The numbersFour cities, 482 players
City Challenges are the events of the Chinese organized play circuit: the Season 5 promos — a Riven playmat and four cards — were announced back in October. These four are the first of the season and, more to the point, the first hundred-plus-player tournaments where Radiance was allowed. Over 400 decklists in total were archived on RiftDecks.
| Event | Players | Winner | Also near the top |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fuzhou | 115 | Vex | Rengar in the top 3 |
| Shenyang | 111 | Irelia | Jayce in the top 5 |
| Shenzhen | 128 | Riven | Rengar in the top 3 |
| Suzhou | 128 | Riven | Lillia in the top 3 |
A note on terms: the Legend is the card a deck is built around and the card that gives the deck its name, so "Riven won" means "a deck built around Riven, The Exile won". The Top 8 is the group of eight players who reach the single-elimination bracket.
The metagameRiven wins, but not on her own
The interesting figure is not that Riven won, but how often she did not. Two titles out of four is a lot for one Legend, and it backs up what Europe and America had already seen: Riven is the deck to beat. But the other two finals went to Legends from earlier sets — Vex, Gloomist from Unleashed at Fuzhou and Irelia, Blade Dancer from Spiritforged at Shenyang — which says the field has not yet collapsed around a single deck.
Below the winners the picture widens further: Rengar, Pridestalker placed in the top three at two of the four events, Jayce made the top five at Shenyang, Lillia the top three at Suzhou, and according to the person who gathered the data Kai'Sa, Daughter of the Void put more than one pilot into the Top 8. u/i92segoa also offers a personal read, worth treating as exactly that: in their view the domains to beat this season are Chaos and Calm. That is a first impression from someone who went through the lists, not something the results above prove on their own.
EuropeWhy Chinese events matter right now
Because they are the only large Radiance-legal tournaments that have actually finished. The European Regional Championship in Stuttgart runs from 6 to 8 November and is the first European event with the new set: qualified players must submit their decklist by Wednesday 4 November at 23:59, and Stuttgart is played with open decklists, meaning your opponent's deck is public before you sit down. Anyone still deciding what to bring now has four real tournaments to learn from instead of an online ladder.
Stuttgart decklists
Due at 23:59 CET. Nothing can be changed after that.
Round one
Starts at 10:00 CET, streamed on YouTube and Twitch across all three days.
Why it matters for us. In a week's time the qualified Italian players sit down in Stuttgart with Radiance legal and their lists public, and until today nobody had real numbers to work from. These four tournaments say two useful things: Riven has to be accounted for in whatever you bring, but the field is still open enough to reward a different choice. And the decklist deadline is Wednesday, not the day of the event.
The short version
- Four City Challenges in China, 482 players: the first large Radiance-legal tournaments.
- Riven, The Exile won Shenzhen and Suzhou; Vex won Fuzhou, Irelia won Shenyang.
- Rengar reached the top three at two of the four events; Jayce, Lillia and Kai'Sa also showed up high.
- The data comes from RiftDecks via Reddit — it is not an official Riot standings release.
- Stuttgart decklists are due by Wednesday 4 November at 23:59.
Source: u/i92segoa on r/riftboundtcg, with decklists on RiftDecks. Images: Riot Games.
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