Set in the League of Legends universe, Legends of Runeterra is the strategy card game created by Riot Games where skill, creativity, and cleverness determine your success.
Hello everyone!
I’ve been wanting to write a follow-up to my first letter to Riot on Organized Play, which I recently learned is the highest upvoted post on /LorCompetitive. Very cool.
I want to set the mood with a gif and remind everyone that we can be critical of things that we love, and support them at the same time. If you are reading this, it means we are on the same team and want LoR to succeed. So let's work together!
For anyone that doesn’t know me, my name is Jason Fleurant. I am a full time content creator focused on LoR, a member of the League Partner Program, and a Co-founder of MasteringRuneterra.com
This is also my one-year LoR anniversary. I played Runeterra for the first time exactly one year ago, it’s crazy to think how much has changed in just twelve months. From not knowing what a poro was to making Runeterra my long-term plan. I’ve bet big on Runeterra and on Riot because I believe in them.
Know that everything I am saying comes from a place of camaraderie and of trying to help. I’d also like to just take a moment to thank a few people that helped me when I was starting my various LoR endeavors. Though there are so many of you I’d like to thank NicMakesPlays, Zturtle, MajiinBae, Alanzq, Blevins, MissYeru, Shwartzan, The MR Pro Team, MR.com writers and editors and the one and only SharontheVampireSlayer.
Again I love Runeterra passionately. I think the game is freaking amazing and it's honestly a small miracle the game has made it this far considering the ridiculous number of other games and especially card games that never made it even close to where we are now. So I can't stress how much I appreciate and respect the work that the Runeterra Team has done. Seriously, hats off!
Alright now let's dig into it! First, some updates on things that were brought up from the last article.
The Seasonals and Worlds players have been paid!
Kevor was sent a handwritten letter and some gifts from RiotUmbridge for the Worlds snafu. To me this shows the depths that they care about their communities. I hope Kevor gets a special invite to an event in the future as well as anyone else that missed out on worlds.
Communication from the team. This I will get into below.
The Clock...It’s still here, at least we figured out we could move it around the screen.
After Worlds we received this update on competitive play:
https://playruneterra.com/en-sg/news/competitive/what-to-expect-from-competitive-play/
Letting us know that they are going to take some time to come up with a plan for Organized Play from what they have learned in the previous year. My first gut reaction was to be saddened that we wouldn't have larger competitive events right in the near future. But I quickly realized this was for the best. Getting Organized Play correct is extremely difficult and it's been botched by countless other companies. So I am very happy that they are taking the time they need to go deep into the tank and come back with a flushed out competitive environment. I will say that my expectations are very high, as we’ve seen countless times before Riot can deliver.
So now we come to today.
Again the devs are killing it by interacting with the community. The team that is responsible for the big patch coming in January have already reached out on Twitter and Reddit to hear what the community has to say. I think this is so important not only to help guide their decision making process but also as an outlet for the community to feel heard.
It would be amazing to have someone "own" Organized Play or at least the conversation with the community around Organized Play. There are many people that would love to fill this role. I would do it for a lifetime supply of that Arcane popcorn and a crisp high five. There is also a lot to be learned about what the players want and expect.
So while we are here, why don’t we make this a thread to let the Riot team know what we want to see from Competitive Play? Shoot for the moon! List all the things that would make you want to play Runeterra every day and for the years to come. There’s no point in worrying about the "how" as none of us have the knowledge of what they can or can not make happen. Simply list all the things you’d love to see and that would get you excited and leave it to them to pick and choose the ones they can do.
A path to Pro:
I’d like to see a “Path to Pro” . This was what got me into Runeterra. I want to be able to chase that dream of making money playing the game even if it’s a pipe dream. Flesh and Blood literally copy pasted the competitive scene from the golden era of MTG and players have gone running to it in droves. It provides a qualifier system for players to play in weekly and tiers that let players move up to higher and higher levels of play until they are ultimately playing for large sums of money.
I’d like on demand events where I could win prizes that I care about. This is basically a 24/7 Gauntlet with increased prize support.
I’d like more formats to play. MTG tries to combat staleness by having their competitive format cycle through the qualifier seasons. One season is Standard, the next is an eternal format and the next is limited and by the time you come back around to Standard it's fresh and new again (sometimes). An MTG style draft or sealed format in Runeterra would get me playing the game all day every day.
I’d like for grassroots tournaments to be able to feed into the competitive play structure in some way. Winning money is great but at the end of the day we want to chase the dream.
I’d like for there to be a way to once again play cross shard. The separation of the community has been really tough for grassroots tournaments and the community in general for not being able to play with their friends from other parts of the world.
I would also highly recommend that RiotRubinZoo have as much input as possible into competitive endeavors. He’s a competitive CCG legend and wicked smart. Here he is winning Pro Tour Madrid..
I was going to touch on a lot of other topics but I think these things would go a long way to solving most of those other issues.
SO! What do you summoners want to see from Riot’s announcement next year? I urge you all to speak up now even if others have already commented on topics you’d like to see so that it lends more weight to the things that are important to you!
All the love,
Jason “Who doesn’t know the name” Fleurant
TLDR: Runeterra is an amazing game and I just want more ways to play it. I’d like more communication from the Organized Play team and I’d like a large competitive ecosystem that has something for everyone.