October 2026 game patch notes: seven games in one place

Seven games we host tournaments for changed this month, and most of the changes touch things an organizer has to decide before match day: which patch the event runs on, which maps are in the pool, which heroes are allowed. This page collects the October changes in one place, game by game, with the one thing to check first for each. It is a summary. Where we have written a full breakdown, the link is in the section.

The short list

• VALORANT 13.08 (13 October): Bind and Corrode in, Ascent and Split out of the ranked and Deathmatch queues. Corrode reworked.
• League of Legends 26.21 (20 October): replay downloads capped at 10 an hour. Caitlyn, Jinx and Hubris nerfed.
• Overwatch (6, 13 and 20 October): Roadhog and Sombra reworked, and replay codes wiped on the 20th.
• PUBG Update 43.2 (13 October): new Custom Match host tools.
• Mobile Legends 2.2.16a (14 October): five heroes touched, after the September 2.2.16 patch.
• Magic Chess Go Go Season 7: four new synergies, with Commanders arriving in stages.
• Free Fire OB55: weapon class rebalance and four new guns, with changes dated 1 October.

VALORANT: patch 13.08

Patch 13.08 went live on 13 October and opens V26 Act 6. The map pool change is the headline: Bind and Corrode are in Competitive and Deathmatch, and Ascent and Split are out. Riot's notes cover the matchmaking queues only. They say nothing about what maps third-party organizers should use, so your pool is still your decision.

Corrode got a layout pass aimed at defender rotations and mid. Defenders can rotate faster into the back of A Site and B Site. The Mid half wall is now metal and sits one metre further out, and the A Site plant zone was adjusted to make post-plant from A Link less effective. Map Rating is also new in Competitive and Premier: a 0 to 500 score with a C to S grade for each map, built from win rate, attacker and defender win rate, and Performance Score. Other players cannot see yours.

Two known issues matter for events. Team MVP does not display correctly in Match History, and the Practice Range was disabled while Riot works on a fix with no date. Check first: publish your map pool and say whether Ascent and Split stay in it. Full breakdown: VALORANT Patch 13.08.

League of Legends: patch 26.21

Patch 26.21 came out on 20 October, with a mid-patch Varus update on 22 October. Replay downloads are now limited to 10 per hour. Riot says the reason is abuse by apps scraping huge numbers of replays. For a coach who bulk-downloads scrim blocks or an opponent's week of games, ten goes quickly.

On the botlane, Caitlyn moves power from the late game to the early game, Jinx loses a little base strength, Gluttonous Greaves rise from 1000 to 1100 gold, and Hubris now gives melee users 15 base attack damage and 3 per stack but ranged users only 10 and 2. Riot also trimmed several junglers, including Lee Sin, Nidalee, Wukong and Rammus. Check first: tell participants about the replay cap, and write the patch number into your event rules. Full breakdown: League of Legends Patch 26.21.

Overwatch: Roadhog, Sombra and a replay wipe

The 6 October patch started Season 5 and reworked two heroes. Roadhog's Scrap Gun now fires two bursts per volley, his old secondary fire is replaced by Trash Compactor, which absorbs projectiles and fires them back as an explosive shot, and Chain Hook is less lethal. Sombra moves from Damage to Support. Hack is gone, replaced by Weaken, a debuff that halves an enemy's damage and healing.

Blizzard also adjusted hit volumes across the roster and shrank hitscan projectile sizes to compensate, so aim can feel slightly different for a while. Hotfixes on 13 October retuned both reworked heroes. The 20 October update wiped replay codes, so anything saved from earlier patches should be treated as gone. Check first: decide whether Roadhog, Sombra and Doctrine are allowed, and ask players to save VODs, not rely on replay codes. Full breakdown: Overwatch patch notes, October 2026.

PUBG: update 43.2

This one covers PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS on PC and console, not PUBG Mobile. Update 43.2, published on 13 October, gives Custom Match a set of host tools that scrim organizers have wanted for years:

• Force End Match ends a match after a 10-second notice and sends everyone back to the lobby. There is no results screen, so screenshot the standings first.
• Random team assignment fills teams from Team 1 up, but is unavailable when Solo settings or reserved slots are in use.
• Hide Player Nicknames shows other players as "Unknown" style names in the killfeed and match log, which helps against stream sniping.
• Observer settings for Intense Battle Royale, and a host-only option for PC lobby chat.

PC maintenance ran on 14 October, and console was scheduled for 22 October. Check first: write which host tools are allowed into your rules, and run one dry lobby before the event. Full breakdown: PUBG Update 43.2.

Mobile Legends: 2.2.16 and the 14 October hotfix

The newest patch listed on Liquipedia is 2.2.16a, dated 14 October. It is a small follow-up to 2.2.16 from 16 September. The hotfix touches five heroes: Aulus, Hirara, Eudora and Rafaela are nerfed, and Kalea is buffed. The designers cut Eudora's ultimate damage by roughly 10 percent because she was too oppressive in the early to mid game.

The September patch did the bigger work. Masha and Bruno were revamped, and base gold from several jungle monsters is down 13 percent. The gold deficit needed to earn bonus gold from enemy hero kills falls from 2,000 to 1,500. The 2026 Annual Map Change began on 28 September. Check first: put the exact patch number in your rulebook. Whether an event runs on 2.2.16 or 2.2.16a changes five heroes.

Magic Chess Go Go: Season 7 "Chrono Echoes"

Moonton announced Season 7 as live on 13 August. It adds four synergies: Echomancer, which summons a random 5-cost Hero from a past season; SPECTRE, which ends in Alpha, called MCGG's first 7-Gold Hero; Starbelle, built around Lightsticks and "Fans"; and Mistbender, which uses tokens spent in a special Shop. Commanders arrive in stages: Franco on 21 August, Lylia and Brody in September, and Lukas planned for October.

Moonton's announcement gives no numbers for unit stats or synergy thresholds, so check the in-game notes for exact values. Check first: if you run a monthly series, say which Commander pool it uses. The pool in August was not the pool in September.

Free Fire: OB55

Garena published the OB55 notes on 10 September. The class rebalance widens the gaps between weapon types: SMGs become more mobile with shorter reach, snipers and marksman rifles slow down, and machine guns gain damage but lose mobility. Four new weapons are listed: M7, Skorp, RPK and Hawk, a sniper that carries only two rounds. The notes tie the weapon changes to the Clash Squad season starting on 1 October.

Clash Squad also gets a Flame Grenade, which burns an area for 6 seconds and melts Gloo Walls, and a Sonar Grenade that reveals enemies within 10 metres for 3 seconds. Check first: for any event after 1 October, name the new weapons in your rules, because players will ask whether the Hawk is allowed, and decide which characters are capped.

One habit that fixes most of this

Every section above ends the same way. Write the patch or version into the event page, publish your map, hero or weapon rules early, and run one test lobby. Most of the arguments that follow a patch come from teams who assumed a different version than the organizer did.

To see what is open for registration, browse the tournaments page and pick your game.