Arena returns in Act 2 of the first season of 2025. Read up to see how the game mode is evolving.
It wouldn't be a proper Noxus season with Arena returning. Arena makes its return in Act 2 of Season 1 with patch 2025.S1.5, with heaps of changes to ensure the gamemode feels fresh and exciting! Patch 2025.S1.5 will begin on the 5th of March, roughly three weeks from now. Arena will be live until Patch 15.9 goes live on April 30, so make sure to drop by while it’s here!
Map Changes
Koi Pond
Koi Pond was added last year to a somewhat mixed reception. It consisted of three larger discs that players could fight on, but which were not easy to travel between. This could lead to frustrating situations during a duel, and even moments when there was pretty much no fighting at all, if everyone was stranded to different corners of the map.
Introducing: the ring. There is now a ring around the entire breadth of the map that is walkable and connects all three areas of map. This will ideally prevent the common Koi Pond situation of being stranded away from your teammate and knowing you're doomed.
As you can see below, the Blast Cones were also removed from the Koi Pond. Previously, they were an alternative way of moving between the discs if the flower in the middle was not walkable. Since the ring is here now, the Blast Cones can be removed.
The Reckoner Arena
A new Noxian arena map will be getting added to the pool of possible battlegrounds. The Reckoner Arena is fairly open, with several sparse bits of brush to hide in, and five destructible pillars that can be damaged by either team. Once destroyed, the pillars will deal massive damage and knock enemies back, then remain on the map as immovable debris, forcing combatants to adapt to new terrain!
New Mechanic: Guests of Honour
Cameos had returned when Arena returned last time, but are being shelved for this iteration of Arena. Instead, a new mechanic will be put into place—Guests of Honour.
Each game of Arena will feature a group of famous Noxians or Champions that will show up in different rounds as guests of honour. Unlike Cameos, Guests will not be totally random. At the start of the game, every player in the lobby will be able to vote on the Guests, and the winning Guest will introduce a rule to the game that will be in place for the rest of the game.
This sort of mirrors the experience of Opening Portals in Teamfight Tactics prior to the Into The Arcane Set, which replaced this mechanic with Opening Encounters.
There are over 20 Champions that can be Guests of Honour, and each game, depending on how long it is, can feature up to 2 Guests.
A couple of examples of possible rules Guests of Honour can introduce are:
Darius - Noxian Might: Every team loses 50 Health, heal 5 health when a team is eliminated.
Vladimir - Universal Donor: All players gain a bonus matching augment.
Mordekaiser - Die Alone: One player from each team starts combat in the death realm.
Progression in Arena
This time around, Riot is also looking into making playing Arena and winning games more rewarding. In past iterations, player feedback suggested that while Arena was fun to play, there was no reason to play once you've hit your desired Gladiator rank.
A new system is being introduced this time around called the Arena "Fame" system. You'll gain Fame based on how well you place in any individual game, as well as by completing Arena-specific missions.
For each milestone you complete, you'll receive a unique reward, as seen below:
The rewards are a little bit similar to how Swarm progression worked, except that the rewards are quite specific rather than that you choose what you invest in.
An example of a “Matchup Intro upgrade”
Crowd Favorites and Bravery
If all that wasn't enough, there are two other new mechanics that are being added to champion select—Crowd Favourites and Bravery. These systems will ideally reward players who choose to experiment with the champions they bring into the arena, instead of only player the meta picks.
Up to 5 random champions will be designated as Crowd Favourites during champion select. If you choose them, you start the game with one free Stat Anvil.
Bravery takes this a step further. If you choose to be Brave, you'll lock in a random champion but gain a more potent reward—one Free Stat Anvil and two rerolls. You'll also gain additional Fame in that game!
