When does League of Legends Season 12 start?

In previous years, League of Legends starts a new season shortly after the preseason ends; this usually occurs sometime in the first two weeks of January. For Season 12, however, the preseason started a bit earlier to give Riot enough time to work on the massive upcoming changes.

With that, here is everything we know about when League of Legends Season 12 will start and what's coming in its first patch, LoL 12.1.

Release Date

Riot has finally made it official - League of Legends Season 12 will kick start on January 7th at 4:00 am local time for all areas and servers. This means the season will be available to some players long before others.

The LoL Season 12 release time for each server breaks down to the following:

• NA Server - January 7th, 5:00 am EST
• EUW Server - January 7th, 11:00 pm EST
• Asian Server - January 6th, 3:00 pm EST

With League of Legends Patch 12.1 set to go live on January 4th, that gives players time to breathe with new changes before things get back to the real action.

LOL 12.1 Patch Notes

These are the changes coming on the first patch of League of Legends Season 12.

Champion Balance Changes

Diana

• Moonsilver Tailwind (Passive)
  • AP Ratio: 40% ⇒ 50%
  • Monster DMG ratio: 250% ⇒ 300%

Gangplank

• Parrrley (Q)
  • Mana Cost 60 - 40 ⇒ 55 - 35
  • Cooldown 5 seconds ⇒ 4.5 seconds.

Rek'Sai

• Furious Bite (E)
  • Physical Damage 50 - 90 (+85% bonus AD) ⇒ 55 - 75 (+85% bonus AD)
• Tunnel (E)
  • Cooldown 26 - 14 seconds ⇒ 26 - 18 seconds

Sona

• Base Stats
  • Armor Growth 3.3 ⇒ 3
• Song of Celerity (E)
  • Cooldown 12 ⇒ 14 seconds

Items

Eclipse

• Ever Rising Moon
  • Cooldown (Melee) 6 seconds ⇒ 8 seconds

Force of Nature

• Absorb Stack
  • Duration 5 seconds ⇒ 7 seconds
• Dissipate Magic
  • Damage Reduction 20% ⇒ 25%

Immortal Shieldbow

• Attack Damage: 55 ⇒ 50
• Dissipate Magic: 300-800 (based on level) ⇒ 275-650 (based on level)
• Build Path
  • Hearthbound Axe + Negatron Cloak + Long Sword + 750 gold ⇒ Hearthbound Axe + Null-Magic Mantle + Pickaxe + 675 gold (total cost unchanged)
  • Magic Resist 50 ⇒ 40

Summoner Spells

Teleport

• Cooldown 420-210 seconds (based on level) ⇒ 360 seconds at all levels
• Upgrades to Unleashed Teleport when Turret Plates fall at 14 minutes.
• Unleashed Teleport has a 270-second cooldown, can be used on allied structures, minions, or wards, and grants a 50% move speed boost for three seconds.

New Champion Revealed: Zeri

We've finally received the first splash art of what looks to be the next new League of Legends Champion, Zeri.

From the looks of this young girl, with a unique cannon in her right hand, we can anticipate she will most likely be a new Marksman.

READ MORE: League of Legends Preseason 2022 changes