League of Legends kicks off the year 2026 with profound changes to Summoner’s Rift. Riot Games announced a series of map alterations for Season 16, launching this January, all revolving around the theme of Demacia. The main and most celebrated novelty is the permanent removal of the Atakhan objective, whose decisive plays, often resulting in unexpected defeats, were deemed harmful to the game’s balance. With this decision, the developer aims to make matches faster and with a renewed strategic focus on the side lanes, promising a more dynamic experience for the millions of Brazilian players.
The Atakhan objective, along with the Blood Roses, leaves the game for good, thanks to its disproportionate impact on matches. Additionally, the Feats system is also removed, making way for the return of the gold bonus for first blood and first tower. This way, Riot seeks to simplify mechanics considered complex and unrewarding. Meanwhile, to balance the experience, players who die in quick succession will grant less gold to opponents, an attempt to reduce excessive advantages generated by a single player.
The New Face of the Jungle and Objectives
Epic monsters, such as the Dragon and Baron, gain increased resistances against non-jungler players. This change, arriving with the new season, makes steals more difficult and creates longer, more strategic moments of tension near the pits. However, to assist junglers, the jungle pet now deals additional damage to these monsters, increasing the chances of securing the reward. Simultaneously, the global buff camps (red and blue) cease to exist. From now on, only the jungler and one additional ally can benefit from the effects at a time, with the red buff being more effective on melee champions.
The jungle also undergoes adjustments to the game’s pace. Junglers will deal less damage to camps early on, slowing their clear routes to give lanes more time. Still, to protect newcomers, all junglers will take less damage from non-epic monsters. Meanwhile, Faelights emerge as new vision points on the map. These special areas extend the range of common wards, offering crucial territorial control, especially in the late game, although control wards do not enhance this effect.
More Resilient Towers and the End of Plates
The tower system receives a complete overhaul to encourage split pushing. Crystals now grow on towers over time and, when attacked, explode causing extra damage to the structure. Furthermore, all towers gain permanent shields instead of the old plates, which fell off after some time. These shields grant gold equivalent to destroying the tower, but their value and durability decrease as the match progresses. Thus, base towers, when destroyed, will respawn with only 40% health, and the Demolish summoner spell becomes a three-hit passive with reduced damage, balancing destruction power.
Finally, the game’s timers have been moved up. Minions and jungle monsters spawn earlier, and passive gold generation starts at 1:05. The goal is clear: reduce initial downtime and shorten the total duration of matches. With so many changes, Season 16 promises to redefine the meta and test the adaptability of the Brazilian LoL community, which will have much to explore and master from now on.
