The addition of Legends of Runeterra’s Gauntlet mode all the way back in June brought an alternate way for players to compete for exclusive icons by reaching seven glorious wins. But since its official release, it’s only had two different formats—Standard and Singleton—rotating between them every two weeks.
Last month in August, Riot updated Singleton to allow players to construct decks from three regions. This made it so Singleton felt even more different than the ladder format and Standard Gauntlet. But with Patch 1.10’s release tomorrow, Standard Gauntlet is getting an update to finally make it different from ladder.
Standard Gauntlet now has players bring three different decks into the Gauntlet and includes a new deck pick and ban phase before each game begins. The different decks you can build and bring into the Gauntlet are divided into these three categories:
- No champions duplicated between decks
- Different region combinations for each deck
- Maximum one champion-less deck
Once your three decks are committed and locked in for the gauntlet, you’ll enter a pick and ban lobby with each opponent you queue against. In the lobby, you can see the different regions of each decklist your opponent is using and you can ban one away. After your deck is banned, you select between one of the two remaining decks that you want to pilot against your opponent in a best-of-one game. Every opponent you queue with afterward, win or lose, brings this pick and ban phase.
This new pick and ban lobby phase hints at what a tournament mode could look like since Riot teased it all the way back in May. Besides a glimpse into the potential future of the long-awaited tournament mode, this new Gauntlet could be used by different tournament organizers if Riot enables players to challenge each other in Gauntlet mode.
Regardless of whichever direction Riot takes the tournament mode and updating Friend Challenges in the future, the fact that Standard Gauntlet has been updated to make it more distinct from ladder is a welcome and exciting change for LoR.
Players eager to try out the updated and improved Standard Gauntlet can do so after Patch 1.10 drops tomorrow, Sept. 16. In addition, players must wait for when the Gauntlet cycles back to Standard on Sept. 25.
