With LoR’s Patch Notes 2.12.0, we see that The Ruination is coming to Runeterra. It’s time to pick a side: The Sentinels, or the Ruined King! This is Legends of Runeterra’s second champion expansion, but perhaps most interesting of all, Akshan, the Rogue Sentinel shows up before he would in League of Legends. He won’t show up in League of Legends until the next patch, but about a week before, July 14th to be exact, Akshan shows up! It’s a very exciting time for LoR, so let’s look at what is coming in Patch Notes 2.12.0! In this patch, we get 21 new cards, a new event, the Dueling Event Pass, and more! No card balance though, but we imagine there will be some in the future.

Beginning on July 14th and ending on August 10th, there is a brand new event, the Sentinels of Light event. This comes with the Dueling Event Pass, where you choose a side, officially. You can side with the Ruined King or the Sentinels of Light. Is there a point to picking sides? It determines the order of Event Pass rewards you receive. We imagine you’ll get the side you’re on first. So if you have a particular passion for one side or the other, pick them! In addition, every point you earn through this event contributes to the Sentinels of Light Community Battle. Who will come out on top? Of course, it will be Viego, let’s be real. All hail the Ruined King!

Riot Games also announced a new charity initiate, the Sentinels Initiative. This goes towards the Riot Games Social Impact Fund alongside their other games (LoL PC, Wild Rift, TFT). In addition to Riot’s initial 1M donation, every Event Pass level completed will contribute a point to the Charity Drive Pool. For every million points players contribute across all games, an extra 100k will be added, up to a total of 4M dollars! Now that’s an awesome idea. It all goes to a good cause on top of that. The Social Impact Fund is aimed at addressing deeply systemic issues and behavioral change through their stated priorities: Education, Opportunity, Citizenship, and Sustainability. You can find out more about the initiative at the above link.

We’ve been covering some of our favorites of the new cards coming to the game in The Ruination, which you can see right here. In particular, we spent some time talking about the two new champions, Virgo and Akshan. There are some gorgeous champion skins coming too, whether in the event pass, or the store. You can check those out in the official patch notes. This update also adds Board Chromas, which are gorgeous. Personally, my favorite is the Sentinel Sanctuary (Pearl).

If you want to get a Deck Bundle, there two! The Rise of the Ruined deck costs 3276 (minus what you already own) and is a Shyvana/Viego deck. It also comes with a Ruined Shyvana skin. There is a lot of self-sacrifice in this deck. It will be pretty easy to make big plays, possess enemy units, and bring The Ruination to life. Or you could pick up The Sentinels’ Calling deck for 2970 (minus what you already own). This deck is an Akshan/Riven deck, and also comes with the Sentinel Riven skin. Quick damage, weapons to use, and lots of pressure through your Countdown Landmarks, it sounds like it’s going to be a fun deck to get your feet wet with.

Not a lot is truthfully going on in this expansion other than the addition of the two new champions and a host of new cards. The event too, of course. We aren’t going to see balance changes, but a ton of cool new cosmetics to check out in the patch notes. There are two new Expeditions, however: Malefic Descent (Viego/Shyvana) and Relic Trackers (Akshan/Riven). We also saw the best of three format has been added to Friend Challenge, which is neat. If you want, we also have a list of bug fixes included in the LoR Patch 2.12.0 patch notes below:

Bugfixes:

• Units with “When I’m discarded” effects should now correctly retain their buffs they had in hand when discarded.
• Tossed units will now properly gain Everywhere buffs.
• Fixed a bug where Riven’s level 2 ability wasn’t working with Voice of the Risen.
• Lurk should now properly trigger with Ripper’s Bay if the card under an obliterated card is a Lurker.
• Fixed a bug where canceling a multiple-choice spell would result in choices being locked.
• Fixed a visual bug that caused the Scout attack token to sometimes appear and become permanently stuck when removing attacking units.
• Fixed a VFX hitching bug occurring on certain devices.
• Several improvements to text across the game in our continued effort for text consistency.

This is a nice way to introduce the Riot fans to a new champion. You have to guess it’s been in the works for a very long time, so it was always planned to be this way. I’d love to see unique champions in Legends of Runeterra, but this is awesome too. Patch Notes 2.12.0 for LoR has a champion coming very soon to League of Legends in Akshan, and I hope this can come around a little more often. If not, it just makes Akshan that much more special. It’s going to be a good summer for Legends of Runeterra!