Arena, Swarm successes leave Riot ready to ‘push the envelope’ on more LoL modes

“Players told us loud and clear they were missing modes.”

Battle Bunny Prime Riven attacks an enemy with her huge energy sword in League of Legends.
Image via Riot Games

The bonafide success of all-new League of Legends game modes Arena and Swarm have inspired Riot Games to start work on even more alternate playlists⁠—including some that may “push the envelope.”

Recommended Videos

League has long existed with its more traditional modes, mainly Summoner’s Rift and Howling Abyss. While that has kept it among the biggest games in the world, new hype has flooded into the fandom with the birth of fresh game modes across the last few seasons, including last year’s Arena and now Swarm.

An animated version of Samira from League of Legends lifts her hand in celebration in front of a huge colosseum stand full of fans.
Players have been very vocal about how much they’ve loved Arena and Swarm. Image via Riot Games

Riot has heard the message and will respond in kind. The development team made a mistake slowing down on game modes. Now they’re going to go in the other direction, with plans to build more “experimentation for League” that will let them go wild with cool designs, interesting expansions, and more modes⁠—all of which can then be “safe” testing for more upgrades in the original League game.

“We saw what our ecosystem looks like when we’re not injecting new, novel experiences,” Eduardo Cortejoso, who leads League’s modes teams, explained. “Players told us loud and clear they were missing modes.”

Focus will also continue to be placed on Swarm and Arena. Not only does Riot want to keep supporting the League modes already succeeding, but they want to build them to be “sustainable long term,” as Swarm product lead Sope May explained.

Exactly what this may entail is not yet clear, though the League modes team have already proved they’re more than willing to take big swings with changes. Arena was a smash hit the first time it released, but that didn’t stop Riot from fiddling with things quite heavily for its second run⁠—a move that clearly paid dividends. “We are looking at ways we can keep improving modes over time,” May added.

This stance on modes does beg the question: Will older playlists originally shelved potentially get new leases on life? League players have long demanded Twisted Treeline’s return. So too with Nexus Blitz, the narrative-focused Odyssey, and the long-dormant Dominion; each could easily be revamped.

Twisted Treeline promo art from League of Legends.
League has many older game modes gathering dust on the shelves. Image via Riot Games

Just about the only thing we can be certain of (until Riot starts unveiling new projects, of course) is that things are going to be on the wackier side, like Swarm has been. It’ll still be controlled⁠—Riot described it as “like Heimerdinger’s measured risks”—but fun will be the goal either way.

“A value of game modes is they create different ways to experience League,” said Swarm design lead August “Riot August” Browning said. “Some players are ranked grinders, other players love ARAM, and another group will prefer normals. League has this large and diverse player base and modes are a great way to serve players who want different types of experiences.”

For the time being, one thing’s abundantly clear: Swarm and Arena have been resounding victories. Here’s to more modes in League’s future.

Author
Image of Isaac McIntyre
Isaac McIntyre
Isaac McIntyre is the Aussie Editor at Dot Esports. He previously worked in sports journalism at Fairfax Media in Mudgee and Newcastle for six years before falling in love with esports—an ever-evolving world he's been covering since 2018. Since joining Dot, he's twice been nominated for Best Gaming Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism Awards and continues to sink unholy hours into losing games as a barely-Platinum AD carry. When the League servers go down he'll sneak in a few quick hands of the One Piece card game. Got a tip for us? Email: isaac@dotesports.com.