Melbourne goes to Diana: Riven loses the final
The first officially sanctioned tournament played with Radiance legal has wrapped up in Melbourne, and the trophy went to a card two sets old: Diana, Scorn of the Moon, from Unleashed. In the final, «Soul» beat «his sion», the only player still unbeaten after nine rounds of Swiss, who was on Riven, The Exile. The new set took three of the eight Top 8 slots, every one of them with Riven. Across 252 entrants, Radiance's nine Legends accounted for fewer than one deck in three.
The finalSoul finishes 10-1-1 and takes the invite
The Melbourne Showdown Series, run by Let's Play Games at Arrow on Swanston, closed overnight European time: nine rounds of Swiss across two days, then a single-elimination Top 8. «Soul» squeezed into the cut in seventh place at 7-1-1, then won the quarter-final, the semi-final and the final to end the weekend at 10-1-1. «his sion» had come through the Swiss at 8-0-1 and finishes second on the same record: the only match he lost all weekend was the last one.
The official event page publishes records and each player's Legend, but not individual match scores and not full decklists — player decks are not public on this platform. For every competitor, in other words, we know the card that defines the deck and nothing about the other fifty.
| # | Player | Legend | Set | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soul | Diana, Scorn of the Moon | Unleashed | 10-1-1 |
| 2 | his sion | Riven, The Exile | Radiance | 10-1-1 |
| 3 | Nathan | Diana, Scorn of the Moon | Unleashed | 8-2-1 |
| 4 | dunkMATTic | Riven, The Exile | Radiance | 8-2-1 |
| 5 | Fel Peon U | Kennen, Heart of the Tempest | Vendetta | 7-2-1 |
| 6 | Templar | Jayce, Defender of Tomorrow | Vendetta | 7-2-1 |
| 7 | DingCilia | Kennen, Heart of the Tempest | Vendetta | 7-2-1 |
| 8 | Yecob | Riven, The Exile | Radiance | 7-2-1 |
1,200 Australian dollars
Out of a 5,000 AUD prize pool, the champion takes 1,200 Australian dollars and two booster displays.
Just one, and it is Soul's
At 252 players Melbourne is a Tier III event: one Regional Championship invite for the winner, a Regional Qualifier Competitor Pass for the Top 4.
What Diana doesOne extra Energy when the fighting starts
Diana, Scorn of the Moon (UNL 197/219) is a Mind and Chaos Legend with a single line of text: as a Reaction, exhaust her to add 1 Energy that can only be spent during a showdown. In plain terms, the moment a battlefield is contested Diana hands you an Energy nobody else has, which means one more card at the exact moment your opponent thinks you are out of resources. It looks like nothing on paper, and it tilts every single fight in the tournament.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Legend | The card that stays on the table from first turn to last and sets which colors the deck can play: naming a Legend is naming a deck. |
| Showdown | The moment two players fight over a battlefield, one of the zones that produce the points you need to win. |
| Reaction | It can be used on the opponent's turn too, in response to what they do. |
| Exhaust | Turn the card sideways: the ability works once per turn, and the card straightens up again on your next turn. |
The metaA third of the room, one working Legend
The most telling number is not the final, it is the whole field. Of the 252 entrants, 239 declared a Legend on the event page, and 73 of them — 30.5% — were on one of Radiance's nine Legends. Barely a third of the tournament, two days after the set hit shelves. Out of those 73 decks, exactly three made the Top 8, all of them on the same card.
Riven (RAD 149/167) is colorless and lets the units you play to battlefields you control enter ready, so your units can defend straight away instead of waiting a turn. She is the Radiance card that actually delivered in Melbourne, and she was also the joint most-played Legend of the weekend alongside Lillia.
| Legend | Set | Players | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riven, The Exile | Radiance | 20 | 8.4% |
| Lillia, Bashful Bloom | Unleashed | 20 | 8.4% |
| Seraphine, Starry-Eyed Songstress | Radiance | 13 | 5.4% |
| Diana, Scorn of the Moon | Unleashed | 11 | 4.6% |
| Vex, Gloomist | Vendetta | 11 | 4.6% |
| LeBlanc, Deceiver | Vendetta | 10 | 4.2% |
| Pyke, Bloodharbor Ripper | Vendetta | 10 | 4.2% |
| Mordekaiser, Iron Revenant | Radiance | 9 | 3.8% |
Diana, the card that won it all, was only the fourth most-played Legend in the room: eleven players out of 239, under 5% of the field. Two of those eleven made the Top 8.
Why it matters to us. In twelve days the European Regional Championship in Stuttgart will be the first major European tournament with Radiance legal, and everyone travelling there is deciding right now what to bring. Melbourne says two things: that only one Legend from the new set, Riven, has proved it can hold up, and that Unleashed and Vendetta decks are far from finished — in Australia they took five of eight Top 8 slots and the title. Anyone without the time or the money to build a Radiance deck from scratch before November 6 can go to Stuttgart with what they already own.
The short version
- «Soul» wins the Melbourne Showdown Series (252 players) with Diana, Scorn of the Moon, an Unleashed Legend: 10-1-1 and the single Regional Championship invite on offer.
- «his sion» is second with Riven, The Exile, unbeaten until the final. Radiance claims three Top 8 slots, all on Riven.
- Across the full field, Radiance Legends were 30.5% of the choices, but eight of the nine failed to make the cut.
Source: Riftbound Gaming Network — Melbourne Showdown 2026, Riftbound Organized Play. Images: Riot Games.
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