Devon H. August 21, 2019
Long awaited by fans across the region, Clash tests are set to hit North American League of Legends servers by August 24. The news was announced on the official LoL website.
Much like previous tests, team creation will open up a few days beforehand, with players allowed to start drafting on August 19. Unlike previous iterations of Clash, the test will be condensed from Friday through Sunday, to just Saturday and Sunda. There will be two chances per day for players to participate in the competition, being 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. PST on both Saturday and Sunday.
Part of Riot’s attempt at fixing previous issues with Clash will be rolling bracket starts. Previously, if a player missed the lock-in deadline, they would be removed from the tournament. Now, a wider lock-in window will be made available. When a team locks in, they will be placed into a bracket as soon as possible. Different skill tiers have different schedules, with details available on the official statement.
Riot’s final addition to help with Clash’s malfunction is a bracket recovery system. If a team disconnects during the tournament, a new team will be found to replace them.
Clash is a new form of matchmaking in League of Legends that seeks to give players of all calibers the opportunity to compete in tournaments. The concept was immediately popular among fans and was accompanied by a significant marketing push that included an ad featuring popular streamer Imane “Pokimane” Anys and SK Telecom T1 star Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok.
Unfortunately, the announcement in 2018 was followed by weeks of delays and then months of silence. Riot was mum for long enough that fans were uncertain whether the project had been scrapped entirely.
It’s absurd how long it has taken for Clash to arrive, but there’s no denying that the excitement for it is still there.