LoL Arena Returns May 2024

The 2024 Dev Video

Watch the latest developers video here or find the main points below:

1. Past Performance and Improvements: The developers acknowledge that while Arena was successful initially, play hours decreased over time. To address this, they are making improvements to enhance variety and longevity. The Arena mode will also stay available for an extended time!

2. Changes Coming to Arena:

   • New Item System: A new class of items called Prismatics are introduced, aiming to shape build decisions throughout matches.
   • Changes to Item Acquisition: Players will no longer solely purchase items from the shop but can also gamble using anvils to obtain items at a lower cost, but with less reliability.

What else is New in Arena?

Big changes are coming! Let's go through the most important ones that were revealed in recent developer videos.

More Teams!

In the upcoming 2024 update, Riot is raising the number of competing teams from four to eight. This means we are looking at Arena games that are larger than ever before—imagine, 16 players duking it out in every match in a 2v2v2v2v2v2v2v2.

New Augments, Maps and Updated UI

You should also anticipate some major revamps to the UI, freshly designed battlegrounds, and a wider range of Augments. History tells us that each time Arena comes back, the Augments undergo major changes. This time will likely be no different. However, Riot is keeping us guessing by refusing to disclose more details until the relaunch of Arena. 

New Champion Cameos

In addition, familiar faces drawn from the champion roster will continue to influence the maps in various ways. We've seen camoes from Lux, Naafiri, Pyke, Samira, Sett, Evelynn, Gwen, Shaco, Sylas, Thresh and Viego. This time too, you should expect some new Champion cameo updates. Players were quite vocal on Reddit regarding certain camoes that ruined the gameplay, so hopefully Riot Games took that feedback into consideration.

For example, Gwen would shield the lowest health player with her Hallowed Mist ability and Viego where the first player to die is revived as Viego himself. These two cameos heavily benefits the losing duo, and unintended strategies were used similar to the Revive System.

Here, a popular LoL Arena streamer (ioki and Heiz) is getting saved by Gwen after almost dying.

The Revive System

Following the introduction of the revive system in the latest Arena version, players found ways to misuse it. Its original intention was to give a second chance, but players turned it into a strategy of being the first to die, especially if their partner could survive until the revive was complete. Players raised complaints on Reddit about the Revive System and other imbalances, and it should be exciting to see how Riot addresses them. 

FF, go next?

Interestingly, Riot hinted in another Dev video about allowing players to "maybe get out early". Given that surrendering wasn't previously an option, this could possibly indicate the introduction of a forfeit (FF) system for teams on the losing side.

LoL Arena Becoming a Permanent Mode

The developers confirmed that Arena will be available for an extended period in order to measure the interest of the mode over time. If the interest is high enough, we can expect to see the Arena mode becoming a permanent game mode, alongside ARAM.

We're just as excited as you to see the return of the updated Arena and we hope it will come back better than ever, and maybe even permanently.

How sweet wouldn't that be?