Going second: Riot puts three rules on test
Riot has published the official announcement we were missing: the player going second is getting a boost, but there are three rules on test, not one. Alongside the extra card we wrote about this morning, Riot is also testing starting on 1 point and a Predict before the first draw; staff at each event will say which one is in play. The pre-game sequence changes too: turn order is decided first, battlefields are picked after. Testing happens at City Championships in China and at the Standard Challenges on Friday 6 and Sunday 8 November in Stuttgart, not at the main event.
The problemGoing first wins too often
Riot states the reason plainly: going first currently wins more games than they would like. The only compensation for going second is one extra Rune channelled on the first turn, and it is not enough. The target is a win rate split close to 50-50.
Note what this announcement is not. It is not a rules update: your local Nexus Night and the Stuttgart main event are played exactly as before. This is a time-limited experiment, run in places chosen to gather data across a lot of games.
Three routesA point, a card or a Predict
The second player still channels three Runes on turn one. On top of that they get one of these three things, chosen by the organiser and announced before the event.
| Variant | What happens at the table | Why Riot is testing it |
|---|---|---|
| Start on 1 point | The game begins with one point already scored | The most drastic option: going second means fewer chances to score, so it starts ahead exactly there |
| Draw an extra card | On turn one, after channelling, draw two cards instead of one | More cards help in long games and do not force players to rebuild their decks |
| Predict 1 | Before the first draw, look at the top card and decide whether to keep it there or put it on the bottom | The softer version: it adds no material, it only improves the draw |
On the extra card, Riot also describes an idea it rejected: taking the first player's draw away, which would have changed deckbuilding too much.
The other changeTurn order first, battlefields after
This part applies to all three variants and carries the most weight for high-level play. Today you make choices without knowing whether you will be going first. In the test version, turn order is settled first, then battlefields are picked facedown, then sideboarding happens (in games two and three), and only then are battlefields revealed.
Bo3
Every battlefield choice is made already knowing the turn order. You sideboard knowing your own battlefield and your turn order, but not your opponent's.
Bo1
Battlefields stay random, but you look at your own before sideboarding, keeping it hidden. Your opponent's is revealed afterwards.
The upshot is that the two formats line up far more closely than they do now, and nobody sideboards blind on their own turn order any more.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Channel a Rune | Put a card into play from your Rune deck: it is the energy you pay for cards with |
| Point | You win by scoring points on battlefields, so starting on 1 is a heavy head start |
| Predict | Look at the top card of your deck and choose whether to leave it there or put it on the bottom |
| Sideboard | The spare cards you swap into your deck between games of a match |
Where and whenTwo days in Stuttgart, plus China
Testing takes place at Radiance season City Championships in China and at the Friday and Sunday Standard Challenges at the European Regional Championship in Stuttgart (6-8 November, Hall H at Messe Stuttgart). This morning, from the listing for Friday's event alone, we knew about one day and one variant: now we know it is two days and three possibilities. Premier tournaments are excluded: Skirmishes, Showdowns and other high-OPL events should not playtest these rules unless organisers are told directly.
The final call comes with the sixth set, Legacy: Riot will analyse Radiance season data and put the rules change — or the announcement that nothing changes — in that set's patch notes.
Why it matters for us. Stuttgart is the European event of the autumn and Italian players can get there in a day: anyone attending on an admission badge can play the Friday and Sunday Standard Challenges and will meet a rule that exists nowhere else. It pays to arrive prepared, because you find out the variant on site: with “start on 1 point” the game becomes a race, with the extra card the long games are what count. And if you are staying home it is still worth following, because these numbers will shape the rules we all play by from the Legacy season onwards.
In short
- Three variants on test for the player going second: start on 1 point, draw an extra card, or Predict 1 before the first draw. Staff announce which one before each event.
- The pre-game sequence changes: turn order, then facedown battlefields, then sideboarding, then battlefields revealed.
- Testing runs at City Championships in China and at the Standard Challenges of 6 and 8 November in Stuttgart, not at the main event or at Nexus Nights.
- This is not a rules update: the decision lands in the patch notes for the sixth set, Legacy.
Source: Riot Games — Testing Start of Game Rules. The first detail about the extra card came from the side event listing, as we reported in Stuttgart tests a new rule. Images: Riot Games.
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