Welcome to Episode 2 of the PC Gamer vs GamesRadar+ League of Legends Wild Rift challenge—oh, careful! Mind your step over all the gauntlets that were thrown down in episode one. The battle lines have been drawn... Now it’s time to rally the troops.
We join our teams as each captain builds their squads and chooses their strategies. Eeny meenie minie mo, catch a minion by the toe, which champions do our captains know? It’s a big decision. Simon Miller (representing PC Gamer) is taking on Alysia Judge (who’s flying GamesRadar+’s flag) and both of them are new to the world of Runeterra. But with Wild Rift opening up League of Legends to fresh audiences on mobile there’s never been a better time to dive in. Wild Rift has a watertight onboarding system that guides players along a gentle learning curve including the outline of the map, how to barrel through scores of minions for cash, and even the basics of beating Baron Nashor.
In episode one we learned the roadmap of the challenge ahead: Six players will clash in a best of three across League of Legends Wild Rift’s 5v5 game mode. Teams will be made up of three human players, with two AIs - and the winner takes the glory for their site.
In this second second episode of our three part series we find out who will join Alysia and Simon on their quest for glory. The captains have scoured their phone books looking for the best people they know to fight for PC Gamer and GamesRadar’s honour—now all that’s left is to convince those players to take up the fight.
Once the squads are on board, both our captains need to work with their teams to forge plans designed to outwit the other. Wild Rift has reworked League of Legends’ classic controls to work on mobile with touchscreen abilities and a responsive virtual joystick, meaning button mashing won’t be an option.
Tactics are key: will Simon favour tanks and muscle his way to victory? And does he know his Baron lane from his Dragon? Alysia has promised to weaponise “the ol’ noggin” and choose a champion based on their backline power—but what does that champion look like? And will it be tough enough to take on turrets and jungle monsters?
Thankfully Wild Rift has given our captains a chance to learn at their own pace with great tutorials and a slew of practice modes. There are over 45 champions to choose from too, so there’s plenty to get their swords stuck into.
If you want to play yourself, the European Beta is live. You can download League of Legends Wild Rift for free on iOS and Android now.
