Riot Games will be testing a major revamp to League of Legends’ Arena mode in coming weeks, with gameplay boss Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison revealing a myriad of changes designed to appeal to more players as fans cry foul over “sweaty” lobbies.
From tweaking the average length of a League Arena match to adjusting how early players can be eliminated, Phroxzon detailed more about the changes coming to the mode in an April 24 post on X (formerly Twitter). First eliminations will now occur a whole round later, while duos will receive their second augment one round earlier—meaning a team will enter the elimination round with more of a power spike.
Also on the docket is a gold boost to Stat Shard rounds “to help people engage more with the item system later in the game,” Phroxzon stated in the X post, as well as a 250 gold cost increase to the Prismatic Anvil. These Arena changes, Phroxzon said, are designed to cater more to casuals after the team noticed a trend toward a ranked audience, with limited overlap to those who played modes for fun like ARAM.
“We believe we were cutting out too much of our prospective casual audience by making 1.5 so indexed into mechanically outplaying opponents,” Phroxzon said, adding League Arena 2.0 will be designed so playing for top spot will take “more RNG” than previous versions. The gameplay designer likened the new Arena to that of Teamfight Tactics or poker, where players will be expected to make the best out of the circumstances rather than simply running the show themselves entirely.
Ultimately, Riot still wants the best players to win, but hopes these changes will further balance the scales. “Even the best poker player in the world cannot guarantee they’re going to win in a session against even beginners, but in the long run, they will win out,” Phroxzon said.
Phroxzon stressed these updates would be for testing purposes only and weren’t guaranteed to make it to live servers next week, but hopes the knowledge the team gains from players trying out Arena will help improve the mode for updates to come.
League Arena makes its official return on May 1, with all these expected changes going live in the coming week alongside Patch 14.9 on Wednesday.
