The exclusive
metallic holographic cards of the Champions Legends made their debut at the
Riftbound Regional Qualifier in Houston, held this past weekend from December 5 to 7, 2025. Distributed through the “Best-Of Prizing” system,
these cards were awarded to the player with the highest win rate for each of the 16 Legends from the
Riftbound: Origins sets. Produced solely for the Houston event, these foils are tournament-legal and feature special 3D effects along with a premium metallic holographic finish, making them highly sought-after collector’s pieces.
The rarity of these cards even prompted Jeff Jones—multi-time YCS champion in
Yu-Gi-Oh! , and the only Lee Sin player to reach the Top 64—to jokingly complain about the sudden hype,
posting “
Literally disgusting lmao.” Jones later revealed he had received a firm $15,000 offer for his Lee Sin Blind Monk card immediately after the event, affirming that the offer came from someone who had already managed to purchase six of the 16 distributed copies. Until now, the highest publicly known price for a
Riftbound card
was nearly $9,000 for a Chinese “Prestige Select Battle Bunny Miss Fortune,” previously reported by
Sheep.
The first competitions on Riftbound
Over 1,123 players competed in this first non-Chinese Regional event, hosted at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, with $25,000 in prize money on the line. The competition featured a Swiss stage on Saturday, followed by a single-elimination Top 64 bracket on Sunday. Shawn Dhaliwal claimed the title with Annie “Dark Child,” a character that dominated the meta with four of the eight quarterfinalists and three of the semifinalists.
The rest of the Top 8 was rounded out by two Master Yi players and two Kai’Sa players. These tournaments serve as the first step in the competitive Riftbound circuit, granting the winners key advantages heading into the Regional Challengers scheduled to begin in October 2026, which will be the only official pathway to the World Championship set for 2027.
Riot Games has already announced the next wave of events, starting with the first European Regional from February 20 to 22, 2026, in Bologna, Italy, followed by a second North American Regional in Las Vegas from February 27 to March 1. Three additional tournaments have also been teased—one more in Europe in April, another in North America during the same month, and a debut Australian stop planned for May.
Header Photo Credit: Riot Games
