Riot Games is still building a League of Legends MMO. Co-founder Marc Merrill said so on stage at PAX West 2026 on September 4, sitting with Greg Miller of Kinda Funny. Riot posted a clip of the talk on September 6. There is still no official title, no release year, and no public screenshot.
Merrill’s line was the same mix of confidence and warning the project has lived on for years. "We know what players’ hopes and dreams are. It’s just on us, as a team and people, can we succeed in the execution? What a worthy quest." Internally they call it the Grail. "You know, f*ck it, many a brave knight are going to die on the Grail quest. But f*ck it, it’s the Grail, so let’s go. That’s the mindset that we really try to cultivate and that is hard to do at scale. But I think we’re doing a reasonable job, and I think the future is incredibly bright."
The MMO was first talked about as a new Runeterra game around late 2020 and into 2021. Greg Street was the early public face. He left. The project reset in 2024. Merrill said then that Riot had gone back to the drawing board some time earlier. Fabrice Condominas is the executive producer now. Merrill is still described as heavily involved in the new direction.
The hiring list is the other signal. Former World of Warcraft lead producer Raymond Bartos joined as senior game producer in January 2026. Former WoW lead combat designer Brian Holinka started June 1 as principal game designer. Former WoW lead software engineer Orlando Salvatore landed in October 2024. Those names mean Riot is still staffing the thing like a long-horizon live game, not a canceled slide.
Nothing playable has leaked. Job language over the years has pointed at a persistent sandbox world and an early-stage concept after the reset. That is all the public has. League of Legends itself is heading toward 17 years and still gets new modes. Riot recently shipped League Classic, a playlist meant to feel like older patches of the MOBA. That is the game that prints money while the MMO stays in a black box.
The PAX clip landed two weeks after Riot said it would end active development on 2XKO. The tag-team fighter launched recently on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Less than a year of live support is why replies under the Grail post were cold. People asked why they should trust a multi-year MMO when a smaller League spin-off got a short leash. Merrill did not address 2XKO in the quoted MMO remarks. He talked execution and knights.
Street once said there was no guarantee the MMO would ship at all. That line from 2022 still sits next to Merrill’s 2026 “bright future.” Both can be true in the same company. MMOs eat years and teams. World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV only look inevitable after the failed versions and the rebuilds. Riot has not shown a combat slice, a zone, or a character creator. The Grail nickname is the studio admitting the body count on the way there.
No date means no date. No art means the next update could be another stage quote. The useful part of this week is narrower: the project exists, the reset did not kill it, and the combat and production chairs keep filling with people who shipped expansions at Blizzard. If you wanted a 2027 window, this talk did not give you one. If you wanted confirmation the lights are still on, Merrill put that on a PAX mic.
Are you treating the Grail talk as a real green light, or do you need a trailer before you care? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.