The bonafide success of all-new League of Legends game modes Arena and Swarm have inspired Riot Games to start work on even more alternate playlists—including some that may “push the envelope.”
League has long existed with its more traditional modes, mainly Summoner’s Rift and Howling Abyss. While that has kept it among the biggest games in the world, new hype has flooded into the fandom with the birth of fresh game modes across the last few seasons, including last year’s Arena and now Swarm.
Riot has heard the message and will respond in kind. The development team made a mistake slowing down on game modes. Now they’re going to go in the other direction, with plans to build more “experimentation for League” that will let them go wild with cool designs, interesting expansions, and more modes—all of which can then be “safe” testing for more upgrades in the original League game.
“We saw what our ecosystem looks like when we’re not injecting new, novel experiences,” Eduardo Cortejoso, who leads League’s modes teams, explained. “Players told us loud and clear they were missing modes.”
Focus will also continue to be placed on Swarm and Arena. Not only does Riot want to keep supporting the League modes already succeeding, but they want to build them to be “sustainable long term,” as Swarm product lead Sope May explained.
Exactly what this may entail is not yet clear, though the League modes team have already proved they’re more than willing to take big swings with changes. Arena was a smash hit the first time it released, but that didn’t stop Riot from fiddling with things quite heavily for its second run—a move that clearly paid dividends. “We are looking at ways we can keep improving modes over time,” May added.
This stance on modes does beg the question: Will older playlists originally shelved potentially get new leases on life? League players have long demanded Twisted Treeline’s return. So too with Nexus Blitz, the narrative-focused Odyssey, and the long-dormant Dominion; each could easily be revamped.
Just about the only thing we can be certain of (until Riot starts unveiling new projects, of course) is that things are going to be on the wackier side, like Swarm has been. It’ll still be controlled—Riot described it as “like Heimerdinger’s measured risks”—but fun will be the goal either way.
“A value of game modes is they create different ways to experience League,” said Swarm design lead August “Riot August” Browning said. “Some players are ranked grinders, other players love ARAM, and another group will prefer normals. League has this large and diverse player base and modes are a great way to serve players who want different types of experiences.”
For the time being, one thing’s abundantly clear: Swarm and Arena have been resounding victories. Here’s to more modes in League’s future.
