Factions Beginners’ Guide

Welcome to Factions! This is intended as a one-page guide to help Summoners get into Factions.

Quick-Start Guide

I’ve condensed this guide down into a few crucial bullet points.

• Lore. Welcome to Factions. Summoners and the League of Legends exist. War still happens. The League’s mandate is not “world peace” (though some idealists believe it can accomplish that) but instead the prevention of another Rune War. Rune Wars involve the use of “magical WMDs”: rune spells that tear open leylines and nexuses to harness their raw power, and do massive collateral damage in the process. Factions also often use the League as a sort of international court to efficiently resolve disputes through trial by combat. Usually, Summoners and Champions fight for anyone who hires them. During major disputes, a different process is used, whereby Summoners and Champions must petition the League to represent their chosen faction on the Fields.
• Declare for a faction. The first step is to decide whose side you’re on. As a Summoner of the League, you are among the few allowed to pursue the study of restricted rune magic, which has been modified into less destructive (but still dangerous) forms. These techniques also allow you to bond with Champions, lending them your strength and insight. These services are in high demand, and in any given dispute it is likely that all the various factions will seek to recruit you. Your oath binds you only for the duration of the arc.
• Rules. There are usually no bans allowed in Factions matches. (Exceptions are noted on the Rosters page.) You should “burn” bans, by banning Champions not on either roster. Each side has 5 minutes of pause time in case of a disconnection; after that, the preferred practice is for someone on the other team to chivalrously return to the fountain to even things up.
• Join the Factions chat. The main meeting place for Factions Summoners is the “Factions” chat.
• Join your faction’s specific chat. If you want to get invited to a match, the surest method is to join your faction’s chat. (e.g. “Noxus”, “Shurima”, “Piltover”.) Match organizers look in these chats when setting up matches.
• Create matches. You can also set up matches yourself. It’s not that difficult, but you may want to ask a more experienced Summoner for help at first. Remember to check the Champion rosters for each faction. The winning team has the responsibility for submitting the match results.
• Join the forum. We have a discussion forum set up. It’s a good place to talk with your fellow Factioners.

How Factions Works

Factions was inspired by the Noxus versus Ionia tournament Riot held a few years ago, before the Great Retcon. There are two main differences. First, we use faction-specific Champion lists: Demacia gets mostly Demacian Champions, Noxus gets mostly Noxians, and so on. (When the original tournament happened, there weren’t enough Noxian or Ionian Champions to make decent rosters.) Second, whereas the original tournament was a one-time event in which only ten people could directly participate, Factions is designed so that anyone can start or join a match anytime, and all matches contribute toward the story’s resolution.

Factions runs one arc at a time. First, we pick the factions that will be playable in the arc by public vote. (The winner of the previous arc gets to add another faction in as a prize.) Then, we come up with something they might be fighting over. Summoners get started in an arc by declaring their allegiance to one of the factions. (Declarations only last for the duration of the arc; you sign up anew each time, and you can either stick with the same faction or switch around, as you like.) We then have about three months of matches, with factions gaining points from victories and losing points from defeats, accompanied by lore updates that follow the scoreboard, and interactive lore events that give Summoners a say See Previous Storylines for an overview of prior arcs.

The first step to joining an arc and playing a role in its outcome is to choose a faction and make your declaration of allegiance. This oath binds you for the remainder of the arc, but dissolves when the dispute ends. To clarify the answer to a very common question: no, you do not have to stick with the same arc forever; even if you want to stay with the same faction as in the previous arc, you still need to make a new declaration. We start with a blank Summoner List each arc.

Some other links:

• Factions Lore
• Faction Rosters
• Factions Forum

Factions Chat

Your first destination once you’ve signed up should be the Factions chat. This is not only a place to talk with other Factions members but also the primary source of invites for Factions matches. Typically, when starting a match, people will go through the Factions chat list and right-click invite people from the appropriate factions. Be on the lookout for random custom game invites.

We recommend that you set it to auto-join the Factions chat on launch. To do so, click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the chat box and select “auto-join”.

If the chat is full, join Factions2 instead. Also join your faction’s specific chat — see below. The faction-specific chats are actually more useful for organizing matches anyway.

This will automatically log you into the chat whenever you sign in.

Your Faction’s Specific Chat

If you’re looking for an invite to a game, you should also join your faction’s chat room. For example, if you’re in Bandle City, join the BANDLE CITY chat.

This makes it easy for match organizers to find people from the factions they’re pairing up.

Here’s a list:

• NOXUS
• PILTOVER
• SHURIMA

“Let’s Find Some Friends!”

We also suggest that people Friend some other Factions Summoners, especially from their own faction. You can use Friend Folders to sort by faction.

You can find a list of Summoners here.

Getting Into A Match

Once you’re signed up, you’re cleared to start or join a scored Factions match anytime.

Be on the lookout for invites:

People who are setting up a match will often invite everyone in the chat. Hop in!

The left/right order of the factions always follows the title. If the title is “Piltover-Demacia”, then Piltover is on the left-hand side.

Factions Lore

You don’t have to follow Factions lore to enjoy Factions matches, but I do think it helps add some flavor.

Here are some resources for getting up to speed on the lore of the Factions universe.

• Factions Lore — The main lore index.
• Previous Storylines — Succinct summaries of prior storylines.
• Overview — A narrative overview of the Factions saga to date.
• The World of Factions — Some general background.
• The Summoner’s Herald — Our in-universe newspaper. The first issue’s Notable Events section will get you up to speed very quickly.

A Note On Mixed-Tier Games

Although we don’t have the benefit of an automated Matchmaker system for Factions, we do try to make sure each team has roughly the same mix of Tiers. (An automatic point adjust is calculated based on any net discrepancy; if a high-Tier team beats a low-Tier team, it’s worth fewer points, and if a lower-Tier team scores an upset victory it’s worth more points.) If the teams mirror one another, the match is “fair” in a general sense.

However, unlike in matchmade games, there’s often a significant skill mix within a team. You might be a Silver on a team of Plats. This can frustrate new players when they end up, e.g., laning against a higher-Tier opponent.

Two things to keep in mind:

1. If you’re (say) a Silver up against a Plat, it’s likely that elsewhere on the map an enemy Silver is struggling against one of your Plats. You don’t need to beat the Plat: you just need to do better than that enemy Silver does against your Plat. It’s often a good idea to play safe.
2. If your team is higher-Tier than you, feel free to ask for advice, during and after the game. Factions can be a valuable learning experience and a rare opportunity to get guidance from some of the best players in the world.

Of course, if anyone is rude or ragey, report them after the game. Most of the time, high-level Factions players are nice people who will be happy to give you some tips and feedback on your play.

Featured Matches and Tournaments

We hold shoutcasted Featured Matches every Saturday and Sunday, starting at 12:30 p.m. Pacific (1:30 Mountain, 2:30 Central, 3:30 Eastern). Come watch and cheer your team on! You can also sign up to participate.

Forum

We’ve recently set up a forum for Factions:

You’re encouraged to sign up.

Subreddit

We have a LeagueFactions subreddit. Come join the discussions there. Don’t have a Reddit account? Making one is free and seriously takes about 30 seconds: you pretty much just type in a username and password.

Email List

We also have a shiny new Google Groups email list. Sign up here. (Select “send me messages as they arrive”, rather than one of the “digest” options.) We limit ourselves to no more than three emails per month.

Questions?

Ask in the Factions chat, or contact staff directly. We’re happy to help answer questions.