Riot has released its first State of the Game update on Riftbound, a biannual blog-style post designed to keep the community informed. In it, we got a more detailed look at upcoming organized play events, teases for upcoming expansions and cards, solidified dates for sets beyond Spiritforged, and interviews with Game Director Dave Guskin and Executive Producer Changran Chai, which offer insight into what the team has learned since the game launched in October of last year.
Riot previously announced the first half of the organized play roadmap for 2026 during PAX Unplugged, but we now have the full picture. After the Las Vegas Regional Qualifier on February 27, fans can expect more Regional Qualifiers all around the US and Europe, culminating in the final Regional Qualifier in Riot’s hometown of Los Angeles in September. See the full, finalized tournament schedule below.
The update also provided a more detailed breakdown of when to expect previews for the rest of the year’s expansions starts; Unleashed previews start March 16, Vendetta on June 22, and Radiance kicks off on September 21. We have a full breakdown of Riftbound’s 2026 release schedule with full dates and details.
The most important updates come from the interviews with Guskin and Chai. State of the Game updates are intended to be transparent updates on the lessons the Riftbound team has learned throughout its lifecycle, and it’s apparent they’ve learned many hard lessons already. To start, mechanically unique cards from separate products like Proving Grounds will not be present moving forward; “we’ve learned our lesson and do not plan to include mechanically unique cards in future iterations of this product”, says Chai. Proving Grounds offered powerful cards not available open in the main Origins set, and with Spiritforged, we’ll see reprints of those cards as a way to get those unique cards in the hands of players who may have missed out due to supply issues.
The biggest issue plaguing competitive play in China currently is the dominance of Draven, Glorious Executioner and the purple cards that make up most of the deck. Guskin states that the team’s philosophy behind banning and/ or restricting cards is “that we want to intervene at a minimal level needed to correct an emergency state”, with no current plans to take action at this time, opting instead to see how the meta will evolve once Spiritforged launches in the US similar to how it did with Origins.
When asked if Riot will be supporting Riftbound digitally, Chai responded that while they are aware of the interest in a digital client, their main focus is “the in-person social interaction, and we do not want that to be lost”.
If you’re a competitive player looking to attend a Regional Qualifier for a chance at a Best-Of metal Legend card, they’ve outlined how limited these highly sought-after prizes will be moving forward. Best-of metal cards will be rotated out events after every three set releases. So the Origins/ Proving Grounds Best-of cards will no longer be eligible for prizing following the release of Vendetta on July 31.
Finally, Chai confirmed that we will finally see the printing of new Legends in the three currently unused color combinations with Vendetta.
Riftbound: Spiritforged Releases February 13
Myles Obenza is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Bluesky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.
