Factions began with the Mirrorwater story arc.

Greetings, Summoner!

Factions is a volunteer-run community game mode for League of Legends. We set up custom matches between the factions of the League setting, like Noxus and Demacia, using faction-specific Champion lists. People send in match results online, and factions win and lose points based on their performance on the Fields of Justice. We then write trashy fanfic community-driven lore to advance the storyline.

The Balance of Power, determined by match outcomes.

Everyone’s welcome to join, regardless of skill level or familiarity with lore. Whether you’re a hardcore roleplayer or just someone who likes playing on a team where everyone pushes R and yells DEMACIA together, we hope you enjoy playing with us.

Quick Start Guide

A screenshot of the first match of Mirrorwater. Behold the glorious vintage interface!

• Join the Factions Discord and say hello.
• Use the match creation channel to find a match.
  • People can start matches whenever they like.
  • However, to make things easier, we have some designated days/times, when people are encouraged to sign in. Matches start around this time, and continue as long as people want them to.
    • Saturdays at 2 PM Pacific (contact person: CupcakeTrap)
    • Sundays at 2 PM Pacific (contact person: CupcakeTrap)
    • (Interested in coordinating another day/time slot? Talk to CCT.)
• Match rules:
  • Match format. Matches can be Blind or Draft, but if Draft, no bans are allowed. (Just burn them on Champions who aren’t on either faction’s roster. Speaking of rosters…)
  • Summoning a Champion (what you get paid for). Faction Rosters list which Champions are available to which factions. Yes, we know, some of these are kind of awkward. (e.g. Veigar is felis non grata in Bandle City, but we put him on the roster because, uh, I don’t know, he’s a yordle.)
  • Submit results. Submit match results for scoring. The person who made the match should do this by default, but it’s good manners for someone else to volunteer to do it instead.
    • A skill adjust is applied, based on average performance data from thousands of prior matches, so there’s no need for perfectly balanced teams; indeed, playing with a much broader range of skill levels can be part of the fun, especially if you’re a bit masochistic.
  • Allegiances, or lack thereof. You can play for whichever factions you want in ordinary Factions matches. (There are special “arc” events  during which Summoners pledge to a particular faction for the duration.) After all, Summoner, you’re an ambitious hired gun idealistic international diplomat committed to peace and understanding.

About that lore thing

“The Institute of War is a monument to peaceful cooperation. It’s also packed with the highest number of dangerous sociopaths per square meter in the world, unless somebody’s shoved the entire Du Couteau family into a broom closet somewhere. The runespells that will probably one day incinerate the planet are in its basement. To keep them ‘safe’.”
—Attributed by oral tradition to High Councilor Vessaria Kolminye on the day of her elevation to the Council

Factions is built on the wonderfully absurd excuse plot of League’s original lore: the establishment of a sort of magical gladiatorial arena where nations resolve disputes through trial-by-combat, fought by their mightiest Champions, backed up by helpful wizard pals known as Summoners. Somewhat ironically, it was right around the time that League started having enough Champions from the various in-universe factions to support faction versus faction matches that Riot, in its abiding wisdom, decided that they had to purge some inconsistent and unnecessary elements from the lore of League of Legends, such as the League of Legends.

Here’s your crash course:

• The Rune Wars
  • A long time ago, Valoran’s mages discovered runes that could disrupt the magical foundations of their planet and unleash catastrophically powerful magic.
  • Surprisingly, it turned out that this might have military applications.
    • Think “magical WMDs” and you’ve basically got it.
  • You can probably guess what happened next.
  • Empires rose and fell. There’d be a gigantic war, then peace for a bit, and then another gigantic war. The planet was flooded with toxic magical fallout.
  • About 30 years ago, the nations of Valoran, led by superpowers Demacia and Noxus, founded the League of Legends.
• The League of Legends
  • The Fields of Justice are—well, I mean, you’ve played League, right? Basically that. The nations of Valoran put on Silver Scrapes and fight on the Fields to resolve many of their disputes.
    • Summoners and Champions take oaths to the League, and will generally fight for whoever calls them for a particular match. (This rule is waived during the most major disputes, which are generally what we call “arcs”.)
  • The Institute of War is a magical academy where the nations of Valoran send their best mages to learn rune magic. These Summoners aid Champions on the Fields. They also conduct diplomacy, find ways to reverse the damage of the Rune Wars, go on missions to investigate arcane phenomena (think Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Champions as the Avengers), and wear stylish purple robes.
  • Conflict still happens. Wars still happen. But the League tries to settle as much as it can on the Fields, and to limit the scope and duration of conflicts.

See you on the Fields, Summoner.

Factions is an unofficial community creation. This site is not operated by Riot Games.
The use of Riot Games artwork is not intended to assert ownership.