Prior to the Worlds 2025 finals in Chengdu, we had the opportunity to talk with Paul Bellezza, AKA Pabro, the Executive Producer for League of Legends. From WASD to the new champion Zaahen, to the PvE game modes, and the Shyvana rework, we chatted a bit about everything. Here’s what he shared with us.
Davide: I wanted to first talk about the current season. We saw that Riot made major changes both in game and also outside the game.
Pabro: Overall, we think the season performed pretty well in terms of tying everything together. We’ve never gone as full depth of making everything as intertwined as it was this year across all three of the seasons we did and like, we learned a lot.
I think players should showed us and told us that they appreciated that. That was definitely a positive. I think the learning from that is okay, well, some players like it, but not every player likes it. Players still like variety. And so for some, being in the same kind of region or space, for example, the Summoner’s Rift maps is really inspiring and fun. For others, it can get a little bit tiring. And so some of the learning there is what’s the right balance for how much should you change of what the map looks like? Because some people don’t always appreciate that. So we’re learning how to tune that.
Another area is with skins. Like, some people were very excited that the skins tied into the arc we’re doing and others were like ‘Yo, but I still want, I want my variety skins, I want my winter skins so I think the learning from next year is like, ‘what’s the new balance to do that?’
I think we went pretty all in at the beginning of the year and by the end of the year, we were already starting to adjust. I think we’ll continue to learn that into next year.
Davide: One of the first things I’m really glad about as a long season player is the addition of the winter map. It’s been so many years since I wanted back. I wanted to ask you,
Pabro: It was really funny. They brought in an ice truck who made the ice over the course of an hour on campus. And it was a really hot day. So even though it was a hot day, I’m in this parka, you know, so very cold. Being on the ice and so we sat there for 30 minutes and my pants were soaked and I was like ‘let’s get the shot, man. We gotta make this work’. And I think it turned out pretty well. But more importantly, players have been wanting that a long time and so we wanted to really make it, make it feel fun and festive.
Davide: Speaking of the next season and recent developments from the Riot team. The first one I want to touch upon is WASD. Obviously there’s been obviously a lot of buzz I know Riot wanted to find a new way to make the gameplay more accessible to probably new players or players who are used to playing other type of games.
Pabro: Sure. So overall, I think one of the biggest hurdles was us committing to us trying for a long time. It’s very speculative: would it work? Would it not work? I think we learned a lot from Swarm last year as a potential to be like, hey, actually this could be pretty viable in league. There’s problems to solve, but we have great design team. They’re really motivated, they really like to break things down and be constructive.
Hey folks,
WASD should be enabled on PBE tomorrow, so we wanted to share a bit more on how we’re thinking about it based on recent conversations. We believe WASD can help many new players fall in love with League the same way we all did, which is why we see it as an important…
— Andrei van Roon (@RiotMeddler) August 25, 2025
So we at least had enough evidence to say, hey, we should try. And so I think that led to some exploration that showed promise and it’s not perfect. There’s certain roles that we’re going to have to tune for, like Auto Attack.
There’s some things we need to do and there’s some features that we’ve added to make it easier for some players. Some roles in particular, like melee roles, it can be a little difficult navigating minions and positioning yourselves, whereas other roles, it feels really smooth. So there’s a lot still to work out. But I think the PBE has shown us that, hey, it can be viable. And I think when it eventually hits live in certain queues, we’re going to roll it out slowly to make sure we continue to iterate. But players en masse will tell us what’s viable because a lot of it is speculative. ‘Oh, it’s going to work, or it’s not going to work.’
The truth is we won’t really know until it’s to a bigger audience and then we’ll be able to iterate. But we have our design team focused on adjusting to make sure it’s a viable scheme without losing the attention of mouse and keyboard. They both need Attention.
Pabro: You know, there’s already players out there who use unconventional schemes. I remember hearing about this player. It is more about accessibility, but when there’s a will, there’s a way.
You’ve heard of players who are playing with a pencil in their mouth and getting to, like, diamond and plat areas through sheer will, right? So, like, if someone could do that, then I imagine WASD will birth a generation of players who may be able to find their way to do it. But I think all of these control schemes can coexist.
Davide: You mentioned, Swarm. I actually wanted to ask you a little bit about PvE game modes. I know obviously we saw that Riot experimented with a couple of PvE modes in the past few years. We saw, just to, I think, off the top of my head, Odyssey, Star Guardian, and stuff like that. I think from the general feedback that I’ve seen from the community has been very positive. And we’ve even talked about. One of my colleagues talked to Myrwn, the top laner for MKOI. He said he really liked to play PvE game modes.
Pabro: I think the learnings from these modes show you that people are looking for a way to play with their friends in a way that is alternative than the traditional competitive league or even some of our other competitive modes. So it shows that there’s definitely a need for players to want to just kind of relax and have fun, but still be challenged. And I think we brought Doombots back, that’s PvE.
It’s difficult, right? But being able to play with your friends together in that way is important. So I think we’ll continue to learn and adjust accordingly. I think the thing I can say is that it’s getting easier for us to make these types of modes. We’ve invested in our tech and our tools to be able to iterate on this stuff faster. In the old days, making Odyssey was really, really. It took like, over a year just because we didn’t have the capability to do that.
I think in more recent times, it still takes a while, but it’s becoming easier and easier. And so with that capability gives us a chance to dream. I can’t reveal anything right now, but the future can hold anything.
Pabro: I think for design it comes down to what audience are you serving, right? Are you trying to like be more chill and are you trying to design for speed and play time? Are you trying to design for like 100 to 200 hours worth of depth?
Like those are hard challenges on any game. On top of doing that within league, which already has thousands of them, so it’s like it’s a creative space to design it, it’s extremely difficult. But like I was saying earlier, we have highly, highly motivated game design team, highly passionate game design team. Problems are solvable, but sometimes you just need to prototype and be willing to try different things, so it’s really figuring out what actually resonates for players. Sometimes the things that we think are going to work actually aren’t as resonant as stuff that players really want.
Davide: Speaking of designs, I kind of want to talk about champions. We saw three champions released: Mel, Yunara, and Zaahen.
It gives me kind of also the impression that we kind of have moved away from very highly mechanical kits. Some of the newer champions look a lot more simpler. Is that also kind of aligned with the philosophy of trying to make league as a game more accessible to a wider audience?
Pabro: I think with champions we’re always going to try to strike the balance of which ones do we want to be. Still a lot of depth, but approachable. And which ones we’re comfortable with being high skill. High mastery, like high control mechanisms, like Hwei, for example.
The level of control you do that well. I think one would argue that Ambessa could be quite complex for, you know; you don’t just pick her and go. You have to have nuance in there. You also look at Yunara is approachable, but still awards getting aggressive if you want to, but it’s still quite understandable. So I think we’ll continue to find where we can balance. And that’s been true since the beginning of League. And so for next year, I think you’ll continue to see us go ‘All right, what are the opportunity spaces? Where do they tie to the kind of thematic experiences we’re creating? And where can we give love to the old roster?’
Davide: We mentioned Zaahen.
Pabro: Yeah. So I think we’ve been wanting to do another Darkin for a while now, and I think we had some prototypes of it. But as we kind of conceive this arc, this whole year, we found an opportunity with the kind of thematic experience we’re trying to create to be like, okay, this could be a good place to take those Darkins ideas and see how do we deploy it to this moment. And so we actually explored quite a bit, quite a few directions before settling on top Lane.
And I think what kind of helped there was the background of what is a Darkin that is still kind of good? Because in the lore, Darkins were warriors against, you know, a greater evil threat and it was over time that they became corrupted.
So we’ve seen plenty of corrupted Darkins. What does one that kind of looks like the way they were supposed to be when they originally were doing what they’re doing in the world would look like? And I think that as a starting point and the struggle of how do you, like, stave away, you know, the negative influence that could happen?
I think [that] helped inspire the design of ‘What is someone who could be aggressive but for good, right? To help you and your team commit to fights and whatnot. And I think it’s kind of like… I’m not going to say inverse, but we definitely looked at some of the old directions you mentioned. What can we remember that was good and not good about old Aatrox and how do we take those learnings and apply it to the situation?
And I think, like, for Zaahen, right, you have to engage, you have to fight if you want to get to that guaranteed moment where you can commit and sustain through it. But if you’re not and you don’t know how to do it, you lose that opportunity. So I think it’s up to you as a player to really take advantage of that. So as you can see, all of that just kind of molds in together into a cool opportunity. And we nodded to, you know, because he was going to be a Glaive, you know, there’s similarities between Xin and his spear fighting that I think we could nod to not one to one, so it just felt like a good set of chemistry for it to come together in the moment that it did.
Davide: I remember you saying that you can’t reveal that much about Shyvana’s upcoming rework. I know obviously you probably won’t tell us when it’s probably coming, but can you walk us through what guides have you been working on for the rework?
Pabro: I think all I’ll say is that, yes, we’re continuing to work on her and with any of our VGUs, we try to make sure we capture the essence of who they are and the notes of how they play, but then also figuring out where we can create some depth.
Shyvana came out early in the early days of League under a lot of constraints. And I actually was on the champion team when we were making her originally. A lot of what we wanted to do, we just weren’t able to based off just what we were capable on the game. And so to be like, okay, what can you do now with way more capabilities in terms of animation, art, game mechanics that we’ve seen over time. So using all those elements, I think we are continuing to be confident that we’re making something cool, but no more details than that.
Pabro: I think overall, as someone who started at the earliest days as an intern when we were just making this game and seeing where it’s gone, I’ve got to work on all different parts of the game in my many years on it.
And so I have a lot of intimacy with how we make league and how we work with our players and our community. And so for me, it’s an honor and it’s humbling because ultimately I’m accountable for not only the game, but the, the organization and the responsibility that we have to players.
So I am a spokesperson for our team. And so the responsibility is very much like how do we do right by players and how do I make sure that the environment by which we make this game is inspiring so that we can serve players. On the one hand, that’s a lot of pressure, but on the other hand, it’s an honor to steward that I’ve learned from a lot of good leaders in the past. And so I just try to take the lessons that I can to help guide us through that.
And then personally, I think, you know, it’s not something I knew I was going to do. If you had asked me 10 years ago, would I be in this position, I don’t know if the answer would have been yes. I wasn’t sure what my direction was. I like being a game producer, I like making games. But to be the steward of league, I wasn’t sure. And eventually it all kind of came together, the opportunity came and my passion for serving league came at a time when could.
And so it’s honestly an honor. And just being here and being frontline with players is really what gives me energy and a lot of the team energy. And getting to meet a lot of players here in Chengdu reminds us of that. Everyone around the world has this love of this game experience that we’ve all created. And that is like a great responsibility to continue to make it something that just connects us as humans. And I find that to be very powerful and humbling.
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