League of Legends: everything you need to know about the Clash Beta

League of Legends. /

Clash is having another beta test this weekend, so here’s what you need to know if you and your friends want to play in the next League of Legends tournament.

Today, Riot confirmed that the very first Clash tournament as part of the previously-announced preseason Clash beta will take place during the upcoming weekend. With the video “Clash Explained” uploaded to the official League of Legends Youtube channel today and the update to the Clash /nexus page, it’s a good time to refresh your mind about this long-anticipated game mode finally (hopefully) coming to League of Legends.

What is Clash?

Clash is a tournament mode of League of Legends, featuring eight 5v5 teams battling in a bracket, single-elimination format. The tournament takes place over the course of one day and should require players to play between two and three complete games of League of Legends (so you’ll need about two to four hours free, I’d say). There will be two tournaments per weekend, but don’t worry you don’t have to play in both (you can play on the first day and not the second, or vice versa, or just play them both, but your performance in one doesn’t impact whether you can play in the other).

You’ll battle in set five-man teams, so you will need to either have four friends to fill up your rosters or find some other Clash players to join with. Winning teams will get prizes and players will gain some cool bling as part of the experience!

Do I have to do anything to play?

Prior to playing in Clash, you will have to have completed your ranked placement matches. Since it’s preseason and you don’t really need to worry about losing your ranked rewards, this is a great time to get some games in if you haven’t done your placements yet! Once you’ve done that, you can go ahead and start creating (or joining) your team!

You’ll be able to create a team name and your own logo out of a few pre-chosen options. Once that’s done, start inviting friends to help fill out the roster. You can start creating/joining a team right now since the creation opens up a few days before the tournament starts.

Finally, you will also need a ticket to join one of these tournaments, which you can purchase with either Blue Essence or Riot Points. For the beta, though, you’ll get a free ticket for the first tournament.

Does it matter if I’m much higher/lower ranked than my friends?

Nope, each Clash team will have their own tier based on the skill levels of the players on the team. However, having one or two really good players will bring up the team’s overall tier. So you’re not going to get Challengers beating up on Silver players because their friends are all Bronze.

Does the tournament take place at a fixed time?

Unfortunately, yes. Every player on your team will have to lock in their spots before the first games of the tournament start. Don’t worry, you should have plenty of time to know when the tournament will start and your team can find a substitute (who will only be a part of the team for that one tournament), but don’t think you can use this as a chance to bring in a ringer at the last minute, because the player will have to be of equal or lower skill level than the player they’re replacing.

Before the tournament, you’ll have a bit of time to scout your opponent, getting to see their most popular and best picks. Also, during the tournament, all champions will be unlocked for all players, so the veteran players with a ton of blue essence don’t have any big advantage.

What kind of prizes?

Winning matches in the tournament (whether they be in the regular bracket or the consolation bracket for teams who fall in the first round) gives you victory points that unlock cool customizeables for your team (like new logos and in-game banners) as well as ranking up to the next tier. You’ll also get a Clash orb or capsule with individual prizes (you get better prizes if you purchased your initial ticket with RP). Finally, if your team wins the whole tournament, you’ll get some cool trophies adorning the Nexus of Summoners Rift in your games for the next two weeks.

Next. How to stop Mordekaiser from dominating your games. dark

What else do I need to know?

A few other miscellaneous items that don’t fit into these big questions:

The tournaments will each have a theme, which will be displayed as part of the banner awarded to the winning teams. For instance, this first Clash tournament is for the Hextech Cup.
It is possible for your team to rank up or down in terms of tier based on the team performance, so you can show a team of Bronze players are stronger than the sum of their parts!
The tournament draft will be similar to that of pro play (three bans each, then three picks, then two bans, and then two more picks).
The game mechanics of Clash will be slightly different to keep games from going too long. Towers will become more fragile at the 60-minute mark and begin damaging themselves at the 65-minute mark, to ensure one team wins by the 70-minute mark and keeping the tournament on schedule.

Home/News