Arena mode to return to LoL with more teams and a competitive edge

Arena will be returning to League of Legends in May with more teams and new opportunities for competitive play, according to Riot.

Arena launched in 2023 as part of the Soul Fighter event, and quickly established itself as one of the most successful rotating game modes to come to the game in years. Its popularity caused it to return in winter last year, with several adjustments to make it less of a rotating mode and more of a staple of League.

Now, it’s set to return again, with another drastic expansion: instead of pitting four teams of two against each other, there will be eight pairs instead. This will double the variety of teams players will go up against, in a move that Riot hopes will make the game mode less stale and provide more room for comebacks.

There will also be new items exclusive to the game mode, called Prismatics, which will act similarly to the Prismatic augments; they’ll completely change the way your champion plays and open the doors for lots of weird builds.

However, the changes will also bring an expansion into a more competitive zone, with Riot trialing a series of tournaments in the NE region. The Nordics and UK/Ireland servers will each host a competitive arena tournament, with signups opening on May 1st, that will split players into brackets based on rank.

Riot said: “We want to allow competitive players to grind with friends, test out comps and have fun with a new game mode. We also want to create a competition that allows players of all ranks to enjoy it without running into very high-rated players who will make their tournament experience feel bad.”