If you've participated in League of Legends' ranked matches, then perhaps you've given its team-based tournament mode, Clash, a shot too. Apparently, the mode has a sudden death mechanic that has never been a secret, but half of us just had no idea it was there.
Riot's Clash tournament mode made its official debut—after quite a rocky start—back in 2020. Clash is a five versus five Rift mode like you're used to, where you'll rack up wins with your teammates to climb the bracket. It's all stuff you've probably known about for years now, but if you're like me, your matches hardly make it beyond the 30-minute mark—finding out there's a sudden death mechanic is a bit of a shocker.
No, it wasn't a hidden part of the game. Folks in a thread on the League of Legends sub noted they've seen it before, but most of us were still shocked. Redditor heids_25 shared their painful lesson in a new video where their Clash match ends in sudden death. In the clip, the Red Team looks to have it in the bag, but there's a self-inflicted burn all structures have after the 60-minute mark. While the Red Team is pummeling away at the Blue Nexus, the Red Nexus just explodes itself thanks to the gradual damage tick. Go ahead and type an F in the chat, or whatever gamers do now.
It really sucks for the players on Red not suspecting the sudden Nexus pop, and while the actual need for sudden death is rare, plenty of League players in the comment lamented the need for some kind of warning before this mechanic kicks in. Right now, Clash's sudden death just kind of... begins. There is no warning from the announcer, but at 55 minutes your turrets lose their defenses, and at 60 minutes that nasty burn begins. League will force everything to end once you've hit 70 minutes, deciding on a winner at random or by a Nexus succumbing to the burn.
I have no idea how someone winds up in a match that long, I think I'd have thrown and called it a day at 45 minutes in. Perhaps in less stressful League updates, Riot is currently bringing back its heavy metal band Pentakill, and its darling pop group, KDA, just went gold. I may be stuck in Gold Rank for the rest of my life, but at least I know all of the moves to Pop/Stars.