What to expect from League of Legends Wild Rift?
During the League of Legends 10th Anniversary ceremony, Riot Games unveiled they're planning on releasing a mobile version of League of Legends, dubbed Wild Rift. Since its announcement, LoL fans from all over the world have been eagerly anticipating the official release of the game and while Riot has not yet announced the release date, there are already plenty of things to look forward to.
Shortly after the announcement was made, Riot Games gave LoL fans a chance to pre-register for Wild Rift which would award the select few with an early access to the alpha and beta testing phase once they will go live. As of today, the pre-register option is only available on the Google Play Store, while it is said it should come to the App Store soon as well.
Riot Games have yet to unveil when the alpha and beta phase will go live, however, there are already speculations those should become available soon, given that the official League of Legends website promises alphas and betas will "start soon".
Should LoL developer and publisher approach the release of Wild Rift the same way as they did with Legends of Runeterra, it's safe to speculate alpha and beta testing phases will most likely start sometime in the first quarter of 2020, meaning we could get the first glimpse into the new Mobile game sometime by the end of March.
When it comes to the full release, however, things get a bit trickier, as there are no announcements nor hints as of when the development of Wild Rift will be completed. That said, the official website states that Riot Games plan to have the mobile version (of League of Legends) ready and fully live in most regions by the end of 2020, with console coming sometime after.
From that, we could speculate Wild Rift will be available in all major regions (EU, NA, China, Korea) sometime in the last quarter of 2020, meaning we could be playing Wild Rift as soon as in October. There is also a slim chance the game will go live earlier, should beta testing phase prove to be a success.
As it stands now, most of the details regarding the heavily-anticipated League of Legends Wild Rift are largely unknown, however, from what we were told, there are a few things that players can look forward to.
League of Legends Champions
Being a mobile version of League of Legends, Wild Rift will feature all the familiar faces from the Summoner's Rift, meaning that LoL fans will feel just like at home while playing the newly released game, given that they will get a chance to play all the League of Legends champions they know from before.
While some players would like to see a new set of champions available in order to mix things up, the general consensus is that Wild Rift should have some, if not all, champions from LoL available to play. That said, we will see a changed/tweaked set of abilities in order to fit in with a mobile game.
Based on the early gameplay footage, Ashe's ultimate ability has been slightly changed in a way that players will now be able to direct the flight path of her arrow instead of being a simple skill-shot ability. That said, the lore and the characters as a whole will remain mostly unchanged.
Fast-Paced Gameplay
Everyone loves quick and fun gameplay, and Wild Rift will offer exactly that. While League of Legends games can go either way; from a fast-paced 20-minute game to a long and tedious 60-minute skirmish, Wold Rift is said to offer much faster games, which will end under 20 minutes. That is a massive plus, as there are not many people who are ready to sit down and play 40+ minute games.
While there are no promises Wild Rift will offer faster gameplay compared to its PC counterpart, based on what we have seen, it's safe to assume it will, which is another plus for the upcoming game.
Cross-Platform Play
When it comes to multiplayer games, the main goal of many players is to enjoy the game with their friends. Unfortunately, sometimes friends don't have access to same platforms, which could be a problem. When asked about a possible cross-platform play for Wild Rift, Riot Games declared they won't be allowing a PC and mobile/console cross-platform play.
"Adding cross-platform between League PC and Wild Rift would require compromises of competitive integrity, and we want to make sure the gameplay feels fair and fun no matter which platform you’re most comfortable on." read the announcement.
That said, Riot promised that during some big moments throughout the year, they will look for a way to coordinate event themes and releases between PC League and Wild Rift, which could include cross-platform play.
Ranked Play
The integral part of League of Legends is ranked play, which is arguably the main feature that brings players back to the game in order to prove they're better than the next guy by climbing the ranked ladder. Climbing ranks is a difficult task, yet very rewarding experience for players who can track their progress season after season.
The biggest question here is whether Wild Rift will have a ranked mode, and the question is fairly simple – YES. Considering Riot Games are planning on turning Wild Rift into an esports title, ranked play will be crucial, meaning we can be sure Wild Rift will have a ranked mode – much like its PC counterpart.
Great Graphics
While the gameplay is far more important than visuals, the early teasers and gameplay videos suggest Wild Rift will offer great graphics. With the development of mobile phones, which nowadays include great processors and graphic capacity, Wild Rift can afford to offer great visual experience, and it seems like that is exactly what we will get. According to Riot Games, the Wold Rift characters were completely redone, along with the map and other elements.
Mobile Requirements
Riot also revealed the minimum requirements for Wild Rift, and while nothing is set in stone just yet, Riot hopes to make Wild Rift run smoothly on Android phones which are comparable to Samsung Galaxy A7, meaning 1GB Ram, Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, and Adreno 306 GPU or better will be needed. As for iOS devices, Wild Rift is said to run on iPhone 5S and newer models.
More information about Wild Rift is said to become available in next couple of months, but based on what we know now, it’s hard not to be excited with what the mobile version of League of Legends will bring to the table.
