Giant Slayer TV is expanding upon Fight Night to include Legends of Runeterra tournaments with an initial roster that’s packed full of high-level competitive players, the organization announced today.
Riot Games first announced with the reveal of LoR last fall that a transition into competitive esports would take place organically. Dating back to the digital card game’s open beta launch, community tournaments have taken place on a global scale, featuring a large number of players within the competitive scene.
Giant Slayer has invited eight of those players to compete in the first Fight Night Legends. From multiple top-four finishes to consecutive community tournament wins, here’s an exclusive look at the players competing in the first Fight Night Legends tournament.
- FreshLobster
- Presto
- Hyped (Team Liquid)
- Winding god
- Nolagold
- Cephalopod
- Sudrakon
- Iannoguira
The first Fight Night Legends tournament will take place on June 26 at 4pm CT. This will come two days after the 1.4 LoR update that’s set to feature a new meta and season consisting of over 20 balance changes. Fresh Lobster told Dot Esports he expects to see “a lot of P&Z/Ionia, Endure, and maybe some Miss Fortune/Sejuani builds.” Presto said that “outside of nerfs, Karma/Ezreal might be the best deck that people will flock to play or counter.”
Both players told Dot Esports that it’s hard to predict what the meta may look like and that they’re preparing like they would for any other tournament. And since the format isn’t Conquest (ban an opponents deck), there may be a large number of mirrors.
“You’ll need a well-rounded lineup overall because you cannot just ban your lineup’s weak point,” Fresh Lobster said. “Therefore, I expect most people to just bring the two strongest and most consistent decks, which means we might see a lot of mirrors. But you never know, some people might get creative.”
Unlike other established LoR community tournaments, such as Duels of Runeterra and Jam Fest, Fight Night Legends will feature a competitive “king-of-the-hill style,” according to content coordinator Casanova. The format is two decks, best-of-three double elimination with no bans or region lock.
Tournaments will take place weekly on Fridays at 4pm CT via Giant Slayer TV so they don’t compete with other LoR community events. The top two players from each Fight Night Legends will get invited back the next week. Every fifth week, a total of 16 competitors from each Fight Night Legends will battle it out in a Fight Night Reckoning event.
Casanova and Blevins, who have commentated over just about every LoR community event since the open beta launch, are the official casters for Fight Night Legends and Fight Night Reckoning.
Since the official launch of LoR at the end of April with the Rising Tides expansion, even more community events are taking place each week. These tournaments taking place on a global level are driving an organic competitive esports scene as Riot wanted. And the team is recognizing this by putting competitive tournaments on the LoR roadmap.
Fight Night Legends is an ideal example of that growing organic community, featuring high-level players and an exciting new way to compete.
Correction 6/22/2020 at 6pm CT: Giant Slayer informed Dot Esports that the format is Conquest, two decks, best-of three, double elimination, and region lock. It was originally reported there was no region lock. There are no bans, however.
