Melbourne Top 8: three Riven, two Diana, two Kennen
The Melbourne Showdown Series has finished nine rounds of Swiss and the Top 8 is set. Only one player got there unbeaten: “his sion”, eight wins and a draw, on Riven, The Exile. Riven holds three of the eight seats; the other five belong to Legends from older sets — two Diana, two Kennen, one Jayce. One Regional Championship invite is on the line.
The eventNine rounds, 252 players
Let’s Play Games ran the event at Arrow on Swanston in central Melbourne, and 252 players sat down for it. The structure: nine rounds of Swiss split across two days — six on Saturday, three on Sunday — then a single-elimination Top 8. Swiss means nobody is knocked out along the way: every round you face someone on your own score, and the best eight advance. A win is worth three points and a draw one, which is why “his sion” sits on 25 points at 8-0-1 while the other seven qualifiers are all on 22 at 7-1-1.
As we write, the quarterfinals are under way and the official standings page has not posted a single result yet. Here are the four pairings with each player’s Legend — the card that stays on the table all game and decides which colours the deck can play, so naming the Legend is effectively naming the deck.
| Table | Player | Legend | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | his sion | Riven, The Exile (Radiance) | 8-0-1 |
| 1 | Yecob | Riven, The Exile (Radiance) | 7-1-1 |
| 2 | Soul | Diana, Scorn of the Moon (Unleashed) | 7-1-1 |
| 2 | DingCilia | Kennen, Heart of the Tempest (Vendetta) | 7-1-1 |
| 3 | Nathan | Diana, Scorn of the Moon (Unleashed) | 7-1-1 |
| 3 | Templar | Jayce, Defender of Tomorrow (Vendetta) | 7-1-1 |
| 4 | dunkMATTic | Riven, The Exile (Radiance) | 7-1-1 |
| 4 | Fel Peon U | Kennen, Heart of the Tempest (Vendetta) | 7-1-1 |
The metaRadiance takes three of eight
This is the first real picture of the game with the new set legal, and it reads two ways. Riven is the only Radiance Legend to go deep, but it did so three times out of eight and it is what the lone unbeaten player brought: after six rounds, as we reported on Saturday night, there was exactly one in the top 10. The flip side is that five of the eight seats still belong to Legends released earlier: Diana, Scorn of the Moon from Unleashed and Kennen, Heart of the Tempest with two decks each, Jayce, Defender of Tomorrow from Vendetta with one.
One caveat worth stating plainly: the standings page only publishes the Legend of players still in the event, so these proportions describe the Top 8, not all 252 entrants. The full-field snapshot of release weekend came from Sacramento, where Riven was on 12.6% of 755 registered decks — high, but a long way from three in eight.
25 points out of 27
“his sion” closed the Swiss at 8-0-1, the only player of 252 without a loss.
A single invite
At 252 entrants Melbourne is a Tier III event: only the winner earns a Regional Championship invite, while the top four get a Regional Qualifier pass.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Legend | The card that leads the deck: it stays on the table all game and sets which colours you may play. |
| Swiss | A points phase with no eliminations: each round you play someone on your own score. |
| Tier III | The Showdown Series bracket for 128 to 255 players: one Regional Championship invite and four Regional Qualifier passes. |
Why it matters to us. In two weeks the European Regional Championship hits Stuttgart (November 6-8), the first big European event with Radiance legal and open decklists. Melbourne is the new set’s first official Top 8, and it tells anyone packing for Germany something useful: Riven is real and has to be respected, but the Vendetta and Unleashed decks have not gone anywhere. Turn up with a list that only beats Radiance and you will run into Kennen and Diana instead.
The short version
- Nine rounds done in Melbourne: Top 8 set, quarterfinals in progress, no results posted yet.
- One unbeaten player, “his sion” on Riven, The Exile: 8-0-1 and 25 points.
- Riven holds three of the eight seats; the other five are two Diana, two Kennen and one Jayce, all Legends from earlier sets.
- With 252 entrants the event is worth a single Regional Championship invite for Stuttgart.
Source: Riftbound Gaming Network — Melbourne Showdown 2026 and Riftbound Organized Play. Images: Riot Games.
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