Everything We Learned About Riftbound At The Pre-Launch Summit

Last Week, Techraptor was among a group of Media, TCG Influencers, and Riot Games influencers that were lucky enough to be invited to LA to visit the Riot Games headquarters and not only play Riftbound, the League of Legends TCG, but also hear all about the game's roadmap. We got to hear about Riftbound's release plans, organized play strategy, and design principles as the "physical fandom expression of League of Legends for all fans out there."

If you're interested in learning what we thought about the game be sure to check out our preview, if you're interested in learning a bit more about Deckbuilding you can check out the rules and styles of decks that will be available as part of Set One, and if you're a collector wondering what cards you'll want to be looking for be sure to check out our guide on the rarity of cards and the incredibly exclusive Overnumbered cards.

If you're interested in learning about the release of Set One, Origins, what it will take to make it to Riftbound Worlds, or what kinds of steps were taken during the development process then continue below.

Riftbound Set 1: Origins

Set one of Riftbound will be called Origins, this set is being designed as a warm welcome not only to fans of League of Legends and it's spin-off games and media, but also an introduction to TCG players, featuring Legends with a wide variety of mechanics.

Dave Guskin, Game Director for Riftbound, explained that while future Sets may have more theming that Origins is meant to be "good honest Riftbound… whatever that means."

While we at the event got our hands on the four Trial Decks there is a lot planned for the release including Booster Packs and Sets, a Proving Grounds 'board-game-like' experience for 2-4 players with everything you need to play, and three Champion Decks (Riftbound's version of a pre-con) featuring Jinx, Victor, and Lee Sin.

The Road To Release

Talking more about where Riftbound came from it was explained that while investigating ways to bring Legends of Runeterra to China they discovered that while bringing in a Video Game was difficult, that a physical TCG would be a completely different story.

Once the basics of the gameplay had been ironed out it became very apparent, internally and externally, that Riftbound was a fun game that there was a desire to bring to a global audience. From there Riot Games was able to continue to develop Riftbound at a rapid pace, what helped even further was that they were able to leverage all of the art from Legends of Runeterra to feature on cards, allowing them to find a release pace that would be impossible otherwise.

While the core mechanics had been nailed down through pre-release events the team at Riot had continued to hear feedback that the art wasn't looking enough like something that shows off the flair of Riftbound.

With this feedback changes were implemented including a new design to make all of the cards look more recognizable from a distance and also add things like a border filigree that represents the rarity of a card or have artwork that 'breaks' out of the frame as they get rarer.

There was also an aim to appease to both Western and Eastern players where by "for the west [Riot] wanted everything to be clear, for the East [Riot] wanted to have full art and the flash."

Looking forward as we get closer to the Summer China release of Riftbound, and the October Western release there are a number of places that interested players will get a chance to learn more about Riftbound:

• June 9th to July 18th - There will be a "spoiler season" where Riftbound cards will be getting slowly previewed
• June 27th to July 12th - League of Legends Mid-Season Internationals, taking place in Vancouver this year, will offer demos
• July 31st to August 3rd - GenGon
• Summer - China launch for Riftbound
• October - English Release, including Organized Play
• League of Legends World Championships in China and the TFT Paris Open in France

Riftbound Preview Season

If you're wanting to learn more about the cards that will be accessible to you the Card Gallery will be getting updated with two to three cards every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday up until 2 weeks before the official Chinese launch of Riftbound. Once the card previews are over Riot Games will then start releasing Deckbuilding and Gameplay content to help you begin as a pro.

Each of these card groupings will have mechanics in common or be specifically shown off to get your TCG strategy brains working to try to come up with different strategies that you might want to implements in your own deck when Riftbound fully releases.

Some cards won't just be released via the Card Gallery but will be revealed by Press, Influencers, and members of the community so be sure to also be following creators.

Riftbound: Origins will release with an impressive 377 cards total.

Riftbound Set 2 and Beyond

Riftbound plans to support continued sets with plans for a total of four sets a year and localization into new languages being explored. That being said the team is also very aware of not wanting to overload players or the market.

With each new set there plans to be new Champion decks (whether it's two or three with each new set is currently in flux, but there was a reinforcement that they always wanted a Champion Deck with every new Set release) and potentially new iterations of the beginner friendly 2-4 player Proving Grounds box set.

While the current plans are for the Chinese and English release of Riftbound to reach release parity by Set 3 there's always global events that can shift those plans. Riot Games has stated that they want to meet that parity ASAP.

Riftbound Organized Play

There will be two levels of Riftbound Organized Play, the Local Play that occurs at your game shop, and Premier that starts with Regional Qualifiers and moves all the way up to the World Championship.

To support local playing there will be Release Events for each Set, Nexus Night (a weekly event) where participating players will get a three card booster pack, and Summoner Skirmish. Summoner Skirmish will take place at release, and then a month after and is focused at competitive play.

A unique approach to these Summoner Skirmishes is that you won't just be rewarded based on your final placing. But if you reach the Top 8, Top 4, etc you'll earn all of those rewards. That means if your deck is powerful enough to win you the Summoner Skirmish you'll walk away with a Participation Card, Top 8 Card, Top 4 Card, Finalist Card, Winner Card, and a Champion Playmat.

A key philosophy behind the Organized Play at the local level was also to give players a sense of momentum. Wins at the local level will offer you byes if you visit the Regional Qualifiers promoting your involvement in Riftbound at every level.

Regional Qualifiers are starting early in December. Based on how many participants attend a certain number of invites to Regional Championships will be distributed. An example given was that a Qualifier with 129 players might offer 4 players a spot in the Championship, but an event with 512 players might offer 16 invites.

This means that whether you're playing in a busy city with a bustling competitive scene or in a quieter area that there's a chance to earn that qualification.

There will be less Regional Championships for the first year; one in America and one in Europe. Past the first year they hope to reach two to three a year. You can attend the event as a participant, but for spectators they want to hold all kinds of other events.

Prizes at the Regional Qualifiers include higher level promos, additional swap, cash prizing, and even 'Best of' prizing. This is intended to promote play that might be not the current optimal meta. If a player is using a Teemo deck, and is able to demonstrate skill at being the best Teemo and making it a long way even if they don't win, then there's opportunities for that player to be rewarded with swag themed for the Legend they're using.

Organized Play Formats

A number of Organized Play formats have been announced, those are:

• Constructed - This is the standard tournament format for all solo Premier events, set rotation is only planned to begin in 2028
• Teams - A tournament format for Duo Premier events and side events
• Sealed - A format for pre-release events and side events
• Multiplayer - For weekly events and will be a staple for side events
• Draft is currently still being worked on, but it will be intended for weekly events and side events

While there's no timeline to any news on it at the Pre-Launch summit we also heard that there had been some testing internally about a PvE mode to allow players of different skill levels to participate together without fear of unfair competition.

Additional jokes were thrown around about a 5v5 format, consisting of two 2v2 battles and one 1v1 battle, where the aim is to "win two lanes."

While this is all we can currently discuss, expect to see additional images and updated articles from us on June 9th