A lot of Riftbound has yet to be played in China, as three of the four Regional Tournament are still coming. Overall, this first regional tournament reinforced what we learned during the best-of period, with most of the best legends from city challenges sitting at the top of this first Best-of-Three large tournament in China.
First, we can expect Draven to keep rising in popularity after the dominant performance in Fuzhou. Fiora, Irelia and Annie managed to grab some spots in the top 8, but with 40 of the 64 slots available in top cut, Draven made sure to show everyone how much better he is at the moment. The Glorious Executioneer might not win every regional tournament, but finding a way to defeat Draven is #1 on everyone's list of priorities at the moment.
If we were to explore the other legends with a shot at the win, Irelia, Kai'sa, Fiora and Annie look like the most likely candidates. Irelia is second in almost every category at the moment, her main problem being Draven is very, very far ahead in first place.
Fiora managed to reach the finals in Fuzhou, and consistently puts up results in City Challenges, winning another one this week. However, the Grand Duelist needs a better conversion rate to be considered a serious challenger in the grand scheme of things.Annie is doing well overall, but sees very little play. I have no doubt more players would likely improve Annie's result quite a lot. Unfortunately, the Dark Child shares the same domains as Draven, while OGN-289 allows replicating her ability, meaning there is little reason not to pick the new Chaos - Fury legend compared to the old one.Last Kai'sa remains a competitive pick, but might be losing momentum as time passes. Indeed, even if the Daughter of the Void is neck and neck with Irelia when it comes to conversion rate, Kai'sa lost early in the high stakes rounds in Fuzhou, with the best player ending their run in Top 16.
There are few more legends with competitive aspirations, such as Ezreal, Viktor or Master Yi. However, these look like they are chasing consistent top cuts more than big wins at the moment.
Past that group, more than half the legends are chasing a way to stabilize their performance in this environment, with builds still changing from an event to another. At least, metal card rewards have been introduced in China, meaning we will see every legend be represented, and follow how they evolve over time.
Happy Tier List Everyone!
| Tier | Champion |
|---|---|
| S Tier | Draven |
| Tier 1 | Irelia |
| Tier 1 | Kai'Sa |
| Tier 2 | Fiora |
| Tier 2 | Annie |
| Tier 2 | Ezreal |
| Tier 2 | Viktor |
| Tier 2 | Azir |
| Tier 2 | Master Yi |
| Tier 2 | Lucian |
| Tier 3 | Sett |
| Tier 3 | Ahri |
| Tier 3 | Rek'Sai |
| Tier 3 | Miss Fortune |
| Tier 3 | Lux |
| Tier 3 | Ornn |
| Tier 3 | Yasuo |
| Tier 3 | Teemo |
| Tier 3 | Jax |
| Tier 3 | Sivir |
| Tier 4 | Rumble Leona Lee Sin Volibear Jinx Renata Darius Garen |
- S Tier: Dominant legend, expected to win most events until a metagame shift happens.
- Tier 1: A force in the metagame, expected to make it to the top cut of most tournaments.
- Tier 2: Solid performer, often contending for top cut spots, but typically falling short of winning it all.
- Tier 3: Competitive sparks but unable to beat certain match-ups. Needs improvement to become a serious threat.
- Tier 4: Not expected in most tournament's top cut or even to see much play overall. Popularity rises for regional tournaments, with players vying for a Best-of card, arguably easier to earn on these lesser played legends.
S Tier
Draven
Seizing 40 of the top 64 spots in the Fuzhou regional speaks volume about the gap there is between Draven and the rest. The Glorious Executioner is the most popular legend by a large margin, and is backing up that status through winning most tournaments, no matter the format.
On top of winning by all metrics in the Fuzhou Regional, Draven also took down 2 of the 4 city challenges this week. In those four tournaments, the legend represented 17 of the 32 Top 8 spots available. The current competitive metagame goes through Draven, and probably will only feature him more until a reliable counter emerges.
One interesting narrative about Draven is the competition among its two builds : Regular and Miracle. In the Fuzhou Regional, the best Miracle player placed 17th, meaning 9 regular builds were ahead of it. When it comes to city challenges, both won one this each. Arguably, these are two very strong decks, but the Miracle build might be more suited for Best-Of-One, a format rewarding explosive play patterns and proactiveness first and foremost.
Tier 1
Kai'sa and Irelia still represent threat #1 and #2 for Draven, although it starts to be apparent they likely won't join him anytime soon. Irelia is picking up some momentum, with a decent chunk of players picking her in Fuzhou (62), alongside the second best conversion rate among legends with at least 10 picks, behind Draven obviously. Plus, with 4 Irelias in the top 16, the Blade Dancer shows she is a reliable pick, and her performance wasn't one exceptional player winning on raw skill.
Kai'sa gets to stay in Tier 1 thanks a solid conversion rate in Fuzhou, although 4 of the 5 Kai'sa in the top 64 lost immediately, with only one making it to the top 16. The Daugther of the Void bounced back with a win the Fuzhou City Challenge - Bracket B, but the gap with Irelia is getting larger. I wouldn't be surprised to either see Fiora join these two, possibly passing Kai'sa on the rankings, or have Irelia in a category of her own, representing the sole serious threat to Draven, while Kai'sa joins the "Solid but won't be a top performer in large events" group.
Irelia
Kai’Sa
Tier 2
This is a rather large Tier 2, but eventually, a group has to be larger as the top of the competitive mountain is only allowing a few legends to sit there. Among these seven legends, Fiora is clearly ahead of the pack, and vying to reach Tier 1 anytime now. However, even if she made it to the finals in Fuzhou, her conversion rate in Top 64 wasn't great, with only 2 out of 24 Fiora making it. The Grand Duelist also won the Beijing City Challenge, which anchors her as a solid competitive pick alongside a threat to Kai'sa #3 spot. They will settle this in the upcoming Chengdu regional tournament.
Annie and Ezreal represent the legends better suited for a Best-of-3 environment, which needs to be rewarded in this period of regional competitions. Annie only had one player reach the top cuts, but they made a strong run up to the quarter-finals, showing Annie is a capable legend in this metagame. Ezreal got two players in the top 64, although the best of them, Origins national champion Omegazero lost in Top 32. Among all 28 legends, only 5 legends managed to get more than 1 player in the top 64.
Viktor and Azir performed as expected, struggling to be dominant in a Best-of-3 format. Both only got one player in Top 64, which is more concerning for Viktor as 28 players picked it at the start of the tournament. As a comparision, Fiora had two representatives in the top cut out of 24 picks, while Kai'sa had 5 from 39 players.
Last, Master Yi and Lucian could be regarded as low Tier 2 or high Tier 3 competitors. Both found their way to the top cut in Fuzhou while they make the occasional strong run in a city challenge. I don't expect any of them to make a deep run in a large event, but they have a better shot at a good finish compared to the legend in the next tier.
Fiora
Annie
Ezreal
Viktor
Azir
Master Yi
Lucian
Tier 3
Sett
The best Sett in Fuzhou, and only one to reach the top 4, played a OGN-160 deck. While it shows the 9-cost gear remains a solid foundation to compete, it also indicates The Boss is struggling in this current metagame, dominated by the Chaos domain.
Based on results, Sett should hang with Master Yi and Lucian, but that match-up problem needs to be solved to picture Sett as a reliable competitive pick.
Ahri
With only five players at the start of the tournament, Ahri is the legend with the least representatives to make it into the Top 64. That result could warrant a low Tier 2 spot, but I can't rule out this was the work of a great player. Let's wait for a second regional tournament to confirm is Ahri has real potential in this second set, especially as the Nine-Tailed Fox was the meltdown specialist in Origins.
Compared to other builds in Spiritforged, this one felt closer to the Ahri we played in Origins, with OGN-073 back in the mix instead of the new SFD-057.
Rek'Sai
Rek'Sai feels like Darius in the Origins set, capable of making a push at rimes, but overall too unreliable and high-roll based to become a staple competitive legend.
OGN-037 joined the deck, providing with a recurring unit Rek'Sai can count on to constantly have something on the board. This improved the deck's ability to focus on removal and take care of opposing threats, but still isn't enough to be a real problem.
Miss Fortune
There are talks about Miss Fortune possibly being a strong pick against Draven, as the mix of large units, SFD-097 and Chaos removal cards is great to limit our opponent's ability to draw from showdowns.
Draven was everywhere in Fuzhou, so a reliable counter would have at least one deck in the top 64 I'm sure.
Lux
Lux found a reliable synergy to build around with SFD-168 representing a strong late game win condition. Unfortunately, even with a ton of removal available, it is very difficult to contain the legends atop the rankings.
Plus, gear removal is quite popular in Best-of-Three formats, limiting the ability of a gear card to represent a reliable win condition.
Ornn
Ornn is slightly better than most other Tier 3 legends when it comes to Best-of-One tournaments, due to SFD-085 winning certain games on its own. However, once in a more competitive, Best-of-Three environment, it is clear the Fire Below the Mountain can't rely on a gimmicky strategy, or side decks will be too punishing.
Yasuo
Yasuo is in a funny spot at the moment. Clearly, this legend can't compete with Irelia in the Chaos-Calm competition. However, their gameplay is similar, meaning regional tournaments might feature a good bit of Yasuo decks built the same way as an Irelia deck. With only 6 players on Yasuo in Fuzhou, earning a metal card was much easier compared to the 62 Irelias.
Teemo
Teemo had a good showing in the previous Best-of-Three event in Italy, placing in the top 16. It might be a region thing, but the Swift Scout is nowhere near that level in China, with no results in City Challenges, and a top 128 in the Fuzhou Regional Tournament.
Jax
Entering the first regional tournament, Jax looked like the Garen of this Spiritforged set, with no result whatsoever to back up any competitive status. In that context, one player ranking in the top 100 of the first regional tournament is quite the accomplishment. For that reason, Jax gets to be in Tier 3 for this week, as a "maybe we missed something" sort of inclusion.
Sivir
With 17 representatives and none able to rank higher than top 256, this regional tournament is one Sivir players want to forget about. Plus, the Battle Mistress also failed to record any Top 8 in a city challenge this week, really anchoring this as the work week for Sivir in Spiritforged.
Heading into Fuzhou, Sivir was not looking like a candidate to win it all, nor make a spectacular run to the final matches. However, with her win in an online tournament, and a few top cuts in city challenges, the OGN-160 build looked decent, on par with Sett or Miss Fortune using that same strategy.
We'll see in futur large events whether this was the occasional misstep, just like Ahri had during the Chinese National tournament in Origins, or whether Sivir will just sit behind Miss Fortune in Spiritforged.
Tier 4
In this last tier, we find all the legends, except Sivir, who failed to rank higher than top 256 in Fuzhou, while also failing to reach a top cut in another event this week. Jinx gets to top this category with a top 16 in Shanghai City Challenge alongside her Chaos - Fury buff. Leona isn't far behind, with a top 16 in Beijing City Challenge. I could also mention Rumble ended up in the 129th spot in Fuzhou, which means better tiebreakers could have got the Mechanized Menace in top 128.
This is all nitpicking to be fair. These legends are struggling, and one needs to dig in order to find their strong performances.
