League is a game of great depth and complexity. These factors make the game worth enjoying for thousands of hours and what makes it competitively interesting. And while we’ve been releasing updates to League consistently to improve its core experience now, we’ve also been working on longer-term projects focused on the future of League. 

One of those projects is ready to share today: the option to play League with WASD controls. At this point, we’re ready to move from closed playtests to the moment where we want y’all to hop in and test it out with us.

To WASD, or Not to WASD 

For those of us who are already familiar with League’s control scheme, don’t worry, Point and Click controls aren’t going anywhere. Additionally, we’re working hard to ensure competitive balance between the options.

As long-time League players ourselves, we went into this project with a deep respect for the classic MOBA controls that helped us fall in love with the genre. We believe that offering WASD controls will provide a fresh yet familiar way to play for both new players and veterans of the Rift without changing what makes League, League.

We’ve seen that for new players, WASD is the most familiar control scheme for PC games today, and let’s be real, a lot of us instinctively put our fingers there when coming back to League after playing something else. By offering WASD as an alternate control scheme, we believe League will feel more intuitive to some players who come from other games. This means if you’re looking for a new way to play, new to League, or even inviting a friend to pick up League, it should be easier for everyone to jump in and get into what makes League awesome.

We want both control schemes to feel good across all roles and skill brackets. So to keep that reality, we’re taking things slow and will be rolling WASD controls out over several months so we can keep an eye on win rates across various skill levels, roles, and champions. And that’s where you come in.

We Want You

We’re sending WASD to PBE for an extended run (starting soon, and lasting multiple patches) so we can do even more playtesting before it goes to live servers. That said, we’ve played tons of games with WASD already, conducted Player Labs, and even brought WASD to MSI for pros to give feedback, but know that we still need more thoughts and direct experience from all of you.

To make sure we can catch any bugs, or unintended interactions, and address your feedback, we’ll be evaluating and adapting WASD to better suit how you play. After PBE, WASD will be slowly introduced into non-Ranked modes, then finally a full global release, including Ranked and pro play. At each step, we’ll pause to hear from you, refine features, and squash any bugs. We want to ensure there’s no clear advantage to either control scheme over the other before WASD gets anywhere near Ranked. 

Our goal is to make sure you can choose whichever control scheme feels most comfortable, without your choice putting you at a disadvantage. One of the areas we’ll specifically be watching is how WASD affects the balance between moving and attacking, especially at high speeds. For instance, right now, it can be easier on WASD to kite than when using Point and Click. So, we’ll be extra focused on feedback in that area to ensure we make adjustments when needed to keep things equitable across both control schemes. 

On All Maps, for All Champions

League is at its best when your teamwork, strategy, and mental resilience cumulates into a thrilling execution of your mechanics.  Getting the blind Lux ult snipe, threading minions with a Blitzcrank hook to grab a clueless opponent, these are the highs of League that need to feel great, natural and fun. We’ve made a lot of progress towards these goals already by working with high-skill playtesters and dedicated champion mains across a variety of modes, and are excited to tune it even more with your feedback. 

WASD controls felt pretty good for most champs right out the gate, but there were definitely some specific areas that needed extra attention. To give you an idea, here are a few of the adjustments we’ve made so far based on playtester feedback:

• For channeled spells like Miss Fortune’s ult, we adjusted the code so held WASD keys won’t accidentally cancel abilities as soon as they begin. 

• Ambessa’s passive needed some care to ensure you wouldn’t be forced to dash only the smallest possible distance. 

• We added targeting options for Flash to help it feel more natural when flashing either in the direction your champion is moving, or when you suddenly need to go over a wall in the opposite direction. 

There were also some pretty… interesting bugs, and we’ll share some of those in the future!

A peek at feedback from some of the early high rank playtest sessions.

Improving Accessibility For All

While working on WASD, we identified a few quality of life changes we could make to improve general accessibility in League. For example, we improved the UI to show more keybind hints for those of you who prefer combinations of keys beyond a single letter.

As some of you may have noticed. And used for nefarious purposes.

Some of these changes will be valuable no matter their preferred control scheme or history with League. These will be on PBE too, so let us know how little or much they make WASD feel good. 

Updated Keybinding Options

In the past, some keybinding options were limited only to those brave enough to delve into their system files. If you’ve ever tried to bind a champ’s ability to left-click, then you might be familiar with the struggle!

As part of our input system overhaul, we’re making this much easier. You’ll be able to bind previously hidden actions like selecting units, interacting with Hexgates, and cancelling spells to any button you wish—including mouse buttons—directly from the in-game options menu.

This updated keybinding system will be available for those using WASD while it’s on PBE so we can make sure that all of the new control’s scheme’s features are ready before rolling them out to everyone.

Dynamic Locked Camera 

Locked camera is a popular option for players new and experienced, reducing the number of things that you need to manage at once, but it significantly reduces in-game visibility. 

So, we’re introducing a new “Dynamic Locked Camera” option that enhances the field of view by subtly shifting the camera as your mouse and champion move. Our goal is to make it easier for locked camera enjoyers to keep an eye out for incoming ganks and aim long-range abilities while still being able to focus on the action. 

Last Hit Indicators

One last quality of life update that’s headed to PBE is the introduction of Last Hit Indicators for unranked queues. Last hitting is a foundational skill test that can make or break a lane, but for newer players learning the ropes it can be overwhelming while considering wave control, positioning, and trading on top of the precise mechanics of last hitting. Adding these visual indicators specifically for unranked queues will help support learning without affecting League’s competitive environments.

Even with last hit indicators, you may still find yourself occasionally missing cannon minions—something we’ve seen even among our high-skilled playtesters. The indicators are designed to help with consistency, but they only reflect permanent sources of damage. That means effects like basic attack damage and items such as Wit’s End are included, while dynamic sources like Sheen procs or Jax’s empowered autos will still rely on your own timing and game knowledge.

Looking Ahead

We’re excited to hear what you think once WASD hits the PBE. It’s the first of a number of long-term projects we’re working on to help shape League’s future, and it’s the one that’s ready to share right now. We’ve got more in the works, and we'll share more about the others in a bit.

In the meantime, please give WASD a test drive. We’ll be keeping a close eye on feedback to make it a great experience for everyone. Let us know what you think!