Brian Holinka, World of Warcraft's former lead combat designer, has joined Riot Games as principal game designer on the long-awaited League of Legends MMO. Holinka confirmed the news himself on Twitter, writing: "First official day at Riot Games working on the League of Legends MMO!"
Holinka confirms Riot role
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Nearly 11 years of WoW experience walking through the door
Holinka's resume is hard to argue with. He spent close to 11 years at Blizzard, working his way up from lead PvP designer to lead combat designer, where he oversaw all combat-related systems for World of Warcraft, including class design and the entire player versus player content suite. That is exactly the kind of institutional knowledge you want building the bones of a new MMO.
After leaving Blizzard in 2023, he moved to Fantastic Pixel Castle, the studio founded by Greg Street (the original lead of the LoL MMO project) to develop an MMO codenamed Ghost. That studio shut down last year after losing its publishing deal with NetEase Games, leaving Holinka and much of that team without a home. Now he has one.
A pattern that's hard to ignore
Here's the thing: Riot is not quietly staffing this project. Three former Blizzard MMO leads now sit in senior positions on the same team. That is a deliberate talent strategy, not coincidence.
The LoL MMO was first announced in December 2020, which puts us approaching 6 years of near-total silence on what the game actually looks like. What most players miss is that Riot co-founder Marc Merrill stated just a couple of months ago that the studio is "more committed to" building a great MMO "than ever," even after reports surfaced that Riot had considered spending $250 million to acquire an existing MMO rather than finish its own.
The fact that Riot passed on that acquisition route and is instead pulling in proven MMO talent suggests the internal build is far enough along to justify serious investment in design leadership. Holinka stepping in as principal game designer, specifically, points to combat systems being an active priority right now.
What this means for players still waiting
The LoL MMO remains one of the most anticipated unannounced games in the genre. The Runeterra setting has been fleshed out across years of League of Legends content, animated series, and spin-off games, giving any MMO built on top of it a massive head start on world-building.
The key here is that assembling a team with this much combined MMO experience does not guarantee a fast release, but it does suggest Riot is past the exploratory phase. Hiring a combat lead of Holinka's caliber is the kind of move you make when you have something concrete to build toward.
While the MMO takes shape behind closed doors, the live game keeps evolving at pace. Check out our League of Legends Season 2026 patch breakdown for everything currently changing on Summoner's Rift, or browse the full League of Legends strategy guides collection to stay sharp while the wait continues.
