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Update: Riot Games announces release date for 2v2v2v2 mode
Riot Games announced that the 2v2v2v2 Team Deathmatch-like (TDM) game mode will be called Arena and that it will be released as part of the big 2023 Summer Event titled "Soul Fighter."
Arena mode will go live with the Soul Fighter-themed skins and new champion Naafiri during LoL Patch 13.14 on 20th July.
You can read more about the Arena mode and the Soul Fighter event in the following articles:
(The original article from 1st May 2023 continues below)
At the start of the year and the new season in League of Legends, Riot Games acknowledged the need for new game modes and teased a new deathmatch-type mode. League of Legends‘ executive producer Jeremy “Brightmoon” Lee and head of League Studio Andrei “Meddler” confirmed that a new game mode called 2v2v2v2 was in the making in January 2023. After a few months time, in the latest Dev Update video, the developers gave some more insights into this new League of Legends game mode.
Interestingly, players will be getting a completely new map on which this new game mode will be played. Here’s all you need to know about League of Legends’ 2v2v2v2 game mode.
2v2v2v2 Mode in League of Legends Explained
While the 2v2v2v2 game mode was first introduced, Meddler said that it basically involves four teams of two players who get matched up against each other in a series of deathmatch-like rounds where players buy items and level-up between rounds. While Meddler stated that the mode was janky in January’s update, he stated that the prototype was very promising.
Giving more context on the game mode’s development, Meddler said in a Reddit comment, “At this point, the 2v2v2v2 mode won't be just a prototype. It should be reasonably refined, hence mention for example of having a new map for it rather than just having to repurpose an existing map like we were doing during initial prototyping.”
Some of the goals that Riot Games has for this mode are as follows:
Quickly get players into champion vs champion combat.
Push champion customization beyond where League has traditionally gone.
Minimize time spent dead or trapped in a frustrating game.
In this deathmatch-style mode, champions will progress in power over the game, gaining items, levels, and special powers called Augments in between the combat rounds. Teams are eliminated after losing enough rounds, allowing you to queue up immediately.
Augments are basically power-ups that will give players unique builds for every champion in the game. Players can either choose to index into their champion’s core strengths or tap into new, exciting ones.
Here are some Augments that Riot Games gave as examples:
Sylas who casts Lissandra W every 5 seconds
Ekko with 500 attack range
A Kai’Sa who dives the enemy team and dies immediately, creating a huge explosion post -mortem just like Kog’Maw’s passive.
League of Legends Deathmatch Game Mode Release Date
While Riot Games has not shared an exact date of release for the 2v2v2v2 mode, it is gearing up to release the game mode in the coming months. This latest, upcoming deathmatch game mode will be going live with the "big summer event" in 2023, disclosed Lead Gameplay Producer Ryan “Reav3” Mireles.
New Map for the New Game Mode
Another great item of news for the League of Legends player base is that the new game mode will not be featured on the Summoner’s Rift or the Howling Abyss maps. Instead, it will have its own map with unique features and gameplay possibilities.
Riot Games confirmed that a new map is under development for the 2v2v2v2 mode. It also gave a glimpse of what the map could potentially look like through concept art pieces in the April Dev Update video. From all the images shown, it looks like the map will be circular in shape with each of the four teams having their own dedicated area of spawn.
It looked like Riot Games was inspired by the elemental Rift of the classic mode since the different arenas, that were teased in the video, had features like water, rocky terrain, and bushes among others.
It will be interesting to see if the map can evolve into different terrains over the course of the deathmatch or if they were simply just ideas that Riot Games has been throwing around.
