Overview
- Brian Holinka began a June 2026 role at Riot as principal game designer on the League of Legends MMO, according to his LinkedIn and reporting from multiple outlets.
- Holinka spent more than a decade at Blizzard where he served as lead PvP designer and lead combat designer for World of Warcraft, giving him deep experience in MMO combat and class systems.
- Riot’s League MMO remains in private development and has no public release timeline, but recent senior hires show the company is actively staffing core design and production roles.
- The project was first announced in December 2020, later underwent a development reset, and saw its original public lead Greg Street depart while a separate Ghost MMO effort folded in 2025 after funding ended.
- Bringing in WoW veterans such as Holinka, Raymond Bartos, and Orlando Salvatore signals Riot is prioritizing combat, class design, and production expertise and suggests future updates will likely focus on those core systems.