League of Legends MMO hires former World of Warcraft combat designer

Brian Holinka has joined Riot as a principal game designer on the League of Legends MMO. Holinka posted on LinkedIn, "Today is my first official day at Riot on the League of Legends MMO!" He spent more than a decade at Blizzard, including nearly five years as lead combat designer on World of Warcraft.

Holinka left Blizzard in 2023 to join Fantastic Pixel Castle, a studio founded that year by former Riot vice president Greg Street. That studio's planned MMO fell apart when NetEase ended funding in 2025.

The hire follows other additions to Riot's MMO team: former WoW lead producer Raymond Bartos joined less than five months ago, and former WoW lead software engineer Orlando Salvatore arrived in October 2024. The League MMO was revealed in December 2020 and has seen little public update since, though Street has moved on to a new role he says "it's not an MMO, at least not yet."

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