Experimental Nexus Blitz Mode Coming to ‘League of Legends’ Soon

By Stefanie Fogel

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Riot Games will start alpha playtesting a new experimental “League of Legends” mode called Nexus Blitz, it revealed in a forum post on Tuesday.

Nexus Blitz is designed for people looking for some low-pressure fun, the developer said. Matches last about 15 minutes and consist of two junglers in close proximity to three laners. Map-wide events kick off every few minutes and grant powerful rewards to the team that wins them. They could include King of the Hill competitions, payload escorts, or the closing death circle of a battle royale game.

“The compact map makes for constant action, and a roulette of new, unexpected events amplifies the frenzy even more,” Riot said.

Nexus Blitz’s other major mechanic rewards players who go on killing hotstreaks. While they’re “on fire,” they gain adaptive damage and shorter cooldowns, but also take more damage. Plus, those players are worth a ton of gold to shut down.

Riot said experimental modes will help it find new gameplay that could last a while or even become a permanent addition to “LoL.” They can also help the development team test new features and get early community feedback before spending additional months on a final version.

“They’re works-in-progress, so expect an alpha-style product with borrowed art that’s missing the bells and whistles — but also aggressive patching to evolve and balance the mode throughout the test,” Riot said.

Experimental modes won’t happen frequently. At most, players will see a couple in a given year, Riot said. The Nexus Blitz alpha starts in the 8.16 patch and will last for about four weeks as an open playtest on live servers.