LoL Swiftplay Queue Explained

Given the massive amount of changes heading our way in 2025, League of Legends is set to drastically shake things up in terms of its gameplay, rewards, progression, cosmetics, and other important aspects. 

Having that in mind, the devs recently announced that a brand new queue will be added to League of Legends called Swiftplay. We will go over what Swiftplay is and how it will work. 

What is Swiftplay in League of Legends?

Simply put, Swiftplay will allow players to experience the typical 5v5 Summoner's Rift match through a more accelerated medium. This means that early game mistakes will not be as punishing as in your typical League of Legends games. Although things like snowballing, farming, and objectives will still remain crucial to victory, players will be able to experience a more relaxed and possibly fun way of learning the game or a new champion.

For those that have played our other games, you can think of this new queue as a Hyper Roll from TFT or Swiftplay from Valorant in that it will be a lower stakes way to experience the game.

Given how popular casual game modes are in the community, Riot Games seems to be embracing a more laidback approach catered towards the community that likes to be competitive, but still have fun without having to worry about small mistakes during their learning phases. 

League of Legends Swiftplay

Some players might be asking how the core gameplay will change in this new LoL Swiftplay queue. Luckily, the devs provided some general changes so you can have a better idea of what to expect once you queue up. 

• Almost all sources of gold and experience give out increasingly more rewards as the game progresses. The beginning of the lane phase will have minimal changes, but things will accelerate pretty significantly from there.
• Players who have fallen way behind the curve will get more gold and experience from most sources, depending how far behind they’ve fallen. This won’t be enough to slingshot them into the lead (unless they make some great plays, of course), but it should mean they’re never out of the game.
• Players who are getting crushed will be worth much less gold. Farming the worst player on the enemy team on repeat will be a much less effective way to build a lead – if you’re behind, you’re a lot less of a liability for your team and should have chances to come back later. On the other hand, just dominating a single opponent through lane phase won’t be as rewarding in this queue.
• Most timing elements of the map have been accelerated. Turret Plating falls earlier, Baron spawns earlier, it only takes 3 Elemental Drakes to claim a Soul, Support and Jungle quest items complete sooner, and so on.
• All champions near a dying enemy minion get some gold. The last hitter still gets full value, while everyone else gets a fraction of that. Think how ARAM minions work.
• Supports get considerably more gold in Swiftplay than in traditional SR, so the price of their items have been increased with the added bonus of significantly more stats for each item so that they don’t cap out on items way sooner than everyone else.

In short, you will not be as punished for falling behind, and stomping a single lane will not be as rewarding in terms of general gold and leads. Neutral objectives will spawn earlier and you will have more gold and experience as the game progresses. 

When Will Swiftplay be Added?

The League of Legends Swiftplay queue will go live in patch 25.S1.1 on January 6, 2025 (formerly patch 15.1). It will replace the Quickplay queue and be available in the following regions at launch:

• North America
• Latin America North
• Latin America South
• EU West
• EU Nordic & East
• Russia
• Brazil
• Turkey
• Taiwan
• Vietnam

More regions are expected to be added depending on how well the new Swiftplay queue does. The devs also confirmed that the queue will be available for testing on the PBE as Riot Games is open to feedback from the players to finetune and adjust where needed.

And that covers everything you need to know for the Swiftplay queue coming in 2025. For more information, you can also check out the official dev blog, here.