Vanguard, Ranked, Game Modes and more: the most controversial changes to League of Legends Season 2024

Riot Games' decision to port Vanguard, VALORANT's anti-cheat system, over to League of Legends has already caused quite a stir among players.

Anna Bernardo
·Contributor
·4 min read
Vanguard, Ranked, Game Modes and more--These changes in Season 2024 will shake up the entire game. (Photo: Riot Games)
Vanguard, Ranked, Game Modes and more--These changes in Season 2024 will shake up the entire game. (Photo: Riot Games)

Season 2024 of League of Legends (LoL) is about to begin, and Riot Games have shown players what the year's about to look like for the players.

With sweeping changes on the Ranked system, champion updates and new champions, as well as a brand new game mode, there's plenty players can expect to see in the coming days, weeks and months. Here are the most controversial changes to LoL Season 2024 that will surely shake up the game.

Ranked System Changes

One of the most controversial changes this year is focused on MatchMaking Rating (MMR).

Last year's addition of the Emerald rank and increased LP gains aimed to enhance match quality but inadvertently led to issues like considerable rank disparities within matches, causing dissatisfaction and unfair gameplay and creating the infamous “Elo hell.” This led to many players creating smurf accounts.

To address these challenges, Riot is introducing modifications to the ranked system that aim to assess a player’s skill more accurately, ensuring they are placed in matches that align with their skill tier.

These are also meant to address uneven LP losses and gains and early smurf account identification. On top of this, the devs will continue to adjust the system to prioritise better game experience and a smoother climb.

These changes, alongside the introduction of the game's new anti-cheat system, are scheduled to take effect at the beginning of the 2024 ranked season on Wednesday (10 January).

Riot adds Vanguard to LoL

LoL will now be using Vanguard, Riot's anti-cheat system for VALORANT, causing many concerns from the player community. (Photo: Riot Games)
LoL will now be using Vanguard, Riot's anti-cheat system for VALORANT, causing many concerns from the player community. (Photo: Riot Games)

Vanguard, the anti-cheat system for VALORANT, will now be included with LoL.

The VALORANT anti-cheat system was originally contentious since players had to download it to their computers, but since cheats were kept to a minimum, many players were eventually happy about it.

Least to say, many in the player community are already split about it. First, this means that skin mods made by players and fans will now most likely be useless as Vanguard restricts all kinds of third-party modification games.

Some players running on MacOS, Linux, and other operating systems were also concerned that Vanguard might interfere with the game’s ability to run in their systems.

“If League starts to require Valorant's Vanguard Anticheat, will that mean MacOS support for League will be dropped? I know that Valorant doesn't support MacOS, and that the kernel mode driver might cause issues,” YouTuber @nathanielo8164 asked in a comment on LoL’s Season 2024 YouTube video.

User @araaraavery also said that if the game becomes unplayable on Linux because of Vanguard “this might be the end of my riot games support for 8 years at this point.”

Overall, many are uncomfortable that Vanguard is a kernel-level software (a computer programme that can have complete control over a user’s system).

YouTubers like @Reivie-R said that Riot needs to “make a video talking about Vanguard in-depth because just throwing ‘League will now require you to install kernel-level software’ is concerning to many.”

Meanwhile, others were concerned that while the system was more or less effective in keeping cheaters out of VALORANT, users like freyerik123 and @koitsu101were concerned that the said anti-cheat system caused overall issues in their OS even if they weren’t cheating.

LoL devs have yet to address player concerns regarding Vanguard integration.

Game Modes: Arena, URF, All-for-One, and a brand new game mode

Arena is coming back with sweeping changes: More teams, more augments, more chaos! (Photo: Riot Games)
Arena is coming back with sweeping changes: More teams, more augments, more chaos! (Photo: Riot Games)

LoL is bringing back Arena, last year’s newest and most popular game, with exciting improvements in the first half of the year. Now featuring eight teams (16 players in total), Arena will see changes to the UI, along with the addition of new Augments, maps, and other enhancements.

Fans can also anticipate the return of URF during Lunar Revel in patches 14.3 and 14.4, followed by One-For-All.

But most importantly, later in the year, a new game mode will be introduced. This will offer a unique twist on the core League gameplay, providing a more relaxed way for players to spend time with friends.

Would this have something to do with “Arcane-related gameplay”? PvE, perhaps?

To learn more about all the other changes and updates, you can check out LoL’s YouTube video.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

For more gaming news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooGamingSEA. Also follow us on Twitter, as well as our Gaming channel on YouTube, and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page!