Riot Games has released a brand new teaser trailer for the much-awaited second season of Arcane that’s slated to hit Netflix this November. Arcane focuses on the relationship between sisters and rivals, Vi and Jinx, as they find themselves on opposing sides in the conflict between the utopian city of Piltover and the oppressed underground city of Zaun. The new trailer features the human-turned-werewolf Warwick, as well as the mad chemist Singed, who created Shimmer, the drug at the center of the show’s story.
The developer has made a bunch of other announcements and revelations to kick off Season 2024 in League of Legends aside from releasing a new Arcane trailer. One of its announcements is the arrival of Vanguard in League in an effort to combat the growing number of bots in the game, as well as in response to disruptive smurf accounts — new accounts created by experienced players to get into matches against lower-ranked players — in Ranked and to an increase in scripting.
Vanguard made its debut as Riot’s always-on anti-cheat system for Valorant. Its implementation had stirred controversy, because it has a kernel-mode component that gives it access to the core of a player’s computer. That said, the fact that the company is bringing to League probably means it’s been effective at keeping cheaters out. Riot said Vanguard will allow it to terminate live matches and to refund LP to players when it detects that they’d played against cheaters and bots.
Riot is also making changes to the game’s Ranked system and how it evaluates player skill. The developer says it will reduce matchups between players of vastly different ranks, which would then translate to fewer smurfs that could make games a lot less enjoyable.
