I was recently flown out to play and learn more about Riot Games’ newest entry into the League of Legends world, Riftbound. For those who may not know, this is their first time entering the physical TCG space. I was able to sit down with Chengran Chai, Riftbound’s Executive Producer, during the Riftbound influencer event to discuss his thoughts on the game, its future and more.
All of Chengran’s answers will be in bold.
First off, how’s the day going so far? We are here at an awesome event where we’re getting to learn a lot more about the game. What have you felt like the response has been so far? What have you been enjoying about it? Just give us a little breakdown.
Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for coming to campus. It’s been a great day. We have influencers and press here, playtesting our game along with us. We’re showing them all the champions from our first set origins. They’re actually right now in a deck building playtest, where they’re experimenting with all of our cards and trying out their own style of varying ways to win the game. I would say the day’s been going really well. I think, everyone’s been telling me they’re really enjoying the game. And kudos to Dave and the design team for coming up with a fantastic game design and the first set of cards, there’s more to come. I couldn’t be happier with the with the how the day’s gone.
I can say, personally, it’s been an absolute blast so far. And even getting to try the the new decks, which I won’t speak of here, obviously, right now, but they are awesome. I played one just before I came in here, and it was very, very fun. So speaking a little bit about origin set one, obviously you guys have releasing in China much sooner than here in America. And I just want to know how it’s been getting everything ready for that, for that launch?
So China is releasing August, and then the rest of world will follow in October. And I think the opportunity that we wanted to do for China was really take advantage of the big moment around China, joy when a lot of new games get revealed. And also the fact that worlds is happening in China this year in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. And so it made a lot of sense for us to, you know, launch a little bit earlier, such that we could have the organized play tournaments play into worlds as we head into that season. So the preparations are going pretty well.
I would say we actually had a similar event in China last week, last Friday in Shanghai, at the LPL arena, where we hosted about, I think, 322, retailers, plus 40 plus press. So it was a very packed arena. Folks were sitting and we showed them our plans for the game, similar to the things you saw here. And the reaction was extremely positive. They’re like, “Hey, you guys basically gave us so much confidence that Riot is going to serve this market, this genre, these players the right way”, giving them organized play from day one, supporting them through all these other ecosystem, beats, via worlds, via promotions. And so I feel, I feel really good about about the challenge.
And it is, it is a challenge, right? What is it like heading up a Riot Games project like this? Because, you know, creating a game essentially from scratch, just what 13 or 14, months ago, is quite the tall task.
Yeah, it’s been a journey that actually, looking back, it’s almost like unbelievable that it’s happened, but it has, I would say, it one of, one of the Riot values is, dream and deliver, right? And I think at Riot, we always want to dream big and have very ambitious things that we want to do for players. And this came from that vein of wanting to because Dave myself, others on the team, we’re all TCG players. We were like, you know, there’s something a little bit missing about what’s out there. We think we could do a little bit better. And also just looking around and seeing all of the amazing things that Riot already has, right?
So, for example, the design talent at Riot, I would say is just absolutely amazing, especially around the card game space. We also have an amazing ecosystem of other games, Worlds and Arcane. We have amazing art from all of our other games, including Legend of Runeterra which we’re super grateful that they allowed us to leverage a ton of this to get started. And finally the esports beats that allows us to greatly amplify this to the broader lead audience. It’s been a tremendous journey. It hasn’t always been smooth, I would say we’ve definitely had our fair share of bumps. Riftbound is one of those things that I truly believe is only possible at Riot, because throughout our 15 month journey, we’ve had so many come up to us above and beyond their regular day to day responsibilities and helping us get what we needed to push the product to the next level.
Read More: New Sets, Riftbound’s Beginnings & More with Game Director Dave Guskin
Obviously, Riot Games has done physical releases, you know, for a couple different products. And I just want to know what it’s like taking, or more what are the challenges of not only producing this, but marketing this to players for a game that is mostly known as a digital experience?
I think that’s the question I got asked a ton early on in the process once we revealed Riftbound it was, “Hey, Riot’s a digital game company. Why would you make a physical game, right?” What I would say to that is, I think theat Riot is all about delivering fantastic player and fan experiences, and we do that through all kinds of venues, right? Arcane is a great example of film and TV delivering that fantastic fan experience. We have Worlds and the various esports leagues around the world, VCT, etc. that deliver that competitive esports experience, and Riftbound, we hope, is that physical game that delivers a fantastic player experience as well to players in this particular space.
What I would also say is we, we think, we believe, and we hope that Riftbound will become that physical manifestation of fandom for League of Legends. And that is something that digital games simply cannot offer because, as a card gamer, there’s just something special about holding that card in your hand and the ability to be able to give that to somebody else that you love, you trust, you know, you like, or they’re giving you a handsome amount of money for whichever the case might be. But for us, you know, Riftbound to us is more than just a game like we hope to through Riftbound to also celebrate the broader League moments like Arcane, like Worlds, like our new game launches, and forever hopefully ingrained that piece of memory to be associated with, that piece of card.
I think that’s beautiful. The interconnectivity of Riot is always something that I’ve appreciated. I start playing League of Legends I think six months after the beta.
I want to take a step a little bit outside of Riot talk a little bit about Pokemon specifically. We’ve seen incredible success of TCG pocket right now. I mean, they brought in, I think, a billion in the first sixish months or so. Do you think there’s any chance we could see a version of Riftbound like this? I know you guys already have Legends of Runeterra, but, obviously TCG pocket is even a more simplified version in the battling aspect, but more of a collecting game. Do you think that there’s something like that in the future for Riftbound?
I think it is definitely an interesting area, right? I would say, right now we are very much heads down, focused on delivering that physical experience for players first. I think Pokemon Pocket, or some kind of digital version is definitely something we’re open to, although that is definitely not something that we are putting on the roadmap or prioritizing at the moment, because again, for us, the most important thing is serving players. For now, the focus is on the physical players first. And once you know that is on track and doing well, I think we will definitely start thinking about opportunities like Pokemon Pocket.
So with that, Pokemon has also been sweeping the world for some negative reasons with scalpers, prices skyrocketing, right? So do you think that there’s any way you all at Riftbound can combat this, or is it just something that maybe you’re just gonna have to accept that’s gonna happen?
With TCGs, it’s always a little bit tricky, because we as the game developer, we don’t have that direct-to-player relationship, because it’s a physical product, and the physical product goes through many different layers. Out the door, it goes to the distributor, who then goes to the retailer, who goes to a purchaser who is, hopefully a player, but sometimes not right? They could be a scalper or others. And so I think where overall we want to be with Riftbound, is we want this game to be accessible? So, when it comes to, are we going to artificially hold back quantities, just so that the secondary market is some crazy obscene price, absolutely not. If we need to do reprints because players want cards to be able to play with, we absolutely will.
Accessibility is our number one priority, but at the same time again, this is the tricky thing about TCGs and the secondary market, we also value collectors because they make up a large portion of our player base as well, and we don’t want them to feel like their collection is just going to get decimated overnight. I think it is a fine balance that we will try to walk in, striving to strike that balance between ensuring the game is accessible while maintaining the value of those high value cards.
I know we can’t talk about too much, but I think you guys have done that based on what I’ve seen here today, even with some of the plans that you have coming out.
Collecting is obviously an extremely important aspect of the TCG. I know that collecting is a big part for you. It is for me as well. How do you balance that with the competitive part? Do you feel like this is going to be also something like on the collecting side that’s going to be able to compete with, like Pokemon, Lorcana, Magic, some of the bigger ones out there.
Yeah, for us the focus is on Riftbound players. I don’t necessarily think you know we need to take players from other games, although, players may choose to come over, and they’re definitely more than welcome. I think we basically want to give them what they want, right? For competitive players, we want to give them accessible ways to build their decks and to compete, and that is shown in the organized play plans that was shared today, as well as in the in the general card design. And for collectors, we want to give them that thrill of the of the chase and collection. I think we want to make it exciting, but obviously, players should invest their time, money, effort, accordingly, and responsibly.
My last one is hopefully a simple one for you. But what does success for Riftbound look for, you know, for you and for Riot?
Yeah, we want Riftbound to become the physical manifestation of League fandom for our players. So in that lens, success looks like when all the League fans know about Riftbound and they want Riftbound cards. They are playing the game in their own way, whether that is socially, competitively or just collecting, they are able to express their fandom for League, whether it’s the core gameplay cards, or an Arcane card or something like that. And genuinely making connections with each other and having fun through Riftbound, I think that is success.
Thank you to Riot Games and Chengran Chai for their time and for answering these questions. Keep an eye out for more Riftbound as they prepare to launch later in 2025.
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