What are Regional Qualifiers and Riftbound Regionals?

Regional Qualifiers are the largest open tournaments of Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game. Each one fills a convention center for a weekend, draws more than a thousand players and hands out the invitations to the Regional Championships, the invitation-only events on the road to the World Championship. Riot often calls them RQs for short.

In August 2026 Riot announced in its August 2026 State of Play that the Regional Qualifiers take a new name in 2027: Riftbound Regionals. The Regionals keep the weekend format with side events and vendors, but they lead to the new Continentals instead of the Regional Championships.

What is a Regional Qualifier?

A Regional Qualifier is an open Constructed tournament that any player can enter, with no invitation or earlier result needed. Riot runs the Regional Qualifiers together with UVS Games, the publisher of the game. UVS Games handled the ticket sales and the judge program for the first English one, in Houston. Each Regional Qualifier has side events, vendors and a prize wall around the main event.

The first English Regional Qualifier was played in Houston on 5 to 7 December 2025, with more than 1,300 players signed up for its main event. The Regional Qualifiers then traveled to cities such as Bologna, Lille, Sydney, Vancouver and Singapore, and they grew on the way: the Regional Qualifier in Barcelona in August 2026 had more than 2,130 players on its first day of play. Riot called the event in Los Angeles on 25 to 27 September 2026 the final Regional Qualifier of 2026.

The Tournament Rules count a Regional Qualifier both as a premier event, run by Riot under a name of its own, and as a qualifier, because its prizes include places at a bigger event (rule 201). Riot's overview of organized play puts the Regional Qualifiers at the Competitive level, where players are expected to know the Core Rules and the Tournament Rules and mistakes carry stricter penalties than at a Nexus Night (rule 205.3).

How does a Regional Qualifier work?

A Regional Qualifier is played one on one, with decks the players built themselves, in best-of-three matches with sideboards. Every player registers the deck before the first round, and the registered list cannot be changed during the event (rules 401.1 to 401.4). The deck needs a Legend, a main deck of exactly 40 cards with the chosen champion in it, 12 runes and three battlefields with different names (rule 402.1), and the sideboard holds up to 10 cards (rule 601.1.c.1).

The event fills a weekend. Badges can be picked up from Thursday, the hall is open from Friday, and the main event is played on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday every player plays Swiss rounds, in which each player meets opponents with the same record where possible (rule 202.2.a). Only the players with the best records play on Sunday, and the Top 8 then play knockout matches for the title. In Barcelona, 379 players made it to Sunday.

After each Regional Qualifier, Riot publishes the decklists of the Top 8 and the best-placed deck of many other Legends in a Top Decks article. The three Regional Qualifiers of the Vendetta season were won by three different Legends: Fire Below the Mountain, the Legend of Ornn, in Barcelona, Rogue Assassin, the Legend of Akali, in Singapore, and Pridestalker, the Legend of Rengar, in Los Angeles.

What can you win at a Regional Qualifier?

Each Regional Qualifier of 2026 had a prize pool of $25,000 in cash, shared by the Top 32. The table shows how the last ones of the year, from Hartford in June to Los Angeles in September, split it. The prizes add up as a player climbs, so a player in the Top 8 also receives everything that the Top 64 and the Top 128 receive.

At those events every player in the Top 64 earned an invitation to a Regional Championship, 40 tickets for the prize wall, where tickets are traded for booster packs and other items, and a Competitor Pass for a future Regional Qualifier. In the Vendetta season the Top 128 received a playmat and an alternate art promo of Jayce, Brilliant Inventor, and the Top 8 and the champion received promos of the same card with exclusive art and playmats of their own.

The Best-Of prizes reward players who do not win the whole event. For each Legend, the highest-placing player who brought it receives a Best-Of Legend, a holographic metal copy of that Legend that is legal in tournaments, which Riot's latest prize lists call a Foil Plated Legend. The Regional Qualifiers of the Vendetta season offered 33 of them, for the Legends of Spiritforged, Unleashed and Vendetta.

Where does a Regional Qualifier lead?

A Regional Qualifier leads to a Regional Championship. Every player who finished in the Top 64 earned an invitation, and the invitation is not tied to a region, so a player who qualified in Singapore may play in Europe or in North America. The European and North American Regional Championships of 2026 are held in Stuttgart on 6 to 8 November 2026 and in Las Vegas on 11 to 13 December 2026, and the Top 8 of each earn an invitation to the first Riftbound World Championship.

Summoner Skirmish, the competitive store tournament, used to give out byes for the first round of a Regional Qualifier. Many of those byes went unused because the players who won them could not travel, so the Radiance Skirmishes will give no byes. A bye that a player has already won can still be used at a Riftbound Regional through 2027.

What changes when Regional Qualifiers become Riftbound Regionals?

Riot announced the change on 4 August 2026, in its August 2026 State of Play, as part of a new ladder of competitive events for 2027. Besides the new name, Riot plans more Regionals on a steadier schedule, generally three to four in each set season, and it said that the Best-Of metal Legends continue.

The biggest change is where a Regional leads. The Regional Championships give way to Riftbound Continentals, four a year with one tied to each set, and a strong result at a Regional earns an invitation to a Continental. A Regional is not the only way in, because the first day of every Continental is an open qualifier for players without an invitation.

A Riftbound Regional runs for three days and has two kinds of badge. A Competitor badge enters the main event on the second and third days, and an Attendee badge gives access to the side events and the community activities. Riot says the players compete for foil-plated Legends and for top-cut prizes that include an invitation to a Continental, but it has not given a prize pool or an entry fee for 2027.

When and where are the first Riftbound Regionals?

Riot named the first two Riftbound Regionals on 23 September 2026, both in the season of Legacy, the sixth set, with its release on 29 January 2027. Riftbound Regional Madrid is played at IFEMA Madrid on 5 to 7 February 2027, and Riftbound Regional Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on 12 to 14 February 2027. A third Regional of the Legacy season is planned in the Oceania region, and Riot has not yet given its city or dates. The first Continental follows in Dallas on 26 to 28 March 2027.

Should you play a Riftbound Regional?

A Riftbound Regional suits a player who knows their deck well and has played best-of-three matches before, because the main event is long and strict. The Regional Qualifiers that it replaces were open to any player with a legal deck, and an Attendee badge lets a player come for the side events alone.

A Summoner Skirmish at a store is a good rehearsal while the Radiance season lasts, because it uses the same format at the same rules level. Riot has not yet said how its successor, the Riftbound Challenge Series, works.

Before you go, read which rules apply at a Riftbound tournament and how a sideboard works, and settle on a list with the shared decks and the deck builder. The major event page gives the dates of the large tournaments, and the article on the kinds of Riftbound tournament shows where the Regionals sit on the ladder.