Legends of Runeterra: Welcome to PvP in 2024 - Guide For New Players!

This article is for you that just pressed the LoR button on the League of Legends client. Maybe you're entirely new to the community, or you're just a bit lost in PvP - in any case, this guide is for you.

I'll explain to you how PvP was before, how it is now, and is the future of this game mode in Legends of Runeterra.

I'll also give you some essential tips to win matches on the ranked queue and climb ranks fast!

LoR started out as the perfect game to play competitively - it didn't have much RNG, and players could interact a lot with each other every single turn, after every single action. This was fundamentally different from other card games, and the contrast with the controversies regarding RNG in Hearthstone tournaments in 2020 was stark. So, Legends of Runeterra entered the card game market as the most accessible competitive card game of all time. It was supposed to be everything other card games weren't.

Gradually, LoR's community fostered competitions and the entire scene grew. There were as many tournament formats and prize pools as you can imagine (some involved real money, and others awarded in-game currency to their winners, among other things).

In December 2020, Riot Games hosted the first Seasonal Tournament, which was their first LoR tournament with incredible prizes. They hosted several editions of this tournament until mid-April 2023, when it became the "Runeterra Open", and, eventually, in early 2024, it was discontinued.

In 2024, Riot Games announced that they would no longer focus on the LoR competitive scene and PvP as a whole for the time being. This completely changed what PvP was. Many competitive players stopped playing altogether (even though these incredibly competitive PvP LoR players, since the release of Path of Champions, the PvE game mode, were a minority in the community), and the ranked queue became less popular.

Currently, the game is still changing. Many players just got here are still testing out the game, and many veterans are still playing PvP and are here to welcome newbies.

I need to stress that PvP isn't dead, and is still very much active. However, the most significant difference is that the type of player that plays it changed drastically. Before, everyone who played PvP was a "try hard" that focused heavily on a competitive strategy. Now, players are more laid-back and test out new archetypes that aren't necessary the best ones around, and they're more likely to just have fun than compete at the highest level.

There are still tournaments happening here and there, but you'll need to look for them if you want to play. Riot isn't hosting any tournaments right now, so most prize pools come straight from the organizers' pockets.

Even with so many issues, the ranked queue is now more laid-back, and has more space for strategies that aren't the best strategies possible. This makes the game a bit more "fun" to some people.

As Riot won't focus on PvP right now, we won't get another "big" expansion for a while because we just got "Dreamlit Paths".

Instead, we'll get a card rotation after each season - so, every three months. The goal behind this is to keep the PvP meta fresh, even though we won't get a new expansion any time soon.

It is very likely that, now that Riot Games added an "LoR" button to League of Legends, new players will try out LoR, so the game may grow again. Maybe, in the future, Riot will revisit their decision and refocus on PvP.

So, I hope you have the time of your life on the ranked queue. To help you with that, I picked out a few tools you should check out if you want to get familiar with the meta, besides studying and learning the game as much as you can.

Runeterra AR

Runeterra AR

By far, this is the best website of all for stats; it is incredibly useful to get familiar with the meta. Runeterra.Ar's layout is quite similar to a social platform - you can see the decks that people are creating and playing in almost real time.

This website is also great to check out matchups and win rates, and compare them against other meta decks. You can also filter results by region, rank, period of time, and format.

With just a few clicks, you can find the best decks with your favorite champions, and create your own lists. It is also incredibly easy to check out your match history if you click on your own profile.

Runeterra Master Tracker

Runeterra Master Tracker

Runeterra Master Tracker is, as the name suggests, a "deck tracker" that keeps track of your deck and actions during your matches. It tells you which cards are still in your deck as you play, and the cards your opponent played as well. Don't worry: this doesn't break any TOS. Even though some people think "trackers" are cheating, they are not in this case.

The "Runeterra Master Tracker" is also the only way to see matches from just a day before; all other platforms only show matches from at least two days before. So, the Master Tracker is the best platform to check out the latest meta trends.

This is also where new decks show up first; you'll usually find them here before they become "meta-famous" and dominate the ranked queue.

LoR.GG

LoR.GG

This is the best website to check out a few stats that other websites don't have, such as: win rates when you're attacking on odds or evens; card win rates; win rate timelines; popularity timelines; and a deck's win rate-per-match ratio.

All of these numbers are critical to understand where your deck stands in the meta, and how it performs in certain situations.

Not to mention that you can also filter your own lists according to the best players of the archetype in question, and also search for similar decks.

Cards Realm

The website you're reading right now is the best LoR news/trivia website. I write deck guides, discuss the meta, and cover all things Runeterra as well! I highly recommend you browse through our other articles.

If you read this far, thank you! I hope you had fun.

Don't forget to share. See you next time!