League of Legends has introduced a new Arena mode as part of its Soul Fighter summer event, pitting four teams of two players against each other in a big shakeup to the game’s usual 5v5 Summoner’s Rift matches.
In a blog post about the new mode, design lead Daniel “Riot Maxw3ll” Emmons described Arena as “a mashup of League and Teamfight Tactics, focused squarely on putting you into the action faster, forcing you to respond to huge power ups, and tempting you to try truly wacky nonsense.”
Players can queue solo or with a friend to enter the arena in a team of two. Each match has multiple rounds, and each round has a buy phase and a combat phase, where you’ll face off against another team 2v2. Match ups will rotate between the four teams in the arena, with each having a team health bar that goes down with each loss. If you’re eliminated, you’ll be able to exit early and queue for a new game immediately.
There are a lot of changes from vanilla League, including a new Augment feature inspired by TFT, changes to how items work, and only two Summoner spells–Flash and a new spell called Flee. Every player gets one ban before a blind pick round, meaning mirror match ups may occur in Arena. Combat will take place across four brand-new mini arena maps, with each having unique terrain features.
The new game mode comes as part of the Soul Fighter event, which introduces a new in-game universe with twelve brand-new skins for various champions. While Riot hasn’t acknowledged a connection to Project L, its yet-unnamed 2v2 tag-based fighting game set in the world of League of Legends, some fans have speculated that Soul Fighter might be teasing the upcoming game.
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