Patch 26.20, the patch Worlds is played on

Every game at Worlds 2026 is played on Patch 26.20. Riot published it on October 6 and called it the Worlds patch: the one where "year-defining competitive play" on Summoner's Rift happens. It's a pro-play tuning pass, so most of what it touched is aimed at champions you'll see in the Swiss Stage.

#Who came down

• Ambessa. Passive damage 5–30 (+25% bonus AD) → 5–25 (+20% bonus AD).
• Ashe. Attack damage per level 3.5 → 3.
• K'Sante. Path Maker costs more mana, 40–60 → 45–65, and its damage reduction drops from 30 / 75% to 25 / 70%.
• Yunara. Q on-hit damage 5–25 → 3–23 (+20% AP), passive and active, and her W slow no longer stacks with other slows.
• Cassiopeia. Base health 630 → 610, and base mana 480 → 450.

#Who went up

• Kennen. Lightning Rush attack speed 40–80% → 50–90%.
• Kindred. Wolf's Frenzy deals 165% to monsters, up from 150%, and Mounting Dread slows for 1.5s instead of 1s. One trade-off: E can no longer target small monsters.
• Smolder. More passive damage at every stack, and his ultimate's self-heal 100 / 135 / 170 → 100 / 175 / 250, with a bigger bonus AD ratio.
• Swain. Base magic resist 31 → 34, though base armor drops from 25 to 23. Vision of Empire hits harder, 70–210 → 70–250, and comes back faster, 22–18s → 20–16s.
• Tahm Kench. Tongue Lash base healing 10–25 → 10–50.
• Vayne. Better health regen, and Tumble costs a flat 30 mana instead of 46–30.
• Mordekaiser. Realm of Death cooldown 140 / 120 / 100s → 120 / 110 / 100s.
• Diana, Lillia, Lucian and Neeko also got smaller buffs: a bigger shield, a longer ultimate, more attack damage per level, and a harder-hitting root.

#Items

• Hextech Rocketbelt: ability haste 20 → 10, but its active hits harder: 100 (+10% AP) → 135 (+15% AP).
• Experimental Hexplate: ranged champions now get 50% of its value, down from 70%.
• Runaan's Hurricane: each bolt deals 60% of attack damage, down from 65%.

Riot also cleaned up the scoreboard: most item stack counters are hidden now. Tear of the Goddess items and Mejai's Soulstealer still show theirs.

#Also in 26.20

• Classic: Aatrox, Caitlyn, Irelia, Karma, and Quinn and Valor returned.
• Ranked 5s: queue windows were extended from 4pm–2am to 4pm–4am server time.
• Skins: the HEARTSTEEL "Live My Life" skins for Sett (Prestige), Ezreal, Kayn, Aphelios, Yone and K'Sante.

#Why it matters now

Patch 26.21 went live on October 20, but Worlds stays on 26.20. The ladder has moved on, while the pros keep playing this patch to the final on November 14. Our Worlds guide has the schedule, and the Swiss Round 1 post has the first matches.

#Sources

• Riot Games: Patch 26.20 notes