5 things League of Legends could have done better in 2025

League of Legends has an argument for being the biggest esports game in the world. It has millions of players each month, millions of viewers, and millions of dollars in prize money. As far as esports scenes go, it’s tough to find one much larger than LoL’s. However, Riot still needs to be wary of competition.

Riot Games and Valve have been directly competing with their esports titles. VALORANT and CS2 are both tactical FPS titles, although VALORANT uses hero shooter mechanics. League of Legends and Dota 2 have been the titans of the MOBA scene for a while, and despite LoL esports continuing to build on its success in 2025, it hasn’t been infallible. 

League of Legends esports in 2025 was a year of change in many ways. Full Fearless Draft was introduced in Split 1, forcing players to dive deeper into their champion pools, and a third international event was added: First Stand. This means that each LoL Split has an international tournament, which makes everything feel a little neater.

Still, with change comes growing pains, and it seems that 2026 will come with even more changes. There are many ways that League of Legends can improve from both an esports and gaming perspective.

So, let’s take a look at the ways that LoL 2025 could improve for 2026.

One thing League of Legends will always have to grapple with is how to attract newcomers to the esports scene. It’s not always easy for a beginner to fully comprehend what’s happening on screen, even if they have started playing the game. This is a common issue that any sport faces, and an improvement in broadcasting graphics could be the solution.

LoL esports already does pretty well with its broadcasting, looking reasonably professional, but a more visual explanation of what’s happening could go a long way in ensuring new watchers stay. It could also break down strategies for intermediate players, similar to traditional sports, and simply add more to make the overall presentation a bit flashier, considering how long matches typically last.

League of Legends esports does do the occasional interview with players, but doing more with its stars content-wise could make them feel more like actual stars. While fans can often watch a player’s personal content on Twitch or YouTube, something official in this capacity could let people get to know these players and thus decide to become fans of them.

A look behind the curtain every now and then could help, too. Perhaps documentary-style videos following certain teams or players and their journey could help fans get to know their future favourite players. More official content for players and teams feels like a natural next step, especially because the official LoL esports YouTube channel has almost four million subscribers.

For practically its entire tenure, League of Legends has never wanted for more players. Millions flock to LoL each month, but it still tends to have longer queue times than most other PvP titles, despite having more players. This is largely due to the precision of the role queue system and all the factors that need to be taken into account. However, while most wait between one and four minutes, some can be stuck waiting for up to 10 minutes.

Continued tweaking of the matchmaking system to reduce queue times would improve the experience, and it appears that this is something Riot is considering for 2026. It is also looking into improving the autofill experience while punishing those who dodge games. Matchmaking is certainly something that LoL can improve from 2025, and it’s a good sign that Riot acknowledges this.

The best LoL rookies have made quite a splash in 2025, and these new names are the lifeblood of the professional scene, with many current pros coming from junior teams. As such, expanding the tier 2 leagues to give these juniors and amateurs more experience, thus making the transition to the big leagues easier, should be a 2026 goal.

It is, of course, a double-edged sword, because amateur or junior players aren’t going to pull in nearly as many viewers. Still, expanding tier 2 and junior circuits could help scouting and getting more talent involved earlier. Perhaps junior international events can be a sort of pre-show to current tournaments like MSI or Worlds. It’s a tough line to tow, but bringing more experience and exposure to the future of LoL esports is worthwhile.

League of Legends is known for the toxicity in the community. Granted, many competitive PvP titles have toxic communities, and the environment seems to bring out the worst in gamers, but more measures could be put in place to provide newcomers with a warmer welcome. Newcomers are important to ensure the game and its esports scene continue to grow.

Perhaps maintaining a certain ‘Honour Level’ to continue climbing ranks could be introduced, or being more punitive towards those who throw games. Riot is planning to put in changes to punish dodgers, so perhaps restricting ping spamming or cracking down on those who stop making an effort would cultivate a healthier environment that people want to come back to.

League of Legends is still an esports giant, but that doesn’t mean Riot Games will rest on its laurels. It will continue to make adjustments to the esport and hopefully improve on it year on year. There were plenty of spectacles in 2025, but it has been far from infallible.

While we have suggested five potential improvements for both the game and LoL esports, there are plenty of ways for it to evolve. League of Legends may be old for an ongoing game, but it’s young for a sport, and, as a teenager, will have plenty of growing pains.