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With its release in China, more Riftbound tournaments are being held around the region in the wake of Origins. Last week, we were treated to a regional tournament in Beijing, with 509 players taking part! With this, there’s a lot that we can talk about, as the Top 8 paints a very clear picture of the current state of the Riftbound metagame.
At the very least, we do have a tournament here in which there were entrants from all sixteen legends, including Garen. So, it’s really cool to see people trying out different things in the metagame, even if many of them haven’t come to fruition yet. With such a skewed metagame though, it’ll be interesting to see how Riot tackles the dominance of the two current ‘best decks’; or if the game will change as we get to the Western release.
In this report, we’re going to go over the Roftbpimd Beijing Regionals and give you the score on everything that happened. From the tournament metagame, to all of the top 8 lists, you can keep up to date with everything that happened!
Tournament Metagame
Total Players: 509
Kai’Sa: 153 - 30.1%
Master Yi: 138 - 27.1%
Viktor: 70 - 13.8%
Ahri: 24 - 4.7%
Miss Fortune: 23 - 4.5%
Sett: 20 - 3.9%
Teemo: 20 - 3.9%
Jinx: 16 - 3.1%
Darius: 11 - 2.2%
Lee Sin: 10 - 2.0%
Annie: 9 - 1.8%
Volibear: 5 - 1.0%
Yasuo: 3 - 0.6%
Leona: 3 - 0.6%
Lux: 2 - 0.4%
Garen: 2 - 0.4%
In this tournament, it’s no surprise Kai’Sa and Master Yi are dominating the charts, together taking up over 50% of the whole metagame. Due to their consistent Top 8 placements across this month, bundled with their versatility as Tempo decklists giving them the upper hand into a lot of matchups, these legends have been very popular lately, and show no signs of slowing down as Riftbound’s metagame develops.
In the remaining 50% of the metagame, 13.8% is taken by Viktor, who continues to be a popular paper tournament pick despite his recent low Top 8 conversion rate. After this falls Ahri at 4.7%, who has performed well in the past, but not so much across this month; Miss Fortune at 4.5%, also remaining a popular paper tournament pick despite only ever having one Top 8 entry; Teemo at 3.9%, who continues to perform quite well across online and paper play; and after his surprising absence from the last Regionals event, Sett also arrives in with 3.9%, perhaps signaling a comeback for The Boss.
Towards the bottom of the ranks falls Darius and Volibear, with low representation despite being quite popular (and powerful) decklists in the current metagame. Other notable legends alongside those is Jinx, who has seen a fall in popularity after her failure to make Top 64 in the Guangzhou Regionals, Leona, with 3 people putting the anti-Meta decklist to the test, and 2 brave Garen players right at the bottom.
Top 64:
Kai’Sa: 34 - 53.1%
Master Yi: 15 - 23.4%
Ahri: 4 - 6.3%
Viktor: 3 - 4.7%
Miss Fortune: 3 - 4.3%
Sett: 2 - 3.1%
Teemo: 1 - 1.6%
Darius: 1 - 1.6%
Volibear: 1 - 1.6%
On Day 2 of the tournament, only the Top 64 players remained standing. Out of these, around 75% of the metagame consisted entirely of Kai’Sa and Master Yi players. Yet the remaining 15% is quite diverse, with some of our mid to high tier legends successfully fighting their way through. Interestingly, Ahri sits at 4 entries, which may mean this legend is due for a comeback, meanwhile Sett only has 2 entries, a poor performance considering his great matchups into both Kai’Sa and Master Yi.
Alongside this, both Volibear and Miss Fortune made their way to Day 2; these legends haven’t seen many wins across the current online metagame, but have shown to be popular picks in paper across smaller and larger tournament play. We’ll be keeping a keen eye on these legends to see how they perform once Origins releases in the West, and in future official tournament play.
Top 8
At the end of Day 2, only 8 players remained; 4 Master Yi and 4 Kai’Sa to fight their way for the winning prize. If you weren’t convinced beforehand that these are the best two legends within the current metagame, it’s very hard to disagree now.
Out of our other Top 64 legends, only Viktor and Volibear made their way into the Top 16; the rest were eliminated throughout the day. Ouch.
1st: Kai’Sa by 闪闪
Interested in learning this deck? Check out our Kai’Sa Tempo Guide!
After a sea of mirror matches and Wuju Bladesmans, player 闪闪 made it out on top with their Kai’Sa decklist. Rather than being traditionally Aggro or Control, Tempo Kai’Sa is able to mould around her opponent, aiming to be disruptive to whittle down her opponent’s defences, and once the timing is right, dominate the battlefields to claim the win.
As a Tempo decklist, you ultimately want to decide the pace of the game. Kai’Sa’s spells will handle that for you, with cards such as Smoke Screen countering the opponent’s play, Void Seeker handling larger threats without sacrificing any units, and Icathian Rain helping to wipe the board of smaller enemy units to make the overall attack much less threatening.
Kai’Sa is a very strong legend in this current meta due to her versatility, and her non-traditional forms of progressing forward. In a game mainly focused around units fighting at battlefields, a decklist focused on eliminating enemy units using their hand, and not board, is bound to have a large advantage into many matchups. We’ll be interested to see if any other legends can rise up to the challenge of defeating her as the metagame progresses, such as Sett or Darius, but for now, she continues her reign as the bogeyman of the Origins meta.
2nd: Master Yi by 高冷白
Check out our Master Yi Tempo Guide for tips and tricks on how to play this legend!
Despite being so close to victory in Game 2 of the Finals, player 高冷白’s Master Yi ultimately fell short to Kai’Sa, landing them in second place. With a non-traditional Tempo style, Master Yi focuses on himself rather than the enemy, with a wide range of spells and abilities to buff your friendly units and gain the upper hand.
During the game, this Master Yi decklist has one thing in mind: remain in control of both battlefields for as long as possible. Unlike Kai’Sa Tempo, Master Yi Tempo doesn’t just morph the pace of the game; it sets it in stone, forcing the opponent to play by your rules rather than their own. With buffing spells like Discipline elevating the game plan, and spells such as Charm and Defy preventing your opponent from advancing further, forcing them to follow your steps.
After a steady climb in popularity over the last few weeks, Master Yi has truly made his way to the top of the leaderboards and settled as one of the best decks in the format. It’ll be interesting to see how Master Yi holds up in the metagame as it continues to grow, and as Kai’Sa players find more exciting tech to dominate the format with.
3-4th: Kai’Sa by RXD.Aipotu
In our Semi-Finals lies our second Kai’Sa player RXD.Aipotu, who lost their finalist spot in a mirror match against 闪闪’s winning Kai’Sa list. Notably, this decklist showcases some new sideboard tech that could be a game changer for Kai’Sa moving forward.
Time Warp allows you to take an extra turn after your current one. Although this is a very high cost, it can allow for some incredibly powerful plays in the late stages of the game; the most obvious being if you hold control over both battlefields, and you’re 1-2 points away from winning, playing Time Warp will allow you to claim those winning points with little interference from the opponent.
Moving forward, Time Warp could be an incredible addition to the Kai’Sa Tempo decklist, potentially tipping the list from ‘strong’ to ‘OP’. We’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for this card in tournament decklists moving forward.
3-4th: Master Yi by 沐秋
Our second Semi-Finalist is player 沐秋’s Master Yi, also losing out in a mirror match against finalist 高冷白’s Master Yi. This is looking to be the template Master Yi decklist we see moving forward in the metagame.
This proves that Yi is not only potent but also consistent, as this list is akin to the most popular ‘shell’ of the second most popular legend of the tournament.. As the weeks progress, expect to see more Master Yi players entering Top 8 ranks across tournaments, as it looks more and more like he’s becoming one of the de facto decks of the format.
5-8th: Master Yi by RXD.Ai.Rico1997
Our third Master Yi decklist by player RXD.Ai.Rico1997 has some very interesting changes to the traditional Tempo variant, taking a more Midrange approach rather than the standard Aggro.
One of the main changes to the deck is the inclusion of battlefield Hallowed Tomb, which allows Champion Master Yi Honed to be replayed and reused during late game, rather than as a one time high value blocker. Similarly, three copies of Deadbloom Predator is ran in place of Carnivorous Snapvine for the purpose of blocking out larger attacks and spell damage, and retaining hold of those battlefields for longer.
Alongside these are three copies each of Find Your Center and Catalyst of Aeons, allowing you to build your rune pool at a much quicker rate so high value units and spells can be played much faster.
Overall, this is a very unique approach to the deck, and I am interested in seeing how this develops in the future; whether other Tempo decklists will adopt the same approach, or if parts of the tech are experimented with in the traditional Aggro decklist.
5-8th: Master Yi by L.M.刘小五
The last Master Yi of the top 8 is once again a pretty standard Yi list, with a few differences in the sideboard. Namely, the inclusion of Mask of Foresight and [item]Sett Brawler[/item]. Both of these seem to be for extra resilience against Kai’Sa, with both of these cards being a little difficult for her to deal with (while also being a big threat).
5-8th: Kai’Sa by RXD.Ai.夕照
Congratulations to player RXD.Ai.夕照, who managed to enter both Guangzhou and Beijing Top 8 with their Kai’Sa decklist!
Last Regionals Report, we mentioned RXD.Ai.夕照’s Kai’Sa deck tech, with Dr. Mundo as a main board inclusion and Progress Day in the sideboard. This week, we can see that all other Top 8 Kai’Sa lists have embraced some parts of this tech, with our winning list from 闪闪 running copies of Progress Day in the main board, and our other two players embracing Dr. Mundo as a main board feature.
We’re interested to see how this tech develops, and whether they’ll be used alongside Time Warp or other deck tech that appears in the future.
5-8th: Kai’Sa by Gordon
Our final Kai’Sa decklist by player Gordon has an interesting sideboard, with the inclusions of Immortal Phoenix to combo with spell attacks, Seal of Rage for easier Fury generation when needed, and Sky Splitter to combat those larger enemy unit attacks. Otherwise, this decklist is fairly similar to the other strong Kai’Sa Tempo decklists included in this Top 8 breakdown.
Closing Time
Beijing’s first Regionals further confirmed that Kai’Sa and Master Yi are both at the pinnacle of the format and are definitely going to be the major deciding factor of the format for now. Whether things change as time goes on will be a different story, though, and it’s going to be interesting to see whether the metagame shifts as Riftbound releases globally.
If you want to keep up with the latest Riftbound news and trends, keep an eye on Riftbound.gg. We’ll be here giving you updates to Origins and beyond, making sure you can stay in the know of what’s happening in the world of Riftbound.
In any case, thank you for your time, and I’ll see you on the rift.
