rumor represents one of the most significant potential developments for the MOBA genre in years. If accurate, it signals that Riot Games recognizes the need to modernize its flagship title while the game still dominates the competitive landscape rather than waiting until technical limitations become critical problems.
The comparison to Dota 2’s Source 2 transition is apt. That update proved you can completely rebuild a beloved competitive game without alienating the player base, assuming the execution is careful and thorough. Riot has the resources, talent, and motivation to pull off something similar, but the scale of League of Legends makes the challenge exponentially larger.
For now, this remains firmly in rumor territory. The original post was deleted, Riot hasn’t commented, and concrete details are scarce. But the gaming community is watching closely because if League of Legends 2 is real and launches in late 2026, it could reshape competitive gaming for the next decade. Whether you’re a casual player who enjoys the occasional ARAM or a professional competing for world championships, a technical overhaul of this magnitude would impact everyone who steps onto the Rift.