The Blood Bowl Arena League is made up of four competitive arenas which can technically be challenged in any order:

• Journeyman
• Apprentice
• Master
• Grandmaster

Each arena is set up with different terrain challenges and door configurations:

• Journeyman is a jagged rectangular shape that has three team entrance doors onto platforms, and four 'thug' entrances. Entry fee: 50 gold, prize per kill 10 gold.
• Apprentice is an octagonal shape with four doors for team entrances and four entrances for our arena workers and thugs; it also has two swiveling firebreathers, spike pits, a collection of swinging dummies and the first appearance of the crowd favorite Kill Zones. Entry fee: 100 gold, prize per kill 25 gold (double in Kill Zones).
• Master is a three-dimensional combat arena with exploding bridges, flying goblin bombers, stairs and ladders, and the return of the Kill Zones and the Prize Cannon. Entry fee: 250 gold, prize per kill 100 gold (double in Kill Zones).
• Grandmaster is a course that requires flight, because the ground is lava! There are a few bridges and platforms over our Lava, but it's easy to fall off into the waters – er, Lava below. Kill Zones are also aerial, the Prize Cannon is more dangerous than ever, and the Automatons will make sure that one way or another, nobody is safe. Entry fee: 500 gold, prize per kill 200 gold (double in Kill Zones).

Defeat results in the loss of half your prize money, which goes to the person who defeated you in addition to the standard kill reward. Games are played in three-round contests, with teams having the option to bow out after any round. Hitting a downed target is considered unsportsmanlike and delivers a penalty of double the kill value (unless the arena is hosting a Deathmatch Tournament).

Types of tournament include:

• Brawl. Can you stand the waves of thugs and survive the other teams?
• Invitational. A standard tournament for 4, 8, or 16 teams, in which teams continue until defeated and the team that survives to the very end gets a bonus prize per surviving member.
• Grand Tournament. A special 64-team format in which the top 8 teams qualify for the next level of the tournament, until finally they reach the Grandmaster tournament and can claim the Blood Bowl Ultimate Championship Trophy (and a massive prize).
• Survivor. Players start with no equipment but can buy arena equipment with their prize money between rounds; team contests will end when the team is defeated, but adversaries will consist of terrain and thugs only. Will teams be stingy and get themselves killed, or extravagant and have no prize at all?
• Deathmatch. Typically a 'trial by combat' organized by the noble houses to handle matters that would normally require summary execution but have some sort of mitigating factor, these tournaments are rare and usually Survivor-based, though nobility is often allowed their equipment. (Who said nobility was fair?)