The Winning Point

Four of us draft the RC Stuttgart field fantasy football style: 32 picks of players and Riftbound legends, scored like golf, so the lowest total wins. Cas passes on Riven at first pick for Prismaticism. Grenton, our L3 judge, drafts on vibes and says one team has tested 150 Riven mirrors since Orlando. Special thanks to our guests: Grenton: https://x.com/grentontv Leo: https://x.com/KoningLionhear...

Riot's 2027 Riftbound Premier Play update is here, with a ranked ladder up to Grandmaster, free badges for the top 50 and Continentals in Dallas, Melbourne, London and Toronto, and we argue about who it really helps. Then Nam Dang's Riven wins LDXP Sacramento at 63% across the weekend: would one ban even fix her, and what can beat her at RC Stuttgart? TCGplayer is an official partner of Tu...

Riot banned Koko Lopez from sanctioned Riftbound events until January 1, 2029, for intentionally stacking his rune deck at RQ Los Angeles, and all three of us call it fair: two years and change sends the message. Pastry is back with Blevins and Charmer for that, the Nation Clash and PCG grading at RC Stuttgart, Riven taking five of the top eight in the first Riftbound Radiance results, and whether...

Koko Lopez was disqualified at RQ Los Angeles, dropped by Challenger TCG, and Riot says they're looking into it. The Winning Point crew breaks down Riftbound's most high-profile cheating case, whether Riot should ban him and for how long, and how players can cheat without knowing it: rune deck weaving, how many shuffles is enough, and the marked-card trap with your chosen champion. Then th...

The Radiance reveals keep coming and the Winning Point crew works through four full legend packages: Evelynn, Agony's Embrace and the Last Caress letdown, Mordekaiser, Iron Revenant with Realm of Death and the nine-cost Mordekaiser, Dominating, Orianna, Lady of Clockwork turning The Ball and Plaza Guardian into units, and Ekko, Boy Who Shattered Time with Chronobreak and both chosen champions....

The first Radiance legends are here and the Winning Point crew rates them: Orianna turning your gear into units, Jarvan IV and his Demacian Standard flag-and-drag, Ziggs bringing Miracle Draven back, Seraphine's three-unit cost reduction, and Neeko, Blending In, the neutral card that adds a second Legend to your board mid-game. Plus the Elnuk Ziggs scale for flavor, and the best Neeko legend c...

Can you actually go pro in Riftbound? We recorded a special episode of The Winning Point live from the Cloud9 studio in Los Angeles, with Prismaticism (DSG) on what life as a full-time Riftbound pro really looks like, Nack (MERC) and Dani from Cloud9 on building a Riftbound content career, and LCS caster Kangas on how casting a card game compares with casting League of Legends. We get into why esp...

Riot banned Ekko, Recurrent and Stacked Deck effective September 18, killing the Lux combo and pulling the best consistency card in the game out of Kennen, Diana, Ezreal, Kha'Zix and the rest of purple. Blevins, Casanova and Charmer disagree on the record about who actually got hurt: Charmer thinks Kennen took the worst of it, Blevins thinks Kennen keeps Lightning Rush and every other purple d...

Casanova was on the mic for the RQ Singapore round seven feature match, the one everybody spent the week arguing about on Twitter and Reddit, and he explains what it actually looked like from the casting booth. Then the part nobody is saying out loud: playing every resource you have once the round goes to turns is not sharking, it is the correct play, and the real problem is the players who slow t...

Riot Games has posted a job listing for a publishing product manager on an unannounced new digital game, asking for trading card game knowledge and mobile experience, and Casanova thinks it is the Riftbound digital client we have been asking for since before the game launched. Blevins, Casanova and Charmer read the post line by line, work out how soon a client could realistically arrive, and argue...

So many Riftbound showdowns from this past weekend - what does that mean for us? Statistics. Lots and lots of statistics. In Episode 60 of the Winning Point, we cover decks and legends seen from Convergence #2, Riftbound Showdown in Speyer, 10K Showdown in Auckland, Ottawa Showdown, and Gen. G LA Showdown (did we catch them all?). We also delve into what goes into streaming these tournaments, and...

Riftbound Showdown Ottawa gave us the first real look at the Vendetta metagame, and Prismaticism took the whole thing down on Rengar with a 25-1-1 record in games before telling everyone not to play the deck at their RQ. Kennen was the most represented legend in the room, Rek'Sai put three copies in the Top 8, Master Yi is still posting an absurd win rate with no Best-Of on the line, and Diana...

Riot dropped the August 2026 State of the Game plus five more articles in a single week, and between them they rewrite competitive Riftbound: Summoner Skirmish is retiring into the Riftbound Challenge Series, RQs become Riftbound Regionals with 16 in 2027, Regional Championships become Continentals with a Friday last chance qualifier, and a Riftbound World Championship finally lands next year. Ble...

We caught a glimpse of Riftbound's first Vendetta metagame at our CN vs. the World event, and the winning deck was a Diana running Swain, Visionary, and Patched Porobot. In this episode, we're breaking down every piece of the combo, the missed Promising Future in Game 3 of the Grand Finals, and discuss whether or not Lux deserved an emergency ban. Also hot topics for this episode are: resu...

Riftbound dropped a ban announcement ahead of Vendetta, removing Aspirant’s Climb and Arena’s Greatest from competitive play. We break down why these battlefields had become nearly mandatory, what their removal means for the game, and whether cards like Star-Crossed, Ferrous Forerunner, Aurora and Ekko should have been targeted instead. We also discuss the move to 10-card sideboards, the possibili...

Vendetta spoiler season is nearly complete, and the new Riftbound legends have given us plenty to argue about. In Episode 55 of The Winning Point, the crew shares their first impressions of Mel, Ambessa, Nasus, Shen and Jayce, discusses the cards that could define their decks, and attempts to determine which new Epic might be the worst in the entire set. We also break down Riftbound’s massive Las...

Riftbound’s Vendetta spoiler season is moving fast, and the first big story is already here: a card is getting banned before players even get to use it. This week on The Winning Point, we talk through the Stealthy Pursuer infinite combo, why the ban happened, and what it says about Riftbound’s future. Then we get into the real chaos: Kennen and Lightning Rush, Akali’s action-speed tricks, Renekton...

Vendetta spoiler season is upon us, the price of an Ahri card, and Korea entering the Rift(bound). All that and more in Episode 53 of the Winning Point! Be sure to check out our stuff: Website: https://turnemsideways.gg/Merch: https://shop.turnemsideways.gg/

Stories from Hartford, Top 8 Recap, and 2v2 discussions -- is there actually something wrong with the 2v2 format or does it get a bad rap? Also, an unexpected Cas crashout.

Welcome to episode 51 of The Winning Point! This week's episode may be one of the most action-packed ones yet. Eight different legends in the top 8, the results of Lux Loop, and drama around the best-of Kai'Sa? There's so much to recap and so little time.

Episode 50 (holy crap) of the Winning Point features discussions around the infinite combo that took the internet (and the current meta) by storm and the effects it has on the predictions we might see from Utrecht. Thanks for being a part of our journey -- here's to at least 50 more episodes. 🥰 If you're interested in tracking your favorite players at RQs, you can visit: https://turnemsid...

Another RQ has come and gone, and with it comes a little recap of the tournament and their first-hand experience at the event. Recap includes discussions around strategies, misplays that may have cost competitors the game, and venue experiences. The team also goes through some of the spoilers for Vendetta and Radiance that have been released so far and share what they're excited to see. Please...

Welcome to episode 48 of The Winning Point! This week, the crew talks about the FAQ article for the Regional Championships (which may have left us with more questions than answers), the release of French Riftbound cards, the results from the Regional Open in Xi'An and their predictions on what the Vancouver RQ this weekend may present. Don't forget to check out our stuff! Website: https://...

It's time for Episode 47 of The Winning Point! Sydney delivered one of the wildest Riftbound tournaments we’ve seen so far, and The Winning Point is here to break it all down. From the first English Unleashed-format Regional Qualifier to the evolving Aurora meta, Teemo Top 8 runs, LeBlanc tech, and the future of competitive Riftbound, there’s a LOT to unpack this week. Blevins, Casanova, Pastrytim...

It's time for Episode 46 of The Winning Point! RQ Sydney is finally here — and with it comes one of the most interesting Riftbound metas we’ve seen so far. In this episode of The Winning Point, we break down our full Sydney tier list predictions, including which decks we expect to dominate the event, what strategies are flying under the radar, and whether Aurora is beginning to warp the format...