Swiftplay Game Mode

What is Swiftplay?

Swiftplay is a faster, more accessible version of Summoner's Rift. It uses the same map, but altered objective timers and requirements—as well as general progression tweaks—make for a consistently faster experience. It also allows you to pre-pick up to two champions/positions, so you can queue with 100% confidence that you'll play who you want, where you want.

How does Swiftplay differ from draft/Ranked matches?

For Swiftplay, we've thrown a few levers to make sure even the toughest games are quick and competitive with:

Pumped-Up Progression

You get more XP from all sources, including champion kills, minions, and objectives. Overall Gold and XP rewards also increase as the game goes on, and you even get a little Gold for minions that die near you without scoring the final hit.

Comeback Kings

Trying new champs often means playing from behind, which is why we've tweaked the system to grant struggling teams more Gold and XP while also giving the leading team less Gold for kills. Never give up!

Sudden Death

In order to guarantee SWIFTplay lives up to its name, any match that lasts a certain amount of time will enter Sudden Death. At this point various defensive structures across the map will begin to lose their durability. If the match continues long enough, you'll get a warning before vulnerable buildings begin to crumble on their own. Only the Nexus is immune to this effect, so you'll still have to destroy it yourself to win the match.

Though we'll continue tweaking Swiftplay in the future, you can read Sudden Death's exact timing on release in 25.S1.3's Patch Notes.

In-Game Adjustments

We've also made several other changes to fundamental game requirements and timers to speed things up, like:

• Drake Soul only requires three Dragon kills
• Turret Plates fall earlier
• Support and Jungle quest items complete sooner 
• Support Items cost more and have better stats to match increased Swiftplay earnings and cadence
• Rift Herald and Baron spawn earlier
• Minion waves spawn more frequently after 18 minutes
• Surrender votes are available starting at 15 minutes (70% of players required, typically 4/5),
  reduced at 25 minutes (50% of players required, typically 3/5)
• There's a chance of the same champion(s) being on both teams

Preparing for Swiftplay

Unlike other game modes, your champion/position selection happens before you enter the queue. This way you're guaranteed to always get one of the two champs you pick, and you'll never be forced outside of your top two positions. Once you've picked your champions, don't forget to customize their Runes, Spells, and skin. 

There are a few rules in place that vary slightly depending on how many friends you queue up with:

Solo Rules

• 2 unique champions
• 2 unique positions (minimum 1 priority)

"Priority" positions are dynamically chosen based on which positions need more players throughout the server. In the screenshot above, the blue diamond above the Jungle symbol means Jungle is a priority position, and thus is more likely to be chosen and will result in shorter queue times.

2–4 Player Party Rules

• All solo rules apply to each player
• Minimum of 1 unique champion per player across the party
• Primary slot selections must be unique across the party (champion and position)

5 Player Party Rules

• 1 unique champion per player across the party

You can all run it down mid together once the game has begun, but you each have to lock in a single unique champion before joining up.

Because One-for-All is a totally different game mode.

Swiftplay Matchmaking

At its heart, Swiftplay is just the evolved version of Blind Pick—which is why it uses the same MMR you had for Blind Pick.