January 04, 2025

LoL's New Honor System Aims to Boost Positive Play

Riot Games is making significant changes to League of Legends' Honor system in 2025, aiming to boost positive behavior among players. This is great news for LoL fans all over the world! Over the years, the Honor system has struggled to fulfill its intended purpose, often feeling like just another layer in the game’s progression mechanics. However, Riot’s upcoming overhaul could bring meaningful incentives that players actually care about, giving fresh hope for more enjoyable ranked games.

LoL New Honor System

The Evolution of LoL's Honor System

Since its introduction, the Honor system has undergone several revisions, with the most notable one arriving in 2022. Riot added exclusive Honor skins, Honor Orbs, and Honor Capsules, offering rewards like Key Fragments for maintaining positive behavior. While reaching Honor Level 5 provides special cosmetics and a fancy Honor recall animation, the system often feels more like a grind than a real boost to player morale. Many players progress simply by avoiding punishable behavior rather than truly fostering positive interactions in ranked play.

Despite being relatively straightforward to climb through the Honor ranks, the upcoming system promises more meaningful engagement by tying Honor directly to League of Legends' battle pass rewards. This shift could turn what used to be a passive progression system into a key factor for managing player satisfaction and cooperation in ranked games.

What’s Changing in the New Honor System?

In the new model, Honor rewards will shift from offering random loot to more valuable battle pass XP drops. Players with higher Honor Levels—especially at Levels 4 and 5—will gain access to exclusive perks. Level 4 players can expect enhanced pings and emotes, while Level 5 players receive Honor emblems, the signature Honor recall, and the coveted Three Honors skins. These adjustments aim to increase interest in climbing the Honor ranks by offering both practical tools and rare cosmetics as rewards.

LoL Honor

However, a major challenge remains: whether these changes will genuinely boost positive behavior or just incentivize players to grind Honor levels for loot. Riot’s new system attempts to address this by introducing penalties for poor conduct. Players dropping to Honor Level 2 lose access to All Chat, while those hitting Honor Level 1 can only communicate with their team, limiting their ability to disrupt the game with toxic behavior.

Should Riot Go Even Further?

While the penalties introduced in this update are a step in the right direction, many players believe Riot could go further. Dropping to Honor Level 1 still allows players to communicate with their team, which may not fully prevent disruptive behavior. A more severe penalty—such as completely removing chat privileges for the lowest-ranked players—could serve as a stronger deterrent and improve overall game quality.

Moreover, this revamped system offers an opportunity for Riot to streamline its progression mechanics. Over time, League of Legends has accumulated a host of reward types—keys, capsules, event tokens, and more—that can overwhelm new and veteran players alike. By consolidating Honor rewards into a clearer, battle pass-based system, Riot could enhance the overall player experience.

Why the New Honor System Matters for Ranked Play

Positive player interaction is crucial for ranked games, where communication and teamwork often decide the outcome. The updated Honor system provides a fresh incentive to maintain high levels of cooperation, which could ultimately improve the ranked grind for everyone. Players who consistently maintain good behavior will not only enjoy better rewards but also boost their team’s morale, leading to more competitive matches.

While it remains to be seen how effective this system will be, the early excitement from the community shows that Riot is on the right track. If implemented well, the new Honor system could significantly improve the ranked experience, encouraging better play and improving the overall atmosphere in League of Legends.

With testing already underway on the PBE, players eagerly await the full rollout in League of Legends Season 1, 2025. Whether these changes truly affect player behavior or merely add another progression grind will depend on how Riot fine-tunes the system based on player feedback. For now, though, it’s safe to say that this update has given LoL fans something to look forward to beyond the usual champion and gameplay tweaks.

 

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