I taught Riftbound for three days: here is what I learned

After spending three days teaching Riftbound to new players, I now understand better the strengths and weaknesses of the League of Legends Trading Card Game’s new player experience.

The past weekend the Bologna Fiere Exhibition Centre — which hosted Riftbound's Regional Qualifier back in February — held the Play, a tabletop games convention. Few weeks prior my Local Game Store had posted a message in the Riftbound chat saying they were looking for demonstrators for the convention, and I had expressed my interest.

In the end I joined a team of other 13 people working in the Riftbound demo area during the three days of Play, where we spent most of the weekend teaching new players how the game worked, guiding them through the base demo decks, answering questions about mechanics, and generally just helping people get their first experience with Riftbound.

Like most Riftbound events, the stand was organized by UVS, while the local side of the operation was handled by PG Esports — who had also managed the Bologna Regional Qualifier earlier this year — together with MS Edizioni, who coordinated the staff.

After giving the same introduction to the game dozens of times over the weekend, some clear patterns started to appear. Most people who sat down genuinely enjoyed the game once they tried it, and the gameplay itself rarely seemed to be the issue. Here’s everything I learned from that experience.

Without the official numbers at hand I can only estimate how many people signed up to test Riftbound the past weekend, but the turnout felt strong. We had twelve tables that could accommodate up to four people at the same time for one hour top, but not all tables were full every hour. Considering demos were available for 10 hours a day all three days, I would assume a number between 500 and 1.000 people tried the game over the weekend, although this is only a personal estimate based on table turnover and how busy the area felt at different times.

The audience was also more international than I expected, but I also learned that Play is a recognizable convention for tabletop games. Across the weekend I personally demoed the game to Italian, French, and even a couple of South Korean attendees — and for whoever is asking, they were Gen.G fans — but I know other members of the staff also demoed in English a few times. The language was not an issue for the most part. The demo decks we were using were in English, and aside from a few Italian, older, people, no one had any issues with either the explanation or the cards they were playing with.

And speaking of age, most players were probably between 20 and 40 years old, but a noticeable number of attendees looked to be in their 50s or even 60s. Some were mainly board game fans curious to try a new game, while others were long-time Magic: The Gathering players interested in testing out a new TGC. There were very few kids — less than a dozen from what I saw — and usually there together with their parents.

The majority of people already had experience with TCGs, followed by Arcane and League players curious to try out a game with familiar characters in it. Many were active MTG players and quickly grasped Riftbound's mechanics, leaving little work for me to do at the table. Others came from Altered — which has unfortunately recently shut down all operations— and seemed to be looking for their next TCG to play.

I would, in all honestly, say very few people left the table disappointed. In fact, most reactions after the demo were positive, especially from players new to the Runeterra and League universe. Those who did left the table sceptical where all veteran TCG players who left the table questioning certain mechanics or comparing Riftbound to other titles — and even then they were positively impressed with the Runes and Battlefields mechanics in specific.

My first Riftbound demo was at the TFT Paris Open last December, where I was lucky enough to have Dave Gusking, Rifbound's Game Director, teach me and three other journalists the game in its 2v2 mode. The order he used then to explain me the game components and mechanics was the same that the Play staff was asked to use during its demos.

A week before the event we all received a document detailing how and what to explain during Riftbound's demo, and it was consistent with what I had experienced before in other events (namely the TFT Paris Open and the Regional Qualifier in Bologna). I know that's probably the rule for all TCG, video games, and tabletop games out there with a demo, but it still left me with a good impression and the feeling the demos were all thoroughly planned out, no matter the event.

That document also helped make the teaching process feel clear and consistent no matter which demonstrator players ended up with. However, all demonstrators were active Riftbound players — and also a couple of T3 judges — so overall everyone was well prepared, passionate about the game, and fully up to date with the latest errata and rulings changes. So aside from a few specific interactions where we had to quickly double-check with the judges on site, all demos ran smoothly without any real hiccups.

The decks we used to introduce new players to Riftbound were: Jinx, Viktor, Yasuo, and Volibear; with forced matchups between Jinx and Viktor, Yasuo and Volibear. And in case anyone was curious about it, at my table the majority of wins went to Jinx and Volibear.

To manage the flow of players, sign-ups were handled through the UVS online platform, where people had to register and then wait for their turn. This system helped keep the organization smooth and the waiting queues much shorter compared to other events, according to what several other demonstrators told me. At the same time, it also meant that some players would register and then walk away, sometimes forgetting about their slot or not returning in time.

At the end of each demo, every player received a promo card — Ahri, Alluring — as a participation reward, and while this was generally appreciated, it sometimes left a slightly bittersweet feeling.

What the majority of players complained was missing was a sleeve or a plastic wrap for the promo card, which in previous events had been included. That said, it is also easy to understand why Riot, UVS, or whoever made the decision might have gone in this direction since there were clear cases of people signing up multiple times just to receive extra copies of the promo, and, by the end of the event, some were already being sold on second-hand platforms like Vinted for more than 30 euros.

And while the promo card worked well as a small reward — especially for players coming from outside TCGs' ecosystems — many players left the table asking to buy preconstructed decks or other Riftbound products. In most cases, we had to point them toward other vendors in the convention, who were often already sold out. However, personally, the lack of merchandise at the demo stand was understandable, since PG Esports, as the local partner working with UVS, is, as fars as I know, only licensed for Riftbound's event organisation and not retail.

Another complaint I’ve heard the past weekend was about the stand’s positiioning, which was not too bad i my opinion since we were placed in the trading card games area of the convention, which made sense for the product and the audience we were targeting. However, that area naturally had less general foot traffic compared to the main halls, so we relied mostly on people who were already actively looking for TCGs or were exploring the whole convention just because — and that's where my next critique comes in.

Advertising for the event also felt quite limited. For example, even though I lived relatively closely to the convention and am fairly informed about Riftbound events in my area, I would have probably missed the stand if I weren’t recruited as part of its staff.

Even though the official Riftbound account did mention its presence at PLAY on its social media, the posts did not clearly specify dates or location in a way that was easy to understand for a local or international audience. That likely caused some confusion and reduced the number of people who would come specifically looking for the demo or the promo card.

There were also a few missed opportunities around community engagement side. Some League cosplayers were present at the convention, and while a few did stop by the Riftbound area to try the game, take pictures, and interact other players, they were not really integrated into the stand experience itself. Having them more directly involved and at the stand — like it was for other Riot events — could have helped bring extra visibility both at the event and online.

Overall, the experience at the stand, both in terms of organisation and player interaction, felt like an 8 out of 10 to me. The game itself it’s easy to understand once people try it and the reaction from new players was mostly very positive. I'm interested to see how things could evolve at Lucca Comics and Games, Italy’s biggest convention and Riftbound’s most likely next step in the country, especially with the game’s first anniversary falling around that period.

Hopefully I'll be there, but in the meantime I'll look forward to Barcelona's Regional Qualifier later this August.