Which rules apply at a Riftbound tournament?

Every official event of Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game, from a Nexus Night at a game store to a Regional Championship, is played under two rule books. The Core Rules say how a game works. The Tournament Rules say how the event around the games is run, from the decks that are allowed to the penalties for a mistake.

Riot Games publishes both on its Rules Hub, the home of the official Riftbound rules. The Tournament Rules dated 9 October 2026 go into effect on 16 October 2026, the first day of the Radiance Pre-Rift events, as Riot's Tournament Rules changelog says, and the rule numbers in this article come from that version.

Which rule book wins when the two disagree?

At a competition the Tournament Rules win over the Core Rules wherever they contradict them or add to them (rule 104.1). The size of the Main Deck shows how this works: the Core Rules ask for at least 40 cards, and the Tournament Rules ask for exactly 40 at a Constructed event (402.1).

An official addendum for a specific event wins over the Tournament Rules (104.3), and the English text wins over every translation (104.2). At the event itself, the head judge is the final authority and decides wherever the written rules are unclear (204.4). The banned lists and the errata on the Rules Hub count at every Constructed event as well.

How strictly are the rules applied at each event?

That depends on the Organized Play Level of the event, which is Casual, Competitive or Professional (rule 205). The level decides how strictly a slip counts as a violation and how heavy the penalty is. Most events are Casual, where judges care most about teaching and good manners, not technically precise play. The Tournament Rules count Nexus Nights and Pre-Rift events as low-level events. A Competitive event has significant rewards, which may include invitations or advantages at the Professional level, and a Professional event has significant rewards and prestige (205.3, 205.4). Every one of the kinds of Riftbound tournament has one of these three levels.

At Competitive and Professional events, a few things change at the table.

• Decklists. Every player registers a decklist, at a Constructed event before the first round, and the list cannot change once it is handed in (401).
• Sleeves. The Main Deck, the Rune Deck and the battlefields have to be sleeved, and the sleeves may not have highly reflective backs or holographic patterns (422.6, 422.7).
• The score. The score has to be kept in writing, while a Casual event also allows dice or a phone (415.3).
• Questions to a judge. A judge explains how a rule works, but does not say what a play you have not made yet would do (204.5.a.1).

Which decks are allowed at a Riftbound tournament?

A Constructed deck holds one Legend, a Main Deck of 40 cards with the chosen champion among them, 12 runes and 3 battlefields with different names. Standard, the format of Constructed events, is made of six sets: the Origins cards of Proving Grounds, Origins, Spiritforged, Unleashed and Vendetta, plus Radiance with its release on 23 October 2026 (601.3.c). Until sets come out in every region on the same day, the legality of a new card follows the official launch date in the region where the event is held (601.2.b).

Proxies are not allowed at any level, except one the head judge issues for a card that has become unusable (419.2). Cards in any official language are fine (420.1), and altered cards are allowed within limits: the name, the Might and the cost must stay readable and the art recognizable (419.4). Banned cards stay out of the deck and the sideboard, except in a ready-made deck played exactly as it comes in its box at a Casual event (601.2.d.2).

The deck rules of the Core Rules, which make a Riftbound deck legal, hold at a Constructed event except where the Tournament Rules change them (601.1.a). A Sealed or Draft event, where all the cards are provided during the event, has looser rules: the Main Deck needs only 25 cards in Sealed and 20 in Draft (602.4.a.2, 602.4.b.3).

How does a match run at a Riftbound tournament?

Most matches are the best of three games, and a drawn game counts for neither player (404). Before every game each player shuffles their Main Deck and Rune Deck and presents both to the opponent, who may shuffle them again (406.1). For the first game, a random method both players agree on picks the player who chooses to play first or last, except in the playoffs of a Competitive or Professional event, where the player ranked higher after the Swiss rounds chooses. After each game that someone won, the loser of that game makes the choice for the next one (407). Where a sideboard is allowed, a player may swap cards between games but never before the first game, and in Constructed every card that comes in replaces one card of the Main Deck (403.4, 403.5).

The Tournament Rules recommend 60 minutes for each Swiss round of a competitive event, and they strongly recommend playoff matches without a clock (604). When a round runs out of time, the current turn is finished and three more turns are played. A player who then leads by two points or more wins the game, and otherwise it is a draw (408.2). A match of three games in a round of 60 minutes leaves about 20 minutes for each game, which is why the length of a game of Riftbound matters at a tournament.

What do you have to tell your opponent during a game?

You have to answer every question about public information truthfully, such as the score or what is on the Chain, and announce every change of score, but you never have to help your opponent play (501, 502.7, 415.2). The cards in your hand are private, and you may bluff about them (502.11).

Your own triggered abilities are your job. You have to acknowledge each trigger by the time it would have an observable impact on the game, or it is forgotten and never goes on the Chain (506.3). The trigger of Ahri, Alluring changes the score, so it has to be announced when that point would be scored. Ravenbloom Student gets +1 Might when you play a spell, which only matters once its Might is relevant, as in combat. The buff from Sett, Brawler and the discard and draw of Traveling Merchant have their impact at once.

You do not have to remind your opponent of their triggers (506.2). Any other error of theirs, such as a point they forgot to score for a battlefield, you have to bring to a judge at once, or you can get a Warning of your own (702.17).

Can you take back a move at a Riftbound tournament?

Only your most recent one, and only before anything else happens. At a Casual event a player may change their last action, or not take it at all, as long as neither player has taken a new action since (509.3). At Competitive and Professional events the change has to come right away, and never after the opponent has had to show that the move was a mistake (509.4, 509.6). If you move a 3 Might unit to a battlefield and pass focus, and your opponent then points out that their lone defender has +2 Might from their Legend Wuju Bladesman, the move stands. Undoing moves on purpose to draw information out of the opponent counts as angle shooting (509.7).

What happens when someone breaks a rule?

Call a judge, at any moment of a match (412.1). Judges assume that a mistake was an accident, put it right where they can and record it (701.1). The Tournament Rules have four penalties: a Warning, a Game Loss, a Match Loss and a Disqualification (701.2).

• No penalty. Forgetting to draw, to score a point for a battlefield or to channel all your runes earns no penalty when it did not help you, and it is put right if it is caught within a full round of turns (702.3, 702.4, 702.7).
• Warning. Drawing extra cards, paying less than a cost asks and playing too slowly each earn a Warning, and the third Warning for the same kind of error in one event becomes a Game Loss (702.1.b, 703.1.b).
• Game Loss. A decklist with illegal contents costs a game (703.3), and so does arriving more than two minutes late at a Competitive or Professional event. A player more than ten minutes late loses the match (703.8).
• Match Loss and Disqualification. Settling a match with a coin, a die or anything other than playing Riftbound loses the match (703.10), and so does a bribe (704.5). Cheating, wagering, theft and serious misconduct such as violence lead to a Disqualification (704).

A player who disagrees with a floor judge may appeal to the head judge, whose ruling is final (413).

How do you get ready for the rules of a tournament?

For a Casual event, knowing most of the Core Rules is enough. For a Competitive event, players are expected to know both rule books, so read the Tournament Rules once, check the date on your copy and run your deck through the deck builder, which warns about banned cards.

Most of these rules decide what goes into the bag, from the decklist and the sleeves to a way to keep the score in writing, and what to bring to your first Riftbound event goes through each of them. The event finder shows the events near you.