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Riftbound has finally had its first official tournament. It’s been around a month since the game celebrated its Chinese release, and the Guangzhou Regional was the first time that players could get together in person to compete.
There’s a lot to talk about here; the tournament metagame says a lot about the decks in the format, and also give legitimacy to the wider metagame that we’ve been experiencing online. With this, there’s a glaring omission that feels massive considering his presence in the online format, which could signal a major difference in competitive viability within their deck.
In this report, we’ll take a look at the overall tournament metagame, as well as the Top 8 decklists. With this, you can make your own judgment on the metagame, and cross reference with our wider Metagame Tier List to be able to truly get a judgment of the metagame going into Origins’ release.
Tournament Metagame
Total Players: 506
Master Yi: 137 - 27.1%
Viktor: 102 - 20.2%
Kai’Sa: 99 - 19.6%
Teemo: 26 - 5.1%
Miss Fortune: 24 - 4.7%
Jinx: 23 - 4.5%
Other: 95 - 18.8%
Throughout all 506 entries, our S tier Legends Master Yi, Viktor, and Kai’Sa remain strongly at the top of the metagame charts, collectively taking up over half of all Legends registered with 66.9% of the metashare. Behind them, as the next three popular legends, are Teemo, Miss Fortune and Jinx, all of which have seen Top 8 tournament play recently, and can hold up a good fight in this intimidating Tempo-Aggro metagame.
Top 64 Players:
Master Yi: 27 - 42.19%
Kai’Sa: 18 - 28.13%
Viktor: 8 - 12.50%
Miss Fortune: 3 - 4.69%
Darius: 3 - 4.69%
Teemo: 3 - 4.69%
Annie: 1 - 1.56%
Ahri: 1 - 1.56%
Almost half of the players who made it through to the Top 64 of the tournament were piloting the Wuju Bladesman, with Kai’Sa and Viktor following behind to solidify their places as the Top 3 most represented legends. Squeezing their way in alongside are 5 other Legends; Teemo, Miss Fortune and Darius with 3 players each, and Annie and Ahri with 1 player each; all of which have shown their strengths in past tournament Top 8’s.
Very surprisingly, Sett did not make it into the Top 6 registered legends, or within the Top 64 players, despite his amazing performances over the last two weeks. This could just be a difference between online and in-person metagames, or a sign that maybe this legend isn’t as powerful as we thought; we’ll have to keep a close eye on this legend in future official tournaments.
Top 8
After two days of tournament play and over 500 players competing, the first Official Riftbound Tournament came to a close with a Top 8 cut. In this Top 8, we saw 4 Kai’Sa, 2 Master Yi, 1 Viktor and 1 Teemo fight their way to the top.
1st: Kai’Sa by FoxSad
Interested in learning how to play Kai’Sa? Check out our Kai’Sa Tempo Guide to get started!
Congratulations to player FoxSad for winning the first ever official Riftbound Regionals Tournament! Piloting Kai’Sa up to the top, this fiery Tempo decklist absolutely dominated over this weekend, showcasing the true power of the Daughter of the Void.
This is our first of four Kai’Sa players; this particular decklist had quite a unique sideboard, consisting of 6 different cards, with only 2 of those having more than 1 copy: Immortal Phoenix and Iron Ballista. Both of these are interesting picks that allow for wider aggressive plays against board-state dependent decks, helping to take down both Viktor and Master Yi efficiently.
2nd: Master Yi by 幻影
Despite being the most represented deck within the tournament, the Wuju Bladesman falls to second place; with a battle between two Tempo’s, player 幻影’s Master Yi fell short to player FoxSad’s Kai’Sa and her Aggro board control.
This deck, our first of two Master Yi players in this Top 8, is running a pretty standard Tempo list, similar to what we covered in our Master Yi Tempo Deck Guide, aiming to overrun the battlefields and maintain hold of them for as long as possible; sideboard cards like Sabotage and Unyielding Spirit help to combat against board-hate spells, and Wielder of Water and Blitzcrank Impassive are bigger blockers and threats to push back the enemy and retain control.
3-4th: Kai’Sa by RXD.AI.昕奕
Our second Kai’Sa player RXD.AI.昕奕 fell short at the semi-finals, unfortunately losing out in a mirror match against FoxSad’s winning Kai’Sa list.
Player RXD.AI.昕奕 has an interesting take on the Tempo decklist, cutting down on some of their Units and Spells to run 2 copies each of Dr. Mundo, which has seen many inclusions in sideboards, but not main boards, and Progress Day, which is interesting tech that I haven’t seen yet, but interested to see it developed upon further.
3-4th: Kai’Sa by 蜂人
Player 蜂人 piloted the third Kai’Sa decklist to the semi-finals, losing out to player 幻影’s dominative Master Yi decklist.
This decklist seems to be running a slightly more unit-oriented plan, with much of its sideboard dedicated to extra spells and gear to be boarded in, including the Iron Ballista tech mentioned earlier within our winning Kai’Sa list. Otherwise, this is a pretty traditional Tempo deck, one that continues to dominate tournament ranks more and more as the metagame develops.
5-8th: Master Yi by 多温斑米
Our second Master Yi player is running a very similar decklist to the semi-finalist, with a disruptive and dominative sideboard rather than the protective buffing variant showcased in some decklists. Despite this, Player 多温斑米 was unfortunately defeated by FoxSad’s winning Kai’Sa list, potentially showcasing the strengths of those board-control sideboard cards into the Master Yi matchup.
5-8th: Teemo by 布莱克
Other than our Top 3 represented legends, Teemo is the only popular legend in this tournament to make their way into the Top 8 rank. This is our first Teemo Top 8 we’ve seen in a couple of weeks, and it is very impressive that this small legend managed to rise into the big leagues through the sea of Kai’Sa and Viktor. Despite this, Teemo is still a very powerful hero, and can certainly put up a fight into many of the current legend roster. Player 布莱克 met their fate against 蜂人’s Kai’Sa in the quarter-finals.
5-8th: Viktor by 乐在飙亲-阿保
This is our first Viktor Top 8 we’ve seen in the past two weeks, after his total absence from last week’s tournaments. Only 1 out of 102 Viktor players broke their way through into the top ranks, yet this is a great achievement, as Kai’Sa is a very unfortunate matchup for Viktor; and with 4 of the Daughter of the Void’s in this Top 8, it’s no surprise the Herald of the Arcane fell short at the Quarter-finals mark. Piloted by player 乐在飙亲-阿保, this Viktor held up a very good fight against the second place Master Yi player 幻影, but sadly fell short at the end of their third round.
5-8th: Kai’Sa by GeorgeTCG
Player GeorgeTCG piloted the fourth and final Kai’Sa into the top ranks of this tournament, claiming defeat in another Void mirror match against semi-finalist player RXD.AI.昕奕. This deck is pretty similar to the other Kai’Sa decklists we’ve discussed today, with the interesting addition of Shakedown, and Orb of Regret in the sideboard.
Closing Time
Overall, this marginal win by Kai’Sa showcases her true strength in this metagame, and firmly places her as one of the meta-defining Legends to keep a close eye on within organised Riftbound play. Although the looming threat of Sett is always close by for Kai’Sa, his under-representation and awful performance within such a large tournament is very intriguing.
Maybe soon we will see The Boss rise to take down the Daughter of the Void, but for now, Kai’Sa remains as a very strong legend to pick (or, attempt to defeat) within this current Riftbound meta. To keep up with the Riftbound Metagame, check out Riftbound.gg; we’re here to let you know about everything happening in the world of Riftbound as we head towards Origins; from tournaments, to metagame tier lists, to deck guides, and beyond.
In any case, thank you for your time, and I’ll see you on the rift.
