Riftbound: Radiance, the newest set for the League of Legends card game, is nearly here! With it releasing on Friday, October 24, we ran a couple of Pre-Rift events this past Saturday to let players get their hands on the new cards early and experience the set.
If you're not familiar, a Pre-Rift event is just like the classic prerelease event for other card games: you get a kit of 5 packs plus a thematic pack including a legend (making sure you can actually, you know, play Riftbound), and then you open your packs and build a small deck.
Because everything you need comes from the kit you get with your entry, pre-rift is a great way to get into the game after learning the basic rules, and is considered a "sealed" event.
We saw over 60 local players across our two events--thank you to everyone who came out to play! We know it was a busy and hectic day, and we so appreciate you choosing us to be your Riftbound destination this weekend.
Deckbuilding
Once the event started, we passed out kits and gave everyone 45 minutes to build their decks. Each deck has to include a minimum of 25 cards--typically, that's also the maximum, since it reduces randomness as much as possible.
Then, we provide runes so you can actually play your cards. Imagine if you had to open the right runes to play! What a nightmare.
Here's a few highlights from deckbuilding. It's always a fun time once you've got your cards in front of you as you try to figure out how it all slots together to make the best possible deck. Plus, you get to gawk at the coolest legends and rare cards you opened.
Rounds
After deckbuilding, we played three rounds of Swiss best-of-3. Since it's a pre-rift event, it's nothing too intense. It's definitely not like a Summoner Skirmish, although we do have one of those coming up in November if you need to scratch your competitive itch!
Instead, gameplay is friendly, and our judges, Adam and Josh, were around in case anyone needs help understanding the rules or resolving issues mid-game. People could also help one another, give suggestions, and modify their decks between rounds.
Future Events
We'll host a Pre-Rift for the upcoming set, Legacy, between January 22 and 28th next year.
In the meantime, we have our weekly Nexus Night tournaments every Thursday night (besides this one, since we're hosting another pre-rift, instead). They're $10 to entry, start at 6:30p, and last for about three hours.
Once you have your own deck and you want to get practice playing through games, it's a great place to go.
You can also check our event calendar to see our upcoming events!
