New Path to Worlds: Everything about LoR's Competitive Circuit in 2023

Yangzera here, bringing one more article about a very important subject to me and many others: Legends of Runeterra's competitive scene.

Recently, Riot announced their planning as to how the new competitive format will be in 2023, and everyone in the scene watched closely what, in my opinion, was the biggest and best announcement in the whole history of Legends of Runeterra (besides, of course, the game's release announcement). Without further ado, come with me as I explain everything!

By far, the biggest and most important change in 2023 is the removal of focus on the Ranked ladder and the transference of relevance to this mode directly into the Rumbles. During the whole Seasonal Tournaments cycle, the best and most effective way to stand out competitively was to dedicate the bigger amount of game hours to the ranked ladder - but not to get better as a player, but rather for the sole reason of reaching a high rank, so you could have more chances regarding the tiebreaker.

The low quality of gameplay in the ranked ladder which just increased over time - the lack of a matchmaking system that tried pairing players with high LP against each other and avoided placing them against players with low LP - made that, in most of the time, high-level players not only faced low-level players, but these low-level players were more likely to be testing out some new deck or were not giving the due attention to the match, as they had fewer points.

On the other hand, it is also pretty annoying for players who have just reached masters to constantly get paired against players at the top of the rankings, without any sort of extra filter when it's time for the system to decide against who their next match will be.

This results in a scene in which high-level players are encouraged to dedicate most of their online time in an environment which is not conducive to improving, just because the ranked ladder tiebreaker is strong enough to be more important than entire training sessions with team partners or prep time, which ends up discouraging more inexperienced players, or even discourages those who don't have much time to invest in the ranked ladder.

How do the Daily Rumbles Work

The new focus on Daily Rumbles removes this need to invest in the ranked ladder from the player and transfers this focus to Daily Rumbles with rotating formats. Rumbles will be open for a specific period of time (4 PM to 1 AM PT, but subject to changes during the beta period), and can be completed by playing until you hit one of these two: 6 victories or 3 defeats.

Players who obtain a higher amount of victories will get more Trophy rewards, which will help them progress in the Reward Track for the Tournament Season, which can both give out cosmetic rewards and "byes" in the monthly Runeterra Open, which comes to replace the Seasonal Tournament.

The World Ender Seasonal Tournament closed a cycle in Legends of Runeterra. Now, instead of one Seasonal Tournament per ranked season, we'll have one Runeterra Open a month.

This tournament, which is open for all players, with no rank restriction or entry free, will take place in two days: the first day, in a Daily Rumble format, players will try out their luck and compete until they get 8 victories or 3 defeats, whichever comes first.

After that, on day 2, all players with the necessary score will be placed in a bracket similar to the old Seasonal Tournament's Day 2, and they'll compete for money prizes. Day 1 will also have rewards, just like the Daily Rumbles, but in a much higher quantity: considering the most trophies you can get in a Daily Rumble is 10, Runeterra Opens can give you up to 100 trophies in case you reach the 8 victories on day 1.

We've also had a teaser regarding the ways of classifying for the Legends of Runeterra's World Championship. According to the announcement, there will be four main ways of classifying for the World Championship:

- Obtaining enough Runeterra Points throughout the year;

- Obtaining enough Runeterra Points throughout a season;

- Winning a Select Runeterra Open;

- Winning a Last Chance Qualifier Tournament, held up leading to Worlds.

What are Runeterra Points?

Runeterra Points are the new point system to classify to Worlds, taking the place of old Ranked Points and Seasonal Points.

Runeterra Points are given out more sparsely in most Runeterra Opens, with a small amount also being given to those who compete and reach the top of the Ranked ladder and some select Grassroots Tournaments.

But Yang, aren't all Runeterra Opens giving out spots to Worlds?

Select Runeterra Opens

The second Runeterra Open of each Tournament Season will give a direct spot to Worlds to its winner. A Tournament Season lasts for about three months and holds out three Runeterra Opens, which molds a calendar in which, after the first select Runeterra Open, there will be a two-tourney period between that one and the next one that qualifies directly to Worlds.

Select Runeterra Opens will give out a higher amount of Runeterra Points than the rest, so keep an eye out to play them all!

Tournament Seasons will be cyclical, and we'll have three throughout the year, before Worlds.

Keep an eye out for their structure:

- Expansion release, giving start to the Tournament Season and a new Ranked season;

- Two week break;

- First Runeterra Open of the Tournament Season;

- Two week break;

- Balancing Patch;

- Two week break;

- Second Runeterra Open of the Tournament Season which classifies for Worlds;

- Start of a new Ranked Season;

- Two week break;

- Mini-set release with new cards and balancing patch;

- Two week break;

- Third and last Runeterra Open for the Tournament Season;

- Two week break;

- Expansion release, giving start to the Tournament Season and a new Ranked season.

The new Legends of Runeterra competitive circuit is everything players have been dreaming of for the last few years. As there is always something to do and a new goal next to the last one, there isn't a loss of motivation in the months after a Seasonal Tournament, and with the rotation of formats in Daily Rumbles, there is always a new type of content to be discovered by the competitive scene.

Keep an eye out for my next articles because I'll try to bring my deckbuilding ideas about the new formats for the Daily Rumbles and try to help you get into the competitive scene because the more people are part of this ecosystem, the more value Riot will give to the game's competitive side!

See you next time!