Arena is the best game mode League of Legends has gotten and that includes ARAM

Rotating game modes have always had a weird space in League of Legends. They serve to keep players coming back, but too many of them have felt low effort.

One-for-all and Urf get boring once you have a few games out of your system. The PvE modes have all but died out, and even Nexus Blitz feels too similar to normal games of League. Despite Unsealed Spellbook being a big step in the right direction, it was held back by limited resources and being tied to the same map as every other mode.

However, with Arena, Riot knows they have something special. After its successful release alongside the Soul Fighter event, the devs quickly rereleased Arena with a few tweaks, as well as a host of balances. But it’s the latest version of the mode, which has made it the best League has ever made.

The upgrade from four teams to eight, essentially doubling the variety of each game, along with a massive roster of upgrades and custom items, is a huge step forward that Riot rarely takes in one go. This uncharacteristically bold expansion from a team that usually likes to play it safe shows just how much they want to support Arena, and it’s easy to see why.

Arena is a breath of fresh air, giving players low-stakes and rapid power fantasies that were normally locked behind half an hour of laning. The secret success of Arena, though, is that it enables players to feel like they’re overpowered without making it frustrating for other players.

In Urf, the worst feeling was locking in to do something silly like full AP Gragas, only to see the other team had a Zed, Fizz, and a Nunu. Games rarely felt fair. In Arena, everyone is broken, so the rage most people associate with League isn’t there. It also helps games are over in 20-30 minutes.

ARAM has had a special place in players’ hearts for a while as a way to get a quick game of League in without committing to a full hour of playing, but Arena does it in a better and much less repetitive way. If it became permanent, it would only improve player experience.