League of Legends Clash tournament guide: how it works, prizes, and more

Clash is finally upon us! After months of waiting for the five versus five, competitive gamemode, and at least one NA beta test, it’s time for Clash to make its official debut. If you’re looking to get a crew of talented players together for this, there’s some info you’re gonna need to know. Luckily, we’ve got you covered.

Here’s everything you need to know before playing Clash this weekend, or any other.

Creating a team

To create a team, simply log into the League client and go to the brand new “Competitive” tab at the top. Once you’re in, you’ll need to pick a name for your team, a three letter tag, and a customizable icon. Then, you’ll need to use your phone number to confirm your application via an SMS code. You can then start inviting friends to play with you.

Substitutes

No matter how bad we want to play League of Legends, things come up in our lives. Hopefully your teammates will be understanding of your need to step away, and you to theirs. But just because you’re missing your jungler doesn’t mean you can’t participate. You can use one substitute per day and they will need to be used for the entire day; if you’re friend has to miss the first hour, they have to miss the whole day. The substitute will be removed from your roster at the start of each day, but can be invited back if you still need them.

Subbed players will still get rewards for the day they participate. However, they must be evaluated at the same or lower skill tier than the player they’re replacing.

Entering a bracket

The tournament is structured across three days. On Friday, you and your teammates will enter into a four bracket tournament. If you win two games in a row, you’ll advance and be placed into an eight bracket tournament the next day. If you lose, you’ll enter a consolation tournament with the other losers.

Riot Games

The eight-team bracket will be played on Saturday. The winners of these brackets will be placed in a bracket of 16 teams on Sunday for the ultimate prizes. You can enter into a four team bracket any day, including Sunday. However, subsequent brackets will only take place a day after, meaning that you can, at best, win an eight bracket tournament if you wait to enter until Saturday.

Tickets

In order to play Clash, each member of your team will need a ticket. These can be purchased in the store for 990 BE or 215 RP. You can also complete the mission this week of winning four, ranked 5v5 Flex matches. If your team loses, you’ll each need to bring another ticket with you for the next day if you want to re-enter. If you get your hands on five tickets, you can bump up the Clash rewards as well.

Playing the tourney

Once it comes time for the games to begin, each member of your team will need to “lock in,” confirming that they’re ready to jam thirty minutes before your matches actually start. You’ll then be able to scout out the enemy teams and prepare a bit.

The draft phase is also a bit different, giving you the same system that we see the pros use. (Each team bans three champions, picks three champions, bans two more, and then picks the last two.) Finally, to make sure that matches stay within 70 minutes or less, towers will become more fragile after 60 minutes and begin to damage themselves five minutes later. They will degrade until one team wins. This guarantees that someone will win by the 70 minute mark, keeping the tournament on schedule.

Riot Games

Rewards

Now for the rewards bit, everyone’s favorite topic. Winning a bracket will net you a neato summoner icon (below). No matter how you do, you’ll also at least get a Clash Capsule, which you can open to give you more fun rewards like XP boosts and Clash team icons. But the real reason you want to play some League of Legends this weekend with your best mates is for those sweet new victory points.

Riot Games

Victory points are given to winners in Clash mode. As you get more points, you’ll unlock higher tier banners (shown below). These banners show up on your profile, letting all of your match history stalkers know how cool you are. But that isn’t even close to the best bit. Even after the beta ends, your Clash banner will be displayed in your lane while playing other matchmade modes on Summoner’s Rift. Sure you may just be a lowly Silver, but how intimidating will it be to show up with a swanky new purple banner to scare your enemies?

Finally, each tournament has a unique trophy associated with it. If you win a trophy, it will be placed by the Nexus in your games for the next two weeks. I’ve always wondered what that thing’s built in trophy case was for.

The schedule

Clash will take place every two weeks, Friday - Sunday. Each month will offer a different themed cup as well, meaning that we’ll have two weekend tournaments per theme. For example, the first Clash month is for the Demacia Cup.

Good luck Summoners, and get ready to wave your banners.