Intentional draws in Riftbound: what the rules say and how many there really are

by Riccardo Emanuele Eustor·Riftbound Zone

Yesterday Will, TheWillHallExp on TikTok, posted a video that has the community talking: "Intentional draws, prize splitting, and what we can do about it". The topic is intentional draws (IDs) and prize splitting, and Will's question is simple: are they fine as they are, or should they change? Before answering I did two things: I reread the official Riftbound tournament rules, and I counted how many intentional draws actually happened across the 11 Regional Qualifiers played so far.

The wordsA two-minute glossary

The videoWhat Will says

Will starts with why players draw: "If I went five and O in a tournament and it was seven rounds, if I lose the next two rounds, there's a good chance I don't make top eight. But if I ID the next two rounds, or even if I ID one round and lose one round, I'm probably gonna be locked for that top eight." And top 8 is not just about prizes: seeding decides who goes first.

Then comes the part that makes Riftbound different: "In Riftbound we go one step further, 'cause we have best of cards, and a lot of them. 40 plus legends now where you can sell them and earn basically more money than you'd get for winning the whole tournament." According to Will it happens at store level too, where players draw into the top 8 to secure the promos.

Will comes from Magic: The Gathering, where IDs are normal, "almost encouraged". But Will also points out that Riftbound is the first competitive card game for a lot of players, and that anyone who missed out on prizes because of other people's IDs has every reason to be upset: "I've been in that situation on both sides of the fence. I've ID'd people out of being able to make it into top eight, and I've not made top eight 'cause other people have ID'd."

Will puts two fixes on the table: take away the point for an intentional draw (zero points each, as good as a loss), or widen the bracket to top 12, top 16 or top 24 to remove the incentive. And closes by asking viewers what they think.

Watch Will's video on TikTok →

The rulesWhat you can and can't do

The Riftbound Tournament Rules (revision of July 16, 2026) are clear. I split them into two columns:

The difference that matters: "let's draw, so we both make it" is a legal ID; "let's draw and I'll give you €20" is bribery.

Why it weighs moreBest-Of prizes

This is where Will hits the real point. Regional Qualifiers award 33 Best-Of prizes, foil plated Legends from Spiritforged, Unleashed and Vendetta: each one goes to the highest-placing player with that champion, "regardless of overall standings". Regional Championships work the same way, with a Best-Of card featuring overnumbered art, but you need to reach Day 2.

In practice: with an underplayed Legend you can take home a valuable card even finishing 100th. And a last-round draw can be worth that prize, not just a top 8 spot.

The numbersHow many intentional draws there really are

I took the results of all 11 completed Regional Qualifiers, 21,215 players, and counted the 0-0 draws: matches that ended in a draw without a single game played. I can't be 100% sure, but a 0-0 draw is almost always an ID. Here is the result:

1 in 16Matches ended 0-0 in the last Swiss round: 81 of 1,323

Rounds 1-7

1 in 2,800

Round 8, end of day 1

1 in 260

Rounds 9-12

1 in 600

0-0 draws, round by round

1. 21
2. 22
3. 33
4. 24
5. 25
6. 46
7. 47
8. 178
9. 19
10. 310
11. 211
12. 412
13. 8113

So IDs exist, but they're rare and they show up exactly where you'd expect: when a single point is worth day 2 or the top 8. European events (Barcelona, Utrecht) see fewer of them than American ones. In Lucca, the only big Italian event, there were 6 0-0 draws, 5 of them in the last two rounds on the top tables.

Then I looked at who actually makes the top 8. That is where the numbers change weight.

55%Of the top 8 spots across 11 Regional Qualifiers went to players who drew 0-0 in the last round: 48 of 88

Lille

8 of 8

Atlanta, Hartford, Los Angeles

6 of 8

Utrecht

0 of 8

The pattern never changes: whoever reaches the last round at 11 wins and 1 loss draws, goes up to 34 points and is almost certainly in. Whoever sits just below can't afford a draw and has to play it out, and often misses on tiebreakers: in Bologna, Las Vegas and Utrecht 7 players missed the top 8 on the same points as the last one in, in Singapore 6.

And the draws aren't only about the top 8. In Los Angeles 34 players drew 0-0 in the last round, but only 6 made the top 8: the other 28 were locking in lower placement prizes and the Best-Of for their Legend, exactly as Will says. One caveat: I only count the last round and only 0-0 draws, so the real numbers may be slightly higher.

My takeTake away the point or widen the top 8?

To me the ID itself isn't the problem. It's a choice the rules allow, and the numbers say it mostly happens in the last round, where two players who already had an excellent event choose not to gamble. Taking away the point, as Will suggests, would make IDs disappear, but I suspect deals would turn into concessions: one player concedes to the other, which is always allowed, and making sure nothing changes hands gets harder, not easier.

The 55% does change the picture, though: the issue isn't cheating, it's how players get into the top 8. In more than half the cases the last spot isn't played for, it's agreed on, and the bill goes to the players on the bubble, who miss out on tiebreakers with nothing they could do.

Widening the top 8 really does shrink the bubble, but it adds a round or two, and at a 2,000-player RQ that adds up.

Where Will is right is Best-Of prizes: a prize that can be worth more than winning changes incentives even mid-table, and that's where an under-the-table deal is more tempting. The rule already exists: if someone offers you something in exchange for a draw, it's bribery, and a judge needs to know. What's missing, especially for people playing the first card game event of their life, is knowing these rules. That's why I wrote this.

What do you think? Are IDs fine as they are, should the point go, or should the bracket get wider? Answer Will under the video, and tell me on the Riftbound Zone Discord.

Sources: Will's (TheWillHallExp) video on TikTok, October 8, 2026; Riftbound Tournament Rules, revision July 16, 2026, rules 410 and 704.5; Best-Of prizes: Riot Games, RQ Singapore and Star City Games, Regional Championships; results from official UVS events, processed by Riftbound Zone. Photo: TikTok @thewillhallexp. Chart: Riftbound Zone.