League of Legends' New Clash Tournament Mode Lets You Play Like a Pro

A new League of Legends game mode called "Clash" has been revealed that'll let players compete against others in a format that mimics pro games.

The game mode was previewed back in August when PBE assets were noticed that referenced the tournament mode. A new dev post explaining the mode was recently posted alongside the Riot Pls video above with the information about Clash starting at the 5-minute mark.

An inspiration for the tournament was partially attributed to the feeling of participating in a grassroots esports competition, and when you pick your teams and play against others for prizes, players will almost definitely experience that feeling. The weekend tournament mode will start with players putting together teams of five during the week, and when the weekend starts, you'll participate in a couple of single-elimination brackets that are organized by skill level. As you knock out teams and progress further into the tournaments, you'll receive better rewards that include skin shards, essence, and even "new rewards types unique to Clash that you'll be able to show off in ways we've never done before in League," the dev post covering the new tournament mode explained.

But in order to participate in these tournaments, you'll have to pay a buy-in that'll come in the form of Tickets. These Tickets can be purchased with Blue Essence, RP, or can be earned through missions, and while only one Ticket per player is required to buy into a tournament, raising your buy-in will give you the chance at better rewards. Smurfing is something that'll be a known problem with the tournament mode, but Riot says that they've got new systems to counter smurfs that'll be discussed more in early 2018.

As far as the similarities to professional play go, the Clash game mode will let you participate in a scouting phase before the tournament begins where you can see your enemies' most-played champions to help you plan out your bans. The same split draft system that's used in professional play will also be used in Clash.

Beta tests for Clash are beginning for the EUW, EUNE, and TR regions, and more info is planned to be released for the Clash game mode in 2018.