What is a Pre-Rift event?

A Pre-Rift event is the prerelease of Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game. In the week before a new set comes out, game stores hold Sealed events where players open the cards of the new set, build a deck from them at the table and play it against each other. Pre-Rift is Riot's own name for these events, and every main set since Spiritforged, the second set, has had a Pre-Rift week.

Every player gets a Pre-Rift kit, the store provides the other cards needed to play, such as extra runes, and each player keeps every card they open. The events are casual: Riot's guide to the Radiance Pre-Rift describes them as casual, social events where the fun comes first, and no player needs a deck or a collection of their own.

When are Pre-Rift events held?

Pre-Rift events are held in the seven days before a set's release, from the Friday one week before release day to the Thursday before it. Each store picks its own day and time within that week, and many stores hold two or more Pre-Rift events. Most Radiance Pre-Rift events are on the opening weekend, from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 October 2026.

• Radiance: Pre-Rift events from 16 to 22 October 2026, with the release on 23 October 2026.
• Legacy: Pre-Rift events from 22 to 28 January 2027, with the release on 29 January 2027.
• The Reckoning: Pre-Rift events from 23 to 29 April 2027, with the release on 30 April 2027.

Riot dated these three Pre-Rift weeks in its announcement of upcoming official events, and Legacy and The Reckoning are the two sets that come after Radiance. The Radiance rules update to the Core Rules, dated 9 October 2026, takes effect on 16 October 2026, the first day of the Radiance Pre-Rift events, so these events are played under the updated rules.

What happens at a Pre-Rift event?

A Pre-Rift event runs like a small Sealed tournament, in four steps.

1. Sign up. Players sign up with the store before the day and pay the entry fee.
2. Open. Each player receives a Pre-Rift kit at their seat and opens it: a pack of 15 cards built around one of the new Legends, five booster packs of the new set and, while supplies last, a promo card.
3. Build. Each player builds a deck from those cards. The Tournament Rules recommend 30 minutes for this in Sealed and allow up to 45 minutes at Pre-Rift events, where everyone sees the cards for the first time.
4. Play. The store pairs the players for rounds of one-on-one matches, and a few stores hold their Pre-Rift as a 2v2 event for teams of two players instead. The store sets the number of rounds and the length of each round, and it says whether a match is a single game or the best of three.

Between games and between rounds, a player may change the deck with other cards they opened, since a casual Sealed event does not require the deck to be registered unless the head judge asks for it.

What do you get at a Pre-Rift event?

Every player keeps the whole Pre-Rift kit. In the Radiance kit, the 15-card pack holds one of the nine new Legends, a rare champion unit to go with it, a battlefield and support cards for that champion. The promo card is Heimerdinger, Academy Instructor, a champion unit of the set.

Five of the nine Legends are Boy Who Shattered Time for Ekko, Lady of Clockwork for Orianna, Starry-Eyed Songstress for Seraphine, Agony's Embrace for Evelynn and Exemplar of Demacia for Jarvan IV.

Stores get their kits in an event kit for 16 players, which also holds one booster display of the new set, 24 packs, for prize support. Each store chooses how to hand those packs out as prizes, for example to the players at the top of the standings.

How do you build a deck at a Pre-Rift event?

A Pre-Rift deck follows the Sealed rules, which are looser than the rules for a Constructed deck.

• The main deck holds at least 25 cards, and it may hold more.
• A deck may hold as many copies of a card as the player opened, so the usual limit of three does not apply.
• A deck uses up to three domains. A Legend brings its own two domains, so a deck with a Legend can add one more.
• Any champion unit within the deck's domains can be its chosen champion, even one that does not match the Legend.
• The rune deck holds 12 runes in the deck's domains. The store provides extra runes, and players may also use their own.
• A deck plays the battlefields its player opened, or blank battlefields, which work as battlefields without any text.

Riot's guide to the Radiance Pre-Rift advises a deck with at least 15 units, about five of them costing 2 Energy, so that the deck has plays in its first turns. The same guide says that the promo Heimerdinger, Academy Instructor cannot go into the Sealed deck, while a regular copy of the same card opened in a booster pack can.

Is a Pre-Rift event a good place for new players?

A Pre-Rift event suits a new player who already knows the basic rules. It is played at the Casual level of the Tournament Rules, where judges put teaching and good sportsmanship first, mistakes carry light penalties and the head judge may let players get help while they build. Every player builds from cards opened that day, so a large collection gives nobody an advantage.

A Pre-Rift is still a tournament with rounds and standings, and building a deck from more than 80 cards of a new set takes some knowledge of the game. Someone who has never played does better to start at a Learn to Play event, or to read how a game of Riftbound works before the day.

How much does a Pre-Rift event cost, and how do you get a seat?

Each store sets its own entry fee, and the fee covers the kit. Most stores ask between 30 and 40 US dollars or euros, more than for a weekly Nexus Night, because the store pays for the kits: the event kit for 16 players has a suggested price of $480, which comes to $30 a player.

Seats are limited by the kits each store receives. Stores had to register their Radiance Pre-Rift events by 29 August 2026, UVS Games decided how many kits each store would get, and most Radiance Pre-Rift events have room for 16 or 32 players. Sign up as early as you can. The kit and the store's runes cover every card a player needs. Sleeves are optional at a Casual event unless the head judge asks for them, and a die or counter for the score makes the day easier, as the list of what to bring to your first Riftbound event explains.

The event finder shows the Pre-Rift events near you, and the major events page lists the coming Pre-Rift weeks. The Radiance card list shows the cards a Radiance kit can hold. Once the Pre-Rift week is over, Nexus Night, the weekly store event, is where you can keep playing with your new cards.