Legends of Runeterra’s second Seasonal Tournament is one week away. Ahead of this, Riot released an article discussing the previous Seasonal Tournament and what the competitive future for LoR entails.
Riot had one major takeaway from the first Seasonal Tournament: it should put the in-client tournament tools into the hands of the community.
The most important change for Seasonal Tournament competitors is the open rounds will be changing to playing out only five to nine now. This will give more players chances to reach the top 32 since those with eight or more wins will qualify and give top-12 players a way in with only seven wins.
Since more rounds will be played, match times will be reduced from 75 minutes to 60 minutes. To even out the worldwide time zone spread, both stages of the tournament, the open rounds, and playoffs will be moved to Saturday from Sunday.
While no exact details have been revealed, Riot teased a potential future for a World Championship featuring the best ranked and Seasonal Tournament players from across the globe.
Riot wants to cement Gauntlet’s identity as a way to qualify for tournaments and a way to practice in a competitive format. The main aspect to note is that starting with Patch 2.4.0, the pick/ban best-of-three format will be the primary format going forward, completely erasing Singleton from the game until further notice.
Aside from every Gauntlet before the final one of the season, the Last Chance Gauntlet will also go through notable changes. The final Gauntlet will also be Pick/Ban, best-of-three, and players will need five wins to complete the run. The number of maximum Prime glories that can be collected will also be reduced to four.
The date for the Last Chance Qualifier will also be moved forward, being held on the weekend before the open rounds with the Gauntlet also starting on Saturday morning so the time is more convenient for competitors.
The cutoff for the LoR Seasonal Tournament’s top 700 ends on Feb. 19 at 2am CT and the Last Chance Gauntlet closes on Feb. 21 at 6am CT.