Champions Arena is a game mode introduced by Darkseid, intended to be an intense, competitive version of the Arena. Account Level 60 is required to enter.
It is released in update 3.0 in beta, with the first qualifying rounds starting on 27th March, 2019. It is officially released on 10th April, 2019.
Separate Arenas
It appears that similar to Arena, that players are placed into separate Champions Arenas, which would be arbitrarily harder or easier (does not depend on your roster threat), despite giving the same rewards.
Seasons
Each season lasts 24 hours. It uses an orange form of Pips, but each hero only get 1 pip, which is refreshed every 12 hours. Energy tanks, rewards from Champions Arena, can refill it - each tank only refills the pip for one hero, not your whole team.
Divisions
All players start in the lowest division (VII), and then their performance determine when they will be promoted or demoted. Each division in one arena has up to 100 players. Higher divisions have better rewards.
| Division | Division reward | Top 10 reward |
|---|---|---|
| Division VII: Outsider | 300 gems | Power gems |
| Division VI: Apprentice | 400 gems | Class shards |
| Division V: Guardian | 500 gems | Class shards |
| Division IV: Vanquisher | 600 gems | Class shards |
| Division III: Master | 700 gems | Class shards |
| Division II: Titan | 800 gems | Prismatic shards |
| Division I: Champion | 1000 gems | Prismatic shards |
Additionally, the top 1, 2, and 3 players in each division receive 3, 2, and 1 Energy Tanks, with the sole exception of rank 2 in Master each awards 3 Energy Tanks instead of 2.
Ranking
When you find opponents, you will be given six options:
| Player's rank | Number of matches | Rating reward |
|---|---|---|
| 3 higher than you | 3 | +8 |
| 2 higher than you | 2 | +4 |
| 1 higher than you | 1 (+Regeneration modifier) | +2 |
| 1 lower than you | 1 | +1 |
| 2 lower than you | 1 | +1 |
| 3 lower than you | 1 | +1 |
The amount of total rating a player receives during a season determines their rank. Defensive wins do not give rating. If multiple players have the same rating, players who achieved that rating earlier are ranked higher.
The reward is based on the enemy player's rank. Therefore, it is entirely possible for a higher reward match to be easier. Note that the displayed threat is the combined threat in case of multiple teams in the same battle. For example, a 600k threat player in a +8 battle may require you to fight teams of 300k, 200k, and 100k threat, which may be easier than a single 600k threat team.
Gameplay
In case of multiple matches, the next would begin to load then start immediately after you win a match, with no confirmation, so be alert. There are several things that carry over between rounds of the same battle:
- Health of your heroes
- KO'ed heroes on your team will no longer give their passive bonuses in the next round
- Position of your heroes (e.g. if you tag in your second hero and win the first round, in the second round they would be the first hero)
Because how much rating you receive from a battle - and thus how high you can rank - depends solely on the ranking if the enemy player and not the enemy team difficulty, unlike normal Arena, here the most valuable fight is often not the hardest one. Additionally, since enemy rank is relative to your rank, it may be a superior tactic to hold off using your pips until a short time before the refresh. This gives time for other, weaker players to climb above you, allowing you to beat their weaker teams to gain easy rating.
Trivia
- During the earliest days of Champions Arena, each season only lasts 1 day. While there was lower gem and no shard division rewards, it still was a much faster way to gain gems then the official release.
| Division | Division reward | Top 10 reward |
|---|---|---|
| Division VII: Outsider | 300 gems | Power gems |
| Division VI: Apprentice | 400 gems | Class shards |
| Division V: Guardian | 500 gems | Class shards |
| Division IV: Vanquisher | 600 gems | Class shards |
| Division III: Master | 700 gems | Class shards |
| Division II: Titan | 800 gems | Prismatic shards |
| Division I: Champion | 1000 gems | Prismatic shards |