League of Legends’ 9th season starts Jan. 24

Season 8 is officially over, which means we’re in the limbo bit right before preseason officially starts and the end of the season. To hold us over, Riot Games has officially announced some important dates for the ranked season, including the start date for season 9: Jan. 24.

Senior designer Ed “SapMagic” Altorfer tweeted that preseason officially starts on Nov. 21 with patch 8.23’s launch. After that, the ranked changes go through on patch 8.24. This includes the addition of the new Iron and Grandmaster tier, as well as the removal of the fifth tier in each rank. Patch 9.1 will bring about some stability changes and on patch 9.2, season 9 will officially starts.

Altorfer also notes that no, you will not decay from your rank during preseason and honor will reset at season start. You can still earn honor until everything resets in 9.2, but it won’t change your rewards. (If you’re honor level four right now, you’ll be getting the honor four reward, even if you hit honor five before the reset.)

This start date isn’t too much later than usual, as season 8 began on Jan. 16, 2018.

Update (Jan. 22): Patch 9.2 has been pushed to release on Jan. 24, 2019 due to the holiday on Monday. Riot Games has confirmed in an e-mail that the season will begin on that day instead. The story above has been updated to reflect those changes.