Riot admits its League of Legends TCG Riftbound might have short-changed you on rare cards

It's no secret that I've fallen off of League of Legends of late. While I love the MOBA's world and its characters, the ranked grind has just felt a little too intense, and even Worlds has failed to really pique my interest (especially because there are no cinema watch parties in Scotland this time around). While my Worlds 24 Baron will always sit on my bookcase, with Championship LeBlanc and Xayah taking center stage amid my many LoL figurines, I've struggled to love Runeterra of late. But, all of that changed with Riftbound, Riot's new physical card game that's primed to rival the likes of Magic: The Gathering and Star Wars: Unlimited.

I managed to play a few games using Riftbound's demo decks a couple of weeks back and immediately felt the itch to play League of Legends again. While you'll need to wait a little longer for my full review, the TCG perfectly captures the powers and feel of LoL's champions - something that design manager Jonathan Moormann tells me was critical to the game's overarching identity.

As the cards finally make it out into the wild and players cross their fingers and hope for a signature Kai'sa, some have been left out in the cold, with some booster packs including a fewer rare cards than expected (one rare per pack seems to be the most common issue). Others have gotten lucky, with extras being included in theirs, but Riot's already looking into the issue.

On Wednesday October 29, Riftbound game director Dave Guskin confirmed that "[Riot is] investigating a potential collation issue impacting rarity distribution with individual Riftbound: Origins booster packs. Early checks suggest that a small percentage of packs include fewer rare cards than intended, with others including more.

"At the booster box level, rarity distribution is landing as planned. But we know that getting a weak pack can feel bad, even if it balances out in the box. We know consistency matters and we want to make sure every pack feels great to open, so we're continuing to dig into the rarity distribution issue with our production partners.

"If we confirm it's affecting a meaningful number of packs, we'll offer players something to make it right for this set - alongside making long-term fixes, likely starting with Set 3. We'll keep you updated as soon as we know more." Guskin's message may imply that there could be issues with some of Set 2's packs as well.

On launch day, Friday October 31, Guskin confirmed that the team is "still working on this issue and will share more detailed info soon," telling players to send photos of "impacted packs" with "1) All cards in the pack with rarity gems visible; 2) Open wrapper with barcode; and 3) Paper w/ 'Riftbound QA - (Date).'"

If you're having issues, then, I'd advise replying to Guskin's tweet with the above info (and a nice message, because being nice is, well, nice).

Bar some other complaints about regional pricing (Brazil specifically) and issues actually obtaining packs (the game's pretty damn popular), Riftbound's launch seems to have gone relatively smoothly. I can't wait to get playing with some pals; I have been thinking about the Viktor precon all weekend - I just want to make more robots.

If you've also been bitten by the LoL bug post-Riftbound release, here's a rundown of the current League of Legends Mythic shop if you're looking to grab some snazzy cosmetics. Alternatively, if you're looking for something like Riftbound, our sister site Wargamer has a list of all the best trading card games.

Are you playing Riftbound? Head over to our Discord and show us some of your favorite cards - if you've got any signature ones, I'll probably cry.