Clash FAQ

What is Clash?

When Champions meet, a Clash is inevitable (and loads of fun). Clash is a monthly tournament. This competitive game mode sees you and four fellow players team up to compete against other teams at your skill level.

You can begin forming your team on Monday of Clash Week, but matches will take place on Saturday and/or Sunday. Your team can join an 8-team bracket on either day (or on both!) If you win all three games, you'll get a trophy and awesome prizes! The more games you win, the better your prizes will be! And, if your team loses the first round, you can still play consolation games to keep improving your prize pool.

Your team can only join one Clash bracket each day, and once you've joined, that team is locked in for the entire bracket. However, if things don't go well for you on Saturday, you can still come back Sunday and try again (with the same team, or even a new one!)

Clash Schedule (2024)

Coordinating five players to play an evening of Clash can be like wrangling poros, but at least with this schedule you'll be able to plan ahead.

Clash Event	Patch	Team Formation Begins	Tournament Days
Noxus Cup	14.2	January 22	January 27–28
Shurima Cup	14.4	February 19	February 24–25
ARAM Cup 1	14.6	March 18	March 23–24
Piltover Cup	14.7	April 8	April 13–14
MSI Clash	14.9	April 29	May 4–5
ARAM Cup 2	14.12	June 10	June 15–16
Demacia Cup	14.14	July 15	July 20–21
Shadow Isle Cup	14.15	August 5	August 10–11
ARAM Cup 3	14.17	August 26	August 31–September 1
Worlds 2024	14.20	October 14	October 19–20
Zaun Cup	14.22	November 11	November 16–17
ARAM Cup 4	14.24	December 9	December 14–15

Dates can sometimes change, so always check in-client for the latest, most accurate information.

Creating Your Team

To join or create a Summoner's Rift Clash team, you need to have:

• Reached level 30
• Completed placements in at least one Summoner's Rift ranked queue this year or the year before. Both splits will continue to be included following Patch 13.14 when the Ranked Split changes go live (Eg. For Season 2023 Split 2, players must have completed placements in at least one Summoner's Rift ranked queue out of the following splits:
  • 2023 - Split 2
  • 2023 - Split 1
  • 2022 - (Any Split)
• Verified your League account by SMS (this is a new Clash-specific feature, and only mobile/prepaid numbers will be accepted. Internet numbers [VOIP] like Google Voice will not work.)

ARAM Clash still has the account level 30 and SMS verification requirements, but you don’t have to play any ranked to participate. ARAM mains rejoice!

Each team has a captain who is responsible for adding or removing members, and setting up their team for Clash. Captains can start inviting their squad from the Monday before a Clash tournament. In the Clash tab, they'll pick a team name, logo, and tag to represent their team for the weekend. If more than one teammate owns a specific team logo, you'll unlock chromas of that logo.

Your team will also be assigned a Tier based on your skill. Tier I is the highest, and Tier IV is the lowest. Tiers are based on everyone on the team's Rank, but it is weighted more heavily towards the best player on the team. Your Tier determines who you'll be matched against but also when you can lock-in for your Clash Bracket.

Every team member must submit at least one ticket to enter Clash (read more below).

When you've been entered into a bracket, you'll compete with that team for the whole bracket.

Clash Placement

Your Clash placement is based on your previous season's Clash MMR. If you've never played Clash before or didn't play last season, you'll be placed according to your Ranked MMR. Unfortunately, you cannot participate in Clash if you were unranked last season. Be sure to play at least your placements this season if you think you'll want to play Clash in the next one!

Verification and Smurfing

As a measure against smurfing, you're required to input a valid mobile phone number to participate in Clash. You can remove your number from your account at any time. Just keep in mind that a 6 month waiting period begins the moment you unlink your account. If you ever want to re-link the same number, you'll have to first unlink and then wait 6 months before linking again (no jumping between multiple accounts). When you enter a phone number, you'll be sent a code to verify your account. Repeated incorrect code entries will temporarily lock you out of the verification step. This feature is for Clash only, and is not considered multi-factor authentication.

You'll need to add your country code to your number. You can find country codes here. 

You can verify your account through SMS in the Settings menu or in the Clash tab.

A Clash tournament is only competitive if you get to play against people of your skill level. Smurfing is something we take very seriously in Clash. You can read more about smurfing here. If you play on multiple accounts, be sure to only SMS link your highest-ranked account.

For more information, check out our page on SMS Verification.

Bracket Format

When your team enters Clash, you’ll be placed into a single-elimination 8-team bracket against teams at the same skill level. Whether your team wins that bracket or not, you can still come back the next day and try again in another 8-team bracket!

On each day, there is also a consolation (lower) bracket held for teams who lost the first match of each day to continue playing. Those teams will face off against the other teams that lost to earn better prizes.

Participation is flexible--you can enter on any day of the tournament. If you win Saturday, but can't play Sunday, that's cool. You can still earn the best prizes in one day (though you'd earn more if you won on both days).

Locking In

Your team can lock-in at any time after Lock-in opens for your Tier. Tier IV can lock-in at any time of the two-hour lock-in window, Tier III can lock-in a half hour later, Tier II can lock in after another half hour, and Tier I can only lock-in for the last half hour. These restrictions help ensure we have enough teams to make quality brackets for everyone.

SEA Clash

In SEA regions, all tiers can lock in 1 hour before Clash begins.

Matchmaking Tiers

Unlike ranked, teams will be assigned a tier for the duration of the weekend. The tiers will roughly divide teams into four sections - Tier IV at the lowest and Tier I at the highest. These tiers are “bottom-weighted”, so there’ll be more players in Tier IV. You’ll see your team’s tier adjust as you add or remove players.

Individual tiers are determined by your Flex or Solo/Duo ranking - and at launch, you’ll also have a rating that is derived from your previous Clash history. Team tiers take a weighted average of the roster, but it heavily prioritizes the highest-skill players—so it’s likely that comps of players with vastly different skills may have some tougher matches ahead. You’ll see a popup if your team has a mixed skillset.

Teams of different tiers won’t meet during the same weekend—consider each tier a totally separate tournament.

Scouting

Before the match begins, you'll encounter several features to help you figure out the best strategy to claim victory. First up is the scouting page, where you can check out stats and info about your opponents to help your pick/ban strategy.

You'll see your opponents' win rates and KDAs with their most-played champions in ranked, their best champs in terms of mastery, and their previous Clash data, too.

Champ Select

Next up, in champ select, you'll be using the draft format you may have seen from competitive play--two ban phases, and two pick phases. Don't get caught off-guard! The team captain makes all the ban decisions for the team.

All champions are unlocked in Clash, so don't worry about figuring out that complicated three-person trade from solo queue.

Unlike regular games, not declaring or hovering a champion will lock in a random champion for you—we want you to avoid dodging where possible. Hovering a champion will lock in the same one where possible.

Sudden Death

Clash also features a "sudden death" mode to keep matches at a fixed length. After 60 minutes, towers will become more fragile and easy to push. By 65 minutes, structures will start to damage themselves at a fixed rate in order (towers in order, then inhibitors, then nexus turrets, then the nexus). By 70 minutes, one team will have won the game. This is considered a last resort and is very unlikely to happen, but we need to give all Clash matches a fixed maximum length.

/pauses and /remakes

/pause and /remake are disabled in Clash. We know this isn't an ideal experience, but matches cannot be overrun or be remade to prevent extended days of play. There's a potential for griefing or trolling through abuse of these features.

Tickets

You'll need either a Basic or Premium Ticket to enter Clash. A Basic Ticket lets you participate, but if you're confident, a Premium Ticket will offer even greater prizes. Each teammate chooses their own Ticket entry and their individual rewards scale off that. Once your Basic or Premium Ticket is set (when your full team locks in before a match), your entry can't be changed.

You can get tickets from missions, a teammate, or the store. Every two tournaments (once per theme), completing the Clash mission unlocks a ticket. A teammate can offer a ticket to anyone else on their team roster. In the store, you can purchase Basic Tickets with Blue Essence or RP, and Premium Tickets at a higher RP cost.

Tickets are a method of entry unique to Clash. We're introducing ticket entry for a couple reasons. We hope that all teams are committed to see each tournament through, and tickets are a way to keep the games high-stakes.

The only difference between Basic and Premium Tickets is the prize pool you're playing for. A Basic Ticket nets basic rewards, and a Premium Ticket upgrades your prize (read more below).

You can always go here to get your ticket!

 

Prizes

Rewards in Clash come in three main forms: Trophies, Victory Points (VP), Orbs, and Capsules.

Winning a bracket earns you a Trophy of the corresponding tournament theme:

Your highest-level trophy shows up at the nexus for all your Summoner's Rift games for two weeks after the tournament ends. After that, it's time to win a new one! Trophies from the current season will also display on your profile page.

Victory Points & Banner Frames

Every time you win, you'll earn 400 Victory Points, which you'll use to unlock Banners. Banners are a type of reward which shows up on Summoner's Rift and in your profile.

Victory Points	Reward
400 VP	Banner Level 1
600 VP	Theme Logo 1
1000 VP	Banner Level 2
1400 VP	Banner Level 3
2000 VP	Theme Logo 2

Your VP scales on the tier your team plays in (higher tiers earn a first-win VP bonus) and your personal ticket entry. As you progress, your VP totals up over the Clash Weekend, and you can unlock banners and new team icons.

First-Win VP Bonus

Tier	First-Win Bonus VP Reward
1	150 VP for the first win during a Clash day (players can get the first-win bonus once per day, each Clash day)
2	100 VP for the first win during a Clash day (players can get the first-win bonus once per day, each Clash day)
3	50 VP for the first win during a Clash day (players can get the first-win bonus once per day, each Clash day)
4	None

Remember, even if you lose, you can re-enter the next day for more chances at VP! Your VP will not persist past the theme, but you're automatically granted any rewards you meet the threshold for. Any banners you unlock will display on your Summoner's Rift games in your chosen lane. Also, as you collect banners over the course of the season, you'll upgrade the appearance of the frame that holds the banner in place.

Flag Count	Level	Image
Default	1
4	2
6	3
10	4
15	5

Orbs and Capsules

  

Every player who enters into Clash will receive a Clash Orb or Clash Capsule when you exit the bracket (when you lose or end up winning the whole thing). The Orb or Capsule earned will be based on the total number of wins and losses during the tournament.

The capsule contents upgrade depending on your ticket entry and how far you get into a tournament.

It's important to note that these reward pools don't change the overall experience for Clash, so you can choose how to enter depending on how confident you're feeling.

Basic Ticket Orb