League of Legends has introduced ‘First Choice’, a revamped system for facet choice and draft order forward of its 2026 esports season.
The brand new system will enable groups to both choose a facet (Blue/Crimson) or select whether or not they want to decide their champions first or second throughout draft part.
Beforehand, Blue Facet additionally had first decide throughout a sport’s draft part, typically making it the popular facet to decide on.
In best-of-one (BO1) matches, or for the primary sport in a best-of-three (BO3) or best-of-five (BO5), the Blue facet was sometimes given to the higher-seeded group. Following the conclusion of sport one inside a BO3 and BO5, the dropping group would all the time be allowed to select its facet for the following sport.
Within the case of equal seeding, a coin toss would decide facet choice, whereas guaranteeing that one group would begin half of its video games on both facet. Nevertheless, some regional leagues used 1v1 deciders to assign sides.
How Does First Choice Work?
In keeping with Riot Video games’ newest weblog publish, First Choice goals to handle the variance in facet win charges recognized through analysing match knowledge and gathering suggestions from skilled groups around the globe.
Groups which have beforehand earned facet choice will now earn First Choice, permitting the organisation to decide on between:
- Which facet to play on (Blue/Crimson), or
- Whether or not to select first or second within the draft.
As soon as a selection is made, the opposing group will get the selection of the remaining choice. As an illustration, if Crew A chooses Blue Facet, then Crew B will likely be allowed to decide on between choosing first or second in draft.
Just like Fearless Draft, this new system goals so as to add strategic nuance to the drafting course of.
League of Legends Esports in 2026
- First Stand: March sixteenth – twenty second in São Paulo, Brazil
- Mid-Season Invitational (MSI): Daejeon, South Korea
- World Championship (Worlds): North America (finals in New York)
Previous to at this time’s Dev Replace, Riot Video games had already highlighted key details about the 2026 League of Legends esports season, together with the return of the LCS and CBLOL as unbiased leagues after a joint 2025 season.
In the present day, the sport developer moreover confirmed the return of Corridor of Legends, the sport’s most prestigious participant award. Corridor of Legends was first launched in 2024 with the induction of Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok, adopted by Jian ‘Uzi’ Zihao final yr.
This yr, the awards occasion will happen later than regular, however nonetheless forward of the season-ending World Championship.
Modifications to LoL Esports’ Monetary Construction
Lastly, Riot Video games has introduced a modernised monetary construction throughout this yr’s League of Legends esports season. Regional break up prize swimming pools will likely be eliminated in International Income Pool (GRP) areas to redirect these funds into ‘deeper, extra significant areas’.
In keeping with the developer, the funds contributed to regional prize swimming pools resulted in comparatively small payouts for particular person gamers. In the meantime, the whole funding throughout leagues has grown right into a ‘significant quantity’, which will likely be used extra strategically to assist the ecosystem’s long-term improvement.
Nevertheless, prize swimming pools for world occasions will proceed to be funded by the GRP.
