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Arena Mode in League of Legends is basically a mix of mechanics in Summoner's Rift and Teamfight Tactics but you don't command a few units that duke it out automatically.
Instead, you have to do the fighting yourself, along with your partner.
Before the match begins, you will be able to ban champions which is a system that should be familiar to anyone who played Draft or Ranked in LoL. After that, you will pick champions via Blind Pick, meaning you don't see what the other teams are picking and duplicates are possible. In fact, it is possible for all four teams to run the same champion.
TFT similarities
Riot decided on having four teams consisting of two players each and then will fight one another on a rotation, just like you would fight other players in TFT.
Similarly, the team that loses a round will lose some HP. Running down to zero HP knocks the team out.
Continuing with TFT parallels, there are Shop phases and the aforementioned Combat phases, alternating between one another.
Shop and Augments
Each shopping phase will give you something different:
- Shop round one grants 1,000 gold
- Shop round two holds an Augment
- Shop round three grants 3,000 gold
- Shop round four grants 3,000 gold
- Shop round five has another Augment
- Shop round six grants 3,000 gold
Rounds four to six will keep repeating until only one team is left standing.
The items in the shop will be altered to fit the Arena Mode better. For example, all boots and starter items cost 1,000 gold while all Mythics are at 3,000 gold. You also can't buy components and can only buy complete items.
Excess gold can be used to purchase Juices, which are power-ups that work like Elixirs.
Augments are power-ups that grow more powerful over the course of the game and they can come in three rarities - Silver, Gold or Prismatic. When they arrive in the shop, they are of the same rarity for all players. You can see everyone's Augments on the scoreboard.
Combat
Each matchup is picked randomly but you can't play against the same team twice before going through the rest of the teams. Teams start with 20 HP and losing a match costs two HP. This penalty grows stronger over the course of the match, up to eight HP.
If at least one takedown is achieved during combat, the team will get 350 gold to spend in the shop.
Runes are disabled in 2v2 Arena while Summoner spells are restricted. Flash is there but the other spells are replaced by Flee.
Power flowers, cameos and other surprises
Power flowers are scattered over the arena and serve as powerups that heal, shield and reduce cooldowns for the one that attacks them.
After 40 seconds, a ring of fire will appear and start reducing the battlefield, like in any battle royale around.
Players gain movement speed, slow resistance and Tenacity the less HP they or their ally has. Dead allies count for maximum effect. Players also keep stacking Tenacity when getting crowd controlled.
From round four onwards, one of the Soul Fighter champion NPCs will start messing with the players.
- Evelynn gives everyone camouflage
- Gwen casts her W on the player with the lowest HP
- Jhin casts his ultimate, targeting a different player every time
- Lux spawns tripwires and players that step over them will be targeted by her laser
- Naafiri will patrol the arena, attacking nearby champions
- Pyke casts his stun (E) at the furthest enemy
- Samira gets combo points from players' crowd control, casts ultimate at six points
- Sett can be attacked. Last hitting him causes him to cast W on enemies
- Shaco places Jack in the Box (W) randomly around the map
- If Viego appears, he will lend his body and skills to the first player that dies
As soon as your team drops to zero HP and gets knocked out, you can leave and queue up for the next match with no penalty.
