League of Legends: Everything About the 2vs2 Arena Mode

The concept of a game mode that features fewer than five players per team has been shelved for a long time. Ever since the removal of 3v3 on the Twisted Treeline map, it has been clear to all players that Riot is completely focused on the Summoner's Rift.

Now a mini mode is experiencing its revival in 2023. Because with the LoL Arena, many players will once again experience the 2vs2 vibes that they felt a long time ago on the ARAM map in a time-limited duel mode.

In duel, the rules were relatively simple: The game was played on the ARAM map and the team that first scored 100 CS, destroyed the opponent's turret, or eliminated all opponents won.

But now players get a carefully crafted 2vs2 mode, on four 2vs2 maps, with never-before-seen mechanics. Below we will help you as a beginner, so that all important questions about the LoL Arena are answered.

2v2v2v2 - This is How Arena Mode Works

In Arena mode, 2vs2 is played on a tiny, circular map. A total of 8 players participate, which are divided into 4 teams. Each team starts with 20 health points. The four teams fight against each other in two parallel arenas, with the losers having some health deducted after the round. The team that still has health points left at the end wins the mode.

In champion selection, each player first bans a champion, so there are 8 bans. The first player on each team then selects their champion. The second player from each team then picks and thus has the opportunity to counterpick. A fighter/assassin meta has been established in the arena. Marksmen and Mages are therefore seen less often.

You don't have to select runes (not available in champion select) or summoner spells. However, you can occasionally obtain runes in the game mode via augments, but more on that later. As for summoner spells, there is only Flash and a spell called "Flee" . This gives you a short boost of movement speed, which is much more powerful than Ghost.

Rounds and Buying Phase

Every duel in the arena is preceded by a purchase phase in which you can either spend your gold on items or choose one of dozens of cards (augments). Also, the health loss resulting from a lost round increases every few rounds.

In addition to the round gold that all players receive, kills are the only way to earn extra gold in the arena. For a takedown the player receives 350 gold, which can be extremely valuable to get one or two items earlier than the rest.

Each round it is also possible to purchase a potion for 700 gold. This strengthens your character for the next round. The potion must then be purchased again.

Choosing Augments

Starting from the 2nd round, every third round you can choose one of three cards whose effect strengthens your champion for the rest of the game. There are dozens of augments in the arena that can appear to you. Each augment comes in three variants: Silver, Gold and Prismatic. Silver is the weakest variant of the card, Prismatic is the strongest.

Which variant of the card appears to you is random, but the system ensures that other players also have the opportunity to receive equally stronger variants.

Arena Maps and Guest Appearances From Champions

The location of your arena duels is one of four small maps. Every round you fight with your teammate on a different map. You will encounter these maps in the LoL Arena:

• Frostbite Thicket
• Ancestral Woods
• Desert Oasis
• Magma Chamber

In addition, some champions receive a (neutral) guest appearance in the arena. These use one of their abilities that the duelists can interact with. It can happen that Thresh throws his Lantern, or that Sett casts his Haymaker after it has been triggered by the players.

After fighting each other for 30 seconds, a ring of fire will appear on the map, slowly contracting every few seconds. If you stand in the fire, you take damage to your champion, but this principle has of course been well known since Fortnite. This ensures that the fights come to an end on time.

On every map there is still the option to quickly regenerate with the Power Flower. If you attack the plant with automatic attacks, you get back a shield, hit points, mana and cooldown.

Your teammate can also revive you once per round by standing in the blue circle for a short time. Pay attention to the red circle of your opponent and prevent them from reviving their teammate.

Arena Ranked System

There is no real ranked system in the arena yet. After all, this game mode is still in beta and only available for a limited time. However, after five games, players will be placed in one of these classes:

• Wood (0-1399 points)
• Bronze (1400-2599 points)
• Silver (2600-3299 points)
• Gold (3300-3999 points)
• Gladiator (4000+ points)

The first and second placed team each receive points for their rank, the other two teams lose rank points. However, it is currently not possible to be demoted from a league.