https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/game-updates/2024-gameplay-preview/
Disclaimer: While quite a few of these changes are Void-related, we wanted to let you all know that there will not be a Void event in 2024 (sorry Nickyboi).
Now, to those who don’t know, in 2022, because of the amount of teasing involving Bel’Veth, a lot of people expected her arrival to come with a Void-themed event, as it very much seemed like a possibility due to how there were two cinematics associated with it, as well as Bel’Veth’s story itself hinting at a potential conflict with the Watchers. Some people, like myself, were warned early by leakers that the big summer event would not be lore-themed at all and Star Guardian-themed instead, but those who didn’t follow leaks unfortunately had their expectations shattered when the Star Guardian event arrived.
That’s why I said it’s good that Riot is warning before the Season even comes out that we will not have a Void event, because having the Season map suddenly becoming all Void-y certainly sounds very suspicious, so it’s good that they’re warning us all ahead of time to contain our expectations. However, that doesn’t change the fact that this is incredibly disappointing. We didn’t get a lore-focused event since Sentinels of Light, and while I understand that event was a flop, it seems that Riot did not understand why it was a flop and hasn’t tried to do anything lore-themed ever since. And now that they’re no longer releasing color stories, it would be really interesting to have a lore event again.
Sentinels of Light was a failure for multiple reasons: the events weren’t consistent across the multiple games involved, the only new character that had any importance to that story was Viego (no, Gwen didn’t, because she was basically Senna, but less important), it clashed with several canonical events and the choices for the characters involved were very iffy and seemingly based only on who could get skins (remember, only Vayne was confirmed to stay a Sentinel after those events, Graves sold his shit, Pantheon was actually possessed, but all the others have no evidence of being present, so it felt like they didn’t care about which characters would fit in the event’s story), in fact, an event that has a force attempting to take the entire continent and we having only a small group of characters involved is pretty weird.
A Void-themed event, though… would be a little more tame. Bel’Veth’s arrival didn’t tease a massive Void invasion… I mean, it did make clear that Bel’Veth wants to take over the world, but first she wanted Kai’Sa to take out the Watchers first, which means that a one-region event in the Freljord involving only the characters from that region would be very much doable without the many issues that plagued Sentinels of Light. Maybe add some champion updates to the likes of Kog’Maw and Cho’Gath so that they actually feel more Void-like and up-to-date in their designs.
Now, granted, they didn’t say that the summer event, which will still probably be a thing, would not be a lore event, but I honestly doubt it actually will be, and it’s very disappointing to know that despite getting a more Void-focused Summoner’s Rift, Bel’Veth’s arrival is still the most recent move forward in Void lore, even though it happened two years ago. I just hope League’s lore doesn’t freeze forever.
Dude go touch some grass