It’s been an odd few years for Riot Games. As League of Legends’ microtransaction systems have grown more invasive, 2XKO launched in early access to a somewhat muted response, and players consistently make allegations about AI use in official trailers and art, it feels like the company is struggling to find its feet. For a lot of longtime fans, that instability began with the shuttering of Riot Forge and the gutting of Legends of Runetera, the LoL-adjacent card game that once attempted to compete with the likes of Hearthstone. While its player count was apparently relatively low, it was much-beloved by its fanbase, and the switch across to PvE didn’t exactly go down well. When Riot announced that it was creating Riftbound, a physical TCG that it hopes will rival Magic: The Gathering, a lot of LoR fans were left out in the cold: LoR died for this? Speaking to PCGamesN, I asked design manager Jonathan Moormann (formerly senior game designer on LoR) about what the team learned from its virtual CCG.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: League of Legends TCG Riftbound lowers Legends of Runeterra’s “really high mental ceiling” so that everyone can play, Riot says