Riot Games is working on in-client tournament support for League Of Legends , something I never thought I’d ever see. Files have been found on the PBE detailing the new “Clash” mode, a new team-based competition which allows groups of five to play together in a ranked tournament. Ever since “ranked-5” games left League almost two years ago, fans with four other friends have been left out of competitive play. With this system, players can team up, buy players from other teams, earn rewards and more, directly from the client.
Three new Summoners Icons appeared on Tuesday’s PTR update, which Riot Draggles confirmed had to do with the “Clash” mode.
“Clash” mode is going through testing on the Vietnamese server, but one redditor, molenzweibel, was able to trick the PTR into thinking he belonged into the test by changing his region. First, you pick which tournament you want to take part in: an open bracket, a winner’s bracket or a championship bracket. Next, you’ll be able to create a roster with Summoner’s names and add whomever you choose. You can add icons, ranging from an adorable Poro to an angry Razorbeak, to give your team some flair alongside access to chromas. Some icons are locked at the start and can only be earned by winning tournaments.
My favorite part of this mode has to be the scouting system, which allows you to look for teams you might want to join. Say you’re a lowly Silver Teemo main, looking for other Yordles to fight alongside. Just look up a tournament, check a team’s roster and see if they’d be a good fit. You can see their Mastery score alongside their most used champions, making finding that one-trick pony of your dreams a reality.
These features all still in the testing phase, meaning we have no idea how much longer it’ll be until Riot Games lets us play. Testing can take as little as one PBE cycle or forever; we still haven’t seen the mythical Magma Chamber 1v1 map yet. Still, it looks like Riot’s developers put a lot of time into making this work, so I highly doubt they’ll abandon the whole project. Playing an organized tournament without sites like Battlefy sounds like a dream come true. I hate solo queue but love League Of Legends, leaving me without any (less toxic) avenue to play. With the “Clash” mode, I’ll be able to play with like-minded people, coordinating on Skype to team fight properly.
