The RQ Los Angeles Kai’Sa: a missed ruling in the semifinal
Hours after the Los Angeles Regional Qualifier wrapped up, a thread on r/riftboundtcg walked step by step through one interaction from the DSG Prismaticism vs NRW Rocklho semifinal. According to the author, a Kai’Sa, Survivor should have died on the spot and instead stayed on the table, conquering again afterwards. Nobody caught it: not the players, not the two judges sitting at the table. Riot has not commented, and neither player has made a public statement as of writing.
The interactionSix Might, five damage
The post comes from u/Dangerous_Basis3340 and points to the 3:06:00 mark of the event’s YouTube stream. The sequence it describes runs like this: Kai’Sa, Survivor — 4 Might printed — moves onto the Trifarian War Camp, which gives units there +1 Might, and goes to 5. Prismaticism then plays First Mate, the trigger on his Legend Rengar, Pridestalker hands another +1 to a unit, and Kai’Sa is at 6.
Then comes Rampage, played without recycling a Body rune for the extra +2: the spell picks a friendly unit and an enemy unit and has them deal damage to each other equal to their Might. On the other side is an equipped Sand Soldier at 5 Might. The token dies, Kai’Sa takes 5 marked damage and survives, because right then she is a 6.
The issue, the thread argues, comes one beat later: Kai’Sa leaves the Trifarian War Camp and moves back to base. Off the battlefield she loses the +1, drops to 5 Might with 5 damage already marked, and should die. Instead she stays in play, conquers again — when I conquer, draw 1, her text reads — and keeps generating advantage. The stream chat noticed and started asking for a judge; nothing happened. Prismaticism took the semifinal 2-1 and went on to win the final against Xeno, also 2-1.
The debateWhose job is it to spot it
The most interesting part of the thread is not the complaint, it is the reply. In the comments u/mtsilverred quotes the tournament rules at length, and the picture is less intuitive than it looks: judges are not there to stop errors from happening, they are there to deal with errors that have already occurred, and they step in on their own only when they believe a violation has taken place, when a player calls them, or when they see unsporting conduct. The same document puts maintaining a clear game state and flagging any violation in your own match squarely on the players. And marked damage, it says, is placed on units by players.
Two judges at the table
With four people watching the same game in a broadcast semifinal, the author argues, a missed death should not slip through. Caught in time, the game could have gone to Rocklho instead.
Twenty-two hours of play
Several commenters point out the semifinal started late at night, after two days of roughly ten hours each. Most read it as a collective slip, not as cheating.
The author says it himself: he has no idea whether it was deliberate. Nobody in the thread offers evidence of intent. What stands is that the correction never came at any point, and the semifinal result was not revisited.
Why it matters to us. The rules quoted in that thread are the same ones that govern Italian events, from Nexus Nights to the Lucca Showdown Series and on to the Madrid Regional in February. The practical lesson is uncomfortable and simple: a judge is not a referee who stops play on your behalf. Marking damage, keeping the board readable and calling a judge when something looks off are the player’s job — including when the advantage is yours, and including well past midnight.
| Step | Effect | Kai’Sa’s Might |
|---|---|---|
| Kai’Sa, Survivor in play | printed value | 4 |
| Moves onto Trifarian War Camp | +1 to units there | 5 |
| First Mate is played | Rengar, Pridestalker trigger: +1 to a unit | 6 |
| Rampage against a 5-Might Sand Soldier | 5 damage marked on Kai’Sa | 6 |
| Kai’Sa returns to base | loses the battlefield bonus | 5, with 5 damage |
The short version
- An r/riftboundtcg thread reconstructs an RQ Los Angeles semifinal interaction in which a Kai’Sa should have died and was never removed.
- The tournament rules quoted in the comments put marking damage and calling a judge on the players: judges handle errors, they do not prevent them.
- Riot has not commented, and neither the semifinal nor the final won by DSG Prismaticism has been changed.
Source: r/riftboundtcg, thread by u/Dangerous_Basis3340; bracket and standings from UVS Games. Card text from the official Riot Games database. Images: Riot Games.
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