League of Legends’ ranked Season 10 starts today

Dust off the Ranked gauntlets, we’re going back in.

Grab your B.F. Swords, master the art of queue dodging, and get the heck in here, because League of Legends’ ranked Season 10 is starting today, and we’re in for a wild ride.

Season 10 brings a lot of changes, with a focus on early game junglers and the botlane — largely thanks to how game-deciding the new drakes are.

Here are a few of the highlights.

A Dance with Dragons

With the new iterations of each drake now implemented into the game, junglers can now prioritize playing around the bottom half of the map even more. Securing an early Ocean to sustain your laners through the early phases of the game can occasionally be game-defining, and the extra statistics granted by the rest of the bunch certainly don’t hurt skirmish potential.

This will also promote top laners of two varieties: self-sufficient, reliable scaling picks like Mordekaiser, Ornn, or Ryze, as well as teamfight, objective-focused champions like Rumble or Gnar.

Alcoves?

The most confusing addition to Summoner’s Rift in Season 10 are the alcoves. Not necessarily game-defining by themselves, the extra pathway and bush in both top and bottom will surely perplex any returning player. Once you’ve gotten used to them, however, they can be used as a valuable tool for both ambushes and extra lane dominance.

Game Time

Gone are the scaling days of old, especially when it comes to the bottom half of the map. The two most defining marksmen of 2019, Xayah and Kai’sa, have taken a backseat compared to early game heavy-hitters like Lucian, Miss Fortune, and Varus. The meta is now all about 20- to 25-minute victories, and you should play aggressively accordingly.