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This week, Riot Games gave out a bunch of new information on the competitive side of Riftbound. With more information on the Organised Play structure of the game, it's easier now to understand exactly what they're going for when it comes to the future of Riftbound as a competitive card game.
Their recent post, "Riftbound Organized Play" goes over all of the details, as well as having a link to the updated Tournament Rules that clarifies a lot of topics that had people curious as to Riot's solution. With this, there's a lot to go over, and a lot of different ways you can play Riftbound.
In this article, we're going to go over the Organized Play article, and everything that Riot says we can look forward to as Riftbound develops. With time, this might change, but for now this is everything that you can expect when it comes to Organised Play.
Riftbound Organised Play: The Basics
Organised play for Riftbound is going to be ran in collaboration with UVS, the company behind UniVersus. So, it's not like there's a lack of experience here; UVS have ran UniVersus for years now, with lots of success.
Essentially, as expected, Riftbound events will take place at a number of different levels, ranging from casual and local events to professional level events. There are three levels of organised play that Riftbound will have, as per the tournament rules:
- Casual: These events are focused on social interaction and not competition. Players are expected to at least know and follow the rules, but enforcement is based on sportsmanship and education rather than on precise play.
- Competitive: This is the next step from casual. All players will be required to play considering the integrity of the competition, but there's an expectation of sportsmanship re: players who are new to a more enforced level of play, and to help familiarise them with it.
- Professional: This is the top level of play, and all players will be expected to play at their best behaviour and at the most precise level possible.
Most events will be at the casual level, but there will be a higher-tier tournament circuit for those looking to play at a competitive level.
Tournament Structure
There are a few different types of tournaments planned for Riftbound, and Riot have made it abundantly clear which of these are casual, which are competitive, and which are professional-tier.
Nexus Nights
Location: Local Game Store
How often?: Weekly
Format: Store Preference
Prizes: 3-card Promo Packs
Organized Play Level: Casual
Nexus Nights are your weeklies, akin to your armories, your FNMs, or your locals depending on which card games you may have played before. These are chill and casual events, and ways to hang out in your local community and play some card games for fun.
These can be any format that your store desires, and will be a way to earn some nice promos and prizes by battling among people you know; or to make new friends (or enemies, in the fun way).
Summoner Skirmish
Location: Local Game Store
How often?: Twice per-set
Format: 1v1 Constructed
Prizes: Promos, Champion Playmat, Byes at Regional Qualifiers
Organized Play Level: Competitive
Summoner Skirmish is the next step up. They're local competitive events, in which you can fight over prizes like a Top 8 Promo, Champion's playmat, and even round 1 byes at Regional Qualifiers.
Prerelease
Location: Local Game Store
How often?: A week before each set
Format: Sealed
Prizes: Product from the new set
Organized Play Level: Casual
From Set 2 onwards, there will be Riftbound prerelease events in which you can get your hands on new cards and have fun playing sealed with your locals before the set comes out. With Origins, there will be no prerelease, and will instead be a release event using preconstructed decks.
Regional Qualifiers
Location: Specific location
How often?: TBC starting December 2025.
Format: 1v1 Constructed
Prizes: Cash Prizing, Promos, Regional Championship Qualifications
Organized Play Level: Competitive
Regional Qualifiers are the first Premier event, and are open tournaments where you can fight to qualify for the Regional Championships. They have cash prizing and a bunch of promos, and will also give prizes to the top performer with each specific champion legend, which means that doing well with a rogue deck might result in more prizes overall.
Regional Championships
Location: Specific location
How often?: TBC starting October 2026.
Format: 1v1 Constructed
Prizes: Cash Prizing, Promos, Regional Championship Qualifications
Organized Play Level: Professional
Regional Championships are Professional level, qualifier-only events, in which you can battle it out for huge prizes and a Worlds invite. This is getting to the pinnacle of the structure, and will be the final stop before making it to the top at Worlds.
Worlds
Location: Specific location
How often?: Yearly, starting 2027
Format: 1v1 Constructed
Prizes: Cash Prizing, Additional Prizing
Organized Play Level: Professional
Worlds is the peak of playing Riftbound, and will take place once a year. Right now, Riot are still working out the details, but have announced that the first Worlds will be in 2027.
Thoughts
With all of this news, it's definitely interesting and encouraging to see Riot take such an ambitious step as announcing a World championship for 2027. While it's expected for such a big company, whether the game will have that much competitive longevity is still a question; and Riot seemingly have answered with a resounding 'yes'.
At the local level, everything is as expected. Weekly tournaments are great, and will be huge for building up the playerbase. This is par the course for a TCG, as are the Summoner's Skirmishes. However, the system of giving byes at Regional Qualifiers is certainly interesting, as there are definitely questions of how this will work logistically. I also think having two per set is ambitious, but not unwelcome at all.
The Regional Qualifier System and Regional Championship system is interesting. Firstly, this does mean that there is a step missing here; there's either no grand-scale open tournaments akin to Grands Prix, or there's no lower level qualifiers for Regional Championships, and they'll have to be big events (which means less of them). Both of these are really not great to hear, but the game is still in its infancy and this could change as time goes on.
Regional Championships are also really cool, but there seems to be a step between Worlds and Regional Championships still missing. The only time that top players from around the world can face each other at the highest level will be once a year, at Worlds, which differs from other card games (where the Pro Tour is alongside the Worlds rotation). Once again, this can change, but it's upsetting that there's only one time a year that this can happen.
Closing Time
Riftbound's Organised Play structure looks solid, and fares well for the future of the game, even though there are some key aspects that seem to be missing in the long-term. At the very least, it's looking like Riot are taking the competitive side of Riftbound seriously, which means its worth taking the time to learn the game and get good at it as it becomes more popular.
If you're looking for the best Riftbound content to do so, check out Riftbound.gg. Our articles are here to help you hit the ground running as we head towards the Origins release, and beyond. Keep an eye out for competitive guides, event reports, and so much more.
If anything, thank you for your time, and I'll see you on the rift.
