Riftbound: Between a Controverial Release and League of Legends' Potential

On October 31st, Riftbound, the card game based on the MOBA League of Legends, was launched in the West — with some delays in other regions: in Brazil, for example, the game is scheduled for release on November 21st, with prices for booster boxes and decks already skyrocketing due to speculation in the secondary market and scalping practices.

The game's first expansion, Origins, has a severe problem of low availability in the current market, coupled with the announcement of a regional championship on December 5th, which amplified the hype and, as a combination of factors, has caused the price of singles to explode and reach levels expected due to the scarcity of staples available to all players.

As a bonus, the manufacturer has already acknowledged that some Booster Packs are coming with worse rare card drop rates than advertised, which the company tries to "compensate" by mentioning that there are, in the same boxes, packs that will come with three rares — this might work for those who buy sealed boxes, but it's a terrible motivator for those who want to buy a few packs at their local store.

Between the low availability of products and the technical errors, it is evident that Riot and UVS underestimated their product.

Perhaps due to the experience with Legends of Runeterra or the expectation that the public would initially absorb the game's market gradually. League of Legends is one of the biggest gaming brands of all time, and expecting that its official card game — the same one that brings, for example, cardboard "skins" of the favorite characters of its fandom combined with the incessant search of the TCG public for new games — would not be a resounding success was nothing more than naivety or poor planning.

Scarcity generates controversy. Controversies generate news, and news provides visibility. The card game market today is very different from where we came from: not only have scalpers become more frequent, but the business model of these games is much more focused on the collectible value aspect; opening a booster pack has become a lottery ticket, and the stronger the brand and the potential reward you can get from opening a pack, the more interesting it becomes for the consumer to place their bet.

When there isn't enough product, "value" is generated in what you offer. The Secret Lair model of Magic: The Gathering, for example, stopped following the print-on-demand for most products in favor of a model that puts fans and investors in hours-long queues to try to get their bundles before others, since they now have limited print runs.

This generates frustrations, outrage, and disgruntled posts on social media, but the model continues to work — again and again, each Secret Lair shows that there are people willing to pay and risk spending two or more hours in line only to not get one — and now, with Origins in short supply, Riftbound adds value for those who truly consume card games as an investment or gamble, to the detriment of a larger portion of the public who will not have such easy access.

This, however, will harm the reach of the game itself. One of the attractions of Riftbound is that it is a product for the League of Legends fan, whether to play with their friends or to collect the cards of their favorite champion.

This consumer has a very different perspective and standard than that of a card game player: the habitual TCG player does the “instead of” calculation when presented with a new game — “why would I play this instead of the one I already know?” — while the League of Legends player who actually spends money on cosmetics in the MOBA will create an “additional” account to define their investment in Riftbound.

How much does a Jinx cost? If I want a special version of Teemo to have in my collection of the character's items, how much will I invest in that card? How much would I spend to have an Ahri deck? And what if I want to collect variants of Darius or another champion? These questions will be asked by the League of Legends audience before they even consider getting to know Riftbound, and if they are not interested, what expansion of the project can we expect in the future of the game?

By addressing one of the most famous brands in gaming, Riftbound has greater growth potential than almost all other card games, except for Pokémon, whose socio-cultural impact is so great that it transforms mundane activities like taking a walk or sleeping into fun and engaging things for its audience — League players are, in part, attached to the characters at a level similar to how a Pokémon fan is to some pocket monsters, and this feeling is transferable to wanting to collect cards and play with something that offers a new dimension of interactivity and fun with those characters.

Furthermore, Riot is responsible for the biggest esports spectacles in the world. If they invest appropriately in presentation, marketing, and, why not, spectacle for large-scale Riftbound tournaments, the company can transform the card game into another front of its most relevant brand, with another audience to attend and watch the events.

To reach this point, however, it is necessary to invest in foundational work, and this is done with key factors:

Competitive Support

The more rewarding it seems to "master" Riftbound, the more people will be interested in trying to compete in it, and competitive support materializes in rewards for dedicated players, regional and local store support to host events, and good communication on how to grow in the game and reach the World Championship.

An effective mapping of how to grow in the "professional career" in the game will motivate more people to try to achieve their moment of glory in major events, which values ​​both the internal card market and is seen by the consumer public as a potential way to ascend and gain recognition based on their results and skills.

In addition, it is necessary to highlight this side of the audience as well. Highlighting the great players, having its own "Hall of Fame," interviewing them during coverage, and, who knows, even establishing achievements that can be "unlocked" as you ascend in the competitive aspect of Riftbound.

It's still too early to think about massive steps, and first the game needs to show what it's capable of and that it can responsibly meet the public's demand for its cards, but at some point, the competitive scene will need the spotlight.

Product Accessibility

Product accessibility needs to serve a wide range of consumers. This is done by increasing the print run of its sets and with consistent print runs that ensure stores have boxes, boosters, and other products available for longer periods.

League of Legends is, by nature, a free-to-play game, and a card game cannot afford that luxury, but by ensuring enough products are on the market to keep prices affordable and close to suggested retail prices, it can expand the number of players and fans who are interested in buying the products and following competitive broadcasts or even going to arenas or stadiums to watch the professionals play.

Effective Marketing

A game doesn't grow without attracting the right audiences.

You can even forget about the usual card game player in marketing for Riftbound — these are already hooked, and if they aren't, the game's popularity in other segments will at least make them try it — to focus on the external audience among League of Legends fans and those who only "know" the MOBA.

Get the professionals to play a game of Riftbound on a show, release cards with exclusive skins that serve as a preview for a future update, create promotional cards with skins of the League of Legends world champions, or hold promotional events that somehow connect Riftbound to major events of the game.

The more the card game seems to be part of the League of Legends ecosystem and serves as material to promote and be promoted by other Riot games, the more assertive the marketing will be in making audiences inside and outside the TCG and MOBA spheres interested in learning more about it.

Engaging Gameplay Patterns

Today, the competitive Metagame seems solved: Kai'sa is the best deck followed by Master Yi, and the rest of the format basically tries to keep up, with no potential build that could deal with the best archetype proving effective in results.

Despite existing discussions that attempt to downplay the game due to its current "polarized" state, it seems natural that it experiences these circumstances with only one expansion: no matter how much the design and testing team tries to balance a game, the collective mindset when the product is launched means that something will stand out as better than the rest, or even that some parts of the game are broken and need to be fixed.

Kai'sa is a problem today and should remain so until at least the release of the second expansion, and the "best deck" cycle should only have more diversity without also being too volatile due to potential power creep that new mechanics can bring to a newly released game starting from its fourth expansion, when the card pool will be large enough to have a healthy mix of mechanics, threats, and responses.

Riftbound has one year to create its Metagame. If it's bad during this period, players will lose interest, accusing it of being polarized, broken, or boring to play, without giving it time to mature and, in the following years, expand the range and create a stable competitive scenario.

Flesh and Blood wouldn't be what it is today without going through the times of Chane and Starvo, and it proves that it's not easy to balance a card game in the first few years when it still stumbles whenever it creates a new talent — one of the most recent, Mystic, broke the competitive environment in half and created one of the strongest heroes in history with Zen, Tamer of Purpose —, and we need to remember this whenever we experience a new game.

Magic and Pokémon took decades to establish their balance and still stumble occasionally: the combination of Vivi Ornitier with Agatha’s Soul Cauldron has polarized Magic's main competitive format and is expected to receive bans on November 10th, just as Pokémon has released more and more cards in recent expansions to respond to the Munkidori engine.

Paying Attention to Regional Support

Regional support is also essential. Regions like South America have recently been left aside in terms of localization for some games and even the availability of support to compete in major events.

Looking at Brazil, a recurring consumer of card games and also of League of Legends, is to recognize the growth potential of the region and its ability to serve as a "flagship" to leverage Riftbound in South America.

The same should be done with key countries on other continents: opening space for national championships, high-level competitions, and qualifiers with easy access and, of course, ensuring that regional events have the capacity to accommodate the demand of each region — the policy of scarcity cannot be replicated in the handling of events.

Furthermore, it is also necessary to evaluate certain regions on a case-by-case basis. The biggest complaint about Riftbound in Brazil right now is that stores received the product with inflated prices, double the suggested retail price on the Riot website. Consequently, the end consumer is paying, on average, 2.5 times the suggested price for a Booster Box — seeking partnerships that can facilitate product accessibility or having more assertive enforcement regarding the application of the suggested retail price are ways to ensure that everyone has access and the opportunity to play Riftbound, regardless of the socioeconomic conditions of their region.

There is no doubt that Riftbound has potential: the League of Legends brand is strong, and because it is an in-person game, it does not run the same risks as Runeterra. This turbulent start, however, leaves a mark and creates new obstacles for Riot and UVS — just being a good card game is not enough anymore; it's necessary to show that it is better than the options available on the market.

A mix of competitive support, product accessibility, and assertive marketing work may be enough to overcome a disastrous launch caused by what can be considered a disconnect with public expectations, and if this occurs, this card game is one of the few with enough cultural potential to equal — and even surpass — two of the three giants of the Card Game universe in the long term.

For my part, this is the first TCG that has genuinely interested me since Flesh and Blood. The game has visibility, creative potential, and a history and concept capable of attracting both casual and competitive audiences, and you can expect some content about Riftbound here on Cards Realm!

Thanks for reading!