The new League of Legends TCG could be bad for the league itself

Over the years, League of Legends (LoL) has evolved from a controversial 5v5 free MOBA game to a large-scale cross-media IP. Today, LoL not only has a successful animated series "The Battle of Two Cities", but also has multiple new games around the Runeterra universe. However, with the changes in the Riot Games development team and the change of strategic focus, this game that once stood at the top of MOBA seems to be gradually losing its original brilliance.

At this moment when its reputation was shaken, Riot decided to enter a new and extremely risky field - collectible card games (TCG).

Riot is launching a new physical card game, Riftbound, and this is not the Legend of Runeterra (LoR), which was well received but commercially failed in 2019. Today, the development of LoR has basically stopped, and only some PVE updates are maintained, which is essentially marginalized.

LoR was once a "conscientious" game - there was no card drawing mechanism, and the entire card pool could be obtained without krypton gold. But the arrival of "Riftbound" means that Riot seems to have chosen another route: returning to the traditional TCG "opening packs to draw cards" system, which is essentially a pseudo-gambling nature.

This shift is not surprising. It is said that although "A War of Two Cities" has expanded the fan base, it is also a huge financial burden. Riot's profitability has been questioned in the past few years, and it even cut the entire Riot Forge publishing label as a cost-control measure.

Despite many doubts, the first wave of response to Riftbound was unexpectedly positive. Not only did LoL players show great interest, but many card players and Arcane fans also expressed their expectations.

Riftbound may not be a sign of abandonment of League of Legends, but rather its potential savior. If this card can be popular, it may inject new cash flow into Riot, provide impetus for the innovation of League of Legends' art and gameplay, and eventually feed back to the main game.