What is the Showdown Series?

The Showdown Series is a run of large open tournaments for Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game. Each event is held by an experienced tournament organizer, often as part of a games convention, and Riot Games sanctions it as an official event. No invitation is needed to play, and the players who finish near the top earn places at the bigger tournaments that Riot runs itself.

Riot announced the Showdown Series on 29 May 2026 as a new way into the Regional Championships, next to the much larger Regional Qualifiers. In its August 2026 State of Play, Riot wrote that thousands of players had already joined Showdown Series events that year.

Who runs a Showdown Series event?

A Showdown Series event is run by a tournament organizer that has partnered with Riot, not by Riot itself, and it is not part of the store events that Riot schedules every season. Riot's announcement named North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region as the places where the events are held, and it described each one as a tournament for hundreds of players, while a Regional Qualifier drew thousands.

The organizers include companies that players know from other card games, such as Star City Games and CoolStuffInc in the United States, and local organizers in each European country that hosts an event. The Riftbound Tournament Rules treat a Showdown like Riot's own events: a player who takes part in a Showdown Series event, a Regional Qualifier or a Regional Championship agrees to be bound by the Tournament Rules and their Disciplinary Code (rule 705.1.b).

When and where are Showdown Series events held?

Riot's schedule of upcoming official events lists eight Showdown Series events for the autumn of 2026, each on a weekend in a different city. Six of them fall between 11 September and 4 October 2026: in Lucca in Italy, Baltimore and Houston in the United States, Bristol in the United Kingdom, Malmö in Sweden and Murcia in Spain. The last two are in Sacramento on 24 October 2026, run by Laughing Dragon, and in Orlando on 31 October 2026, run by CoolStuffInc. Several of them are part of a larger convention, such as SCG Con in Baltimore, which ran from 11 to 13 September 2026, and CoolStuffCon in Orlando, which runs from 30 October to 1 November 2026.

Riot has promised more Showdown Series events in 2027, with more organizers and in more regions, but its article of 23 September 2026 on the first premier events of 2027 named no Showdown Series events yet. The major events page lists the coming Showdown Series events with their dates and organizers.

How do you enter a Showdown Series event, and how is it played?

You enter a Showdown Series event by registering with its organizer. Riot's list of upcoming official events links each Showdown to the organizer's own page, which gives the entry fee, the player cap and the schedule. Each organizer sets its own fee: Star City Games set $75 for its Baltimore event, and CoolStuffInc set $75 in advance or $100 at the door for its Orlando event, with a cap of 512 players.

The main event is a Constructed tournament, so you bring a deck you built beforehand, and it has to be a legal Riftbound deck. Star City Games listed its Baltimore event in Standard, the format that the Tournament Rules of 9 October 2026 define as the sets of the current and the previous year, from Proving Grounds and Origins to Radiance, with its release on 23 October 2026 (rule 601.3).

A large Showdown takes a whole weekend. In Baltimore, the first day had seven Swiss rounds, in which players with the same record are paired against each other. The players with a good enough record came back for four more rounds on the second day, and the Top 8 then played a single elimination playoff. CoolStuffInc announced the same pattern for Orlando.

What can you win at a Showdown Series event?

The top finishers of a Showdown Series event earn places at Riot's bigger tournaments. Riot sorts the events into three tiers by the number of players. At each tier the best players win an invitation to a Regional Championship, and a wider group wins a Competitor Pass to a later Regional Qualifier of their choice. The table gives how many players at the top of the standings win each reward.

Riot adds that some limitations apply to both rewards without listing them in its announcement, so read the organizer's page before you count on a place. Riot has announced that the Regional Qualifiers will be called Riftbound Regionals in 2027, and it has not yet said what a Showdown Series event awards in 2027.

Players can also receive cards. Star City Games gave every player in Baltimore a participation promo printing of Jayce, Man of Progress, a Spiritforged unit, and CoolStuffInc lists the same promo for select players in Orlando. The events also hand out Plated Legends, metal printings of Legend cards, as Best-Of prizes. For each Legend of the three newest sets, the player who finishes highest with a deck led by that Legend wins its Plated Legend, so a player can win one without reaching the Top 8. Laughing Dragon named the Legends of Seraphine and Evelynn, Starry-Eyed Songstress and Agony's Embrace, among the Radiance Plated Legends for its Sacramento event.

Riot's announcement lists no prize money, but organizers add their own. Star City Games listed $6,000 for the winner in Baltimore with cash down to 32nd place, and CoolStuffInc listed $7,500 for the winner in Orlando.

How does the Showdown Series fit with the other Riftbound tournaments?

The Showdown Series sits between the store tournaments and the large events that Riot runs itself. In 2026 a player could reach a Regional Championship through a top finish at a Showdown Series event, or through the Top 64 of a Regional Qualifier.

For 2027, Riot has set out its chain of competitive events as the Premier Play Ladder. It starts with the Riftbound Challenge Series at stores and goes on through the Showdown Series to Riftbound Regionals, Riftbound Continentals and the World Championship. Riot calls the Showdown Series a great next step once a player has started at the Challenge Series. For a player who has won a few store tournaments and wants a bigger field without the size of a Regional, a Showdown is the natural next event.

The Showdown Series has nothing to do with showdowns, the windows at a battlefield in which players take turns to play spells, or with the Showdown Decks, a box of two ready-made decks. To plan an entry, start with the major events page, which lists the Showdown Series events still to come. The article on the kinds of Riftbound tournament shows how every event fits together, and the article on how Constructed works helps you get your deck ready.