The Making of a LoR Champion
Hello, FloppyMudkip here! If you haven’t heard of me, I won the last two LoR Seasonal Tournaments, and just recently I finished second at the very first Runeterra Open. And two of those finals were against members of my team, Red Pup Games.
In this article, I will share my journey to the top, and hopefully share some insight on what it takes to play with and against the very best players in Runeterra.
Ego Death
Our story begins a year ago, in February 2022.
I had just finished Top 4 at the Magic Misadventures Seasonal tournament. My play was on point for the most part, my lineup was incredibly strong, and doing well in this tournament gave me the drive to try and prove I was one of the best Legends of Runeterra players.
Fast-forward to August last year: I had just reached Top 32 at the Forces From Beyond Seasonal Tournament and my prep group, Red Pup Games (RPG for short), was feeling on top of the world given our strong performance (Arren and Ptash finished top four, and Cup finished second).
After that Seasonal, I was playing some Twisted Fate
Nami
Piltover & Zaun on the LoR ladder one night when I ran into NicMakesPlays (who seems like he makes Rank 1 every season). He was playing Poppy Lulu 
Demacia; the deck seemed like a bit of a copium pile, and I clapped Nic in the easiest win of my life.
The next day, I went into Nic’s stream to troll him, as I usually do. He was convinced that it was a good matchup for him, and that I had just been lucky with my draws.
I was sure he was wrong and I jokingly threw out the idea of a money match. Some part of me sensed this was a bad idea, as I was really tired and not prepared to play my best Runeterra. But I was convinced it was a favorable matchup for me, so what was the worst that could happen? After somehow swindling Cup into covering my $25 entry, the money match began.
The details of this match aren’t important – all that matters is that I lost.
This defeat really ego-checked me and made me realize I had lots to improve. It turns out that the biggest barrier to getting good is thinking that you’re good. If you never question yourself or admit your flaws, how do you expect to improve?
I don’t think my recent LoR tournament results would be nearly as impressive without this crucial loss. I did a lot of reflecting after Nic beat me, and pinpointed the exact areas I needed to fix.
The Awakening LoR Seasonal Tournament
Awakening Seasonal: Decks and Lineups
After a month of focusing on my flaws, I pushed myself to learn decks outside of my comfort zone. I took time to think deeply about each game action, and polished my fundamentals. I could sense my overall play and win rate improving, and felt very confidence going into the next Runeterra Seasonal.
With the Red Pups we found that Nami Lee Sin
and Pantheon
Fiora
were by far the best LoR decks, so I soon locked them decks #1 and #2 in my lineup. And Sivir
Akshan
was a bit of a low-key pick that we found very strong when Equipments were added, so we locked it in as our third deck.
In case you want to check them, these were our Open Rounds decks (bear in mind that the Mastering Runeterra deckbuilder will show you the cards as they exist now, and not how they were back then, before their nerfs):
Awakening Seasonal: Open Rounds
The Open Rounds went very well. My play was clean, and my decks worked as I needed them to. I don’t remember many specifics from that day, but the highlight was finding a very cool lethal line in this spot.
See if you can find lethal yourself! =)
(Solution: Broadwing > Waking Sands > Treasure Seeker overwriting landmark > Equip Treasure Seeker > Grant Board +1+0)
I finished Open Rounds with an 8-1 record (in Seasonals, that was enough to guarantee you a spot on Day 2), and feeling very good overall.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to run the same lineup in the Playoffs, though – I decided to sleep on it and figure it out in the morning.
Awakening Seasonal: Playoffs and Mirrors
The next day I looked at the bracket and saw that I was facing my teammate, Ptash, in Top 32… I probably don't have to tell you how unfortunate that felt, and how much harder it made to choose my lineup.
In spite of this, we decided to prep together: Ptash had been knocked out in Top 32 during his previous Seasonal, when he over-thought things and ended up bringing unsuitable decks.
We expected a lot of 
Ionia Nami, Akshan Lee Sin, and Fiora Pantheon in the top cut. Ptash wanted to play Annie
Jhin
, Yasuo
Katarina
, and Akshan Lee Sin, to try to be strong into this field. This made me less confident in running back my Open Rounds decks, as I would bump into lineups designed to try to beat it. On the other hand, and although I thought Ptash's thinking was correct, I wasn’t very confident in my skills piloting Akshan Lee Sin, so I decided to take hard-targeting to the next level and replaced it with Azir
Irelia
.
So these were my final choices:
Top 32 versus Ptash
Ptash was on Yasuo Katarina, Annie Jhin, and Akshan Lee Sin – here is the match, in case you want to watch it.
Game One was a Yasuo Katarina mirror. I had never played this matchup before, and neither had Ptash, so we had to figure it out on the fly – my theory was that whoever stuck the Yasuo-plus-Windswept Hillock
engine would win.
The game started out rough, with Ptash removing my Yasuo on round 5 with Ravenous Flock
. I took a risk the next round, threatening Yasuo and House Spider with Strategic Execution
to apply a lot of pressure.
Ptash didn't have a hard punish for this play, and saved his Yasuo with Twin Disciplines
. Next round I Ravenous Flock'd his Yasuo on the open attack and developed Katarina to add more pressure. Ptash played a second Yasuo and I answered with Blade's Edge
plus Ravenous Flock, gaining a huge tempo advantage that would win me the game.
Game 2 was another mirror: Annie Jhin. I had an Augmented Experimenter
in my hand from the start and decided I was happy playing a slower game – this line gave Ptash some chances to win with his awkward triple-Jhin hand, but I think it was correct on my end to respect a wider range of his hands. He was able to flip his Annie and take out two of my units with Tibbers
on round 6, but my Augmented Experimenter mitigated these losses.
The most interesting decision point was my round 7 attack token: I realized that, to secure lethal with Jhin on round 9, I had to sacrifice my Boomcrew Rookie and risk dying to Ptash’s next attack.
Ptash was himself on a tough spot in round 8 – an open attack would lose him the game to Noxian Fervor
, so his odds here were 50/50 (two Stagehands and one Spellslinger, versus three Noxian Fervor). He opted to develop Jhin, allowing me to survive with my The Stagehand
and take the game afterwards.
We still tell Ptash “Should have opened” a lot in RPG chats… =)
Top 4 versus mtucks
Pantheon Yuumi, Nami Lee Sin, Ashe LeBlanc – Here's the YT video for this match.
Mtucks also came in with a hard-target lineup, but funnily enough this matchup was ~80% for me due to his decks not holding up well against my lineup’s aggression.
Game One was my Azir Irelia against his Ashe LeBlanc. I drew every engine I could ask for, so it was just a sequencing puzzle to optimize developing versus potential interaction. I was able to get two Husks on my Azir to buff him out of Culling Strike
range, which allowed a very powerful round-six attack and then Defiant Dance
on round 7 to achieve victory.
Game Two I had a strong curve and interaction versus Mtucks’ very slow hand, and I easily stalled out and set up my Yasuo engine to take over the game.
Finals versus weiseguy
Nami Twisted Fate, Akshan Lee Sin, Gwen Zed – here's the YT video for this match.
I was happy to face these decks in the finals, but also very nervous about this being the farthest I had ever made it in a LoR Seasonal.
In Game One, with Yasuo Katarina against Nami Twisted Fate, my hand was too spell-heavy – he quickly flipped Nami and steamrolled me before I could set up my engines.
Game Two, I brought Annie Jhin against Akshan Lee Sin. My nerves got the best of me and I mulliganed incorrectly, keeping a Boomcrew Rookie
in my opening hand (which was wrong because a round-two Ionian Hookmaster
with a +2/+1 Equipment would have run away with the game). Luckily for me, I drew into a playable curve and was able to punish weiseguy’s awkward hand.
And then it was Game Three, for all the marbles… Yasuo Katarina versus Akshan Lee Sin!
The game came down to pivotal moments on weiseguy’s attacks on round 6 and round 8. On round 6 I saved Yasuo with a stun, and popped Lee Sin’s barrier with Blade's Edge to create a powerful swing and to set up lethal for later.
On round 8 I put both Memory's Cloak
and Steel Tempest
on the stack in response to a Lee Sin + The Absolver
Scout attack as a bit of an exploitative play versus Deny
: I was representing my own four mana, which could have been Will of Ionia
, Concussive Palm
, or my own Deny. It worked, because he denied my Memory's Cloak, which in turn allowed me to save my Strategic Execution to guarantee lethal next round.
I jumped out of my chair in excitement after the game.
I had finally done it!
All the hard work over the past month had paid off, and I couldn’t be happier. And the Red Pups were ecstatic about our first Legends of Runeterra Seasonal win as a team, as they had been a huge part of this victory.
Ditching my ego had also played a big part in this win. In the past, I had let my ego blind me to the actual reason I wasn’t winning tournaments. Had I not changed my perception, I might have been less bold with my top cut lineup.
World Ender LoR Seasonal Tournament
The world after Worlds
Both the Legends of Runeterra World Championships and the World Championship Qualifier had taken place before the World Ender season… and RPG hadn't been able to put anyone into Worlds. We all had our bad-beat stories and complaints about the format, but the truth was that all of us could have played better.
But, right after Worlds, we participated in the Aegis e-sports league, and my team (Card Gamer, Hash, Gouda and yours truly) took the whole tournament down, letting us regain some confidence after our poor Worlds performance.
I felt good about the LoR meta even after the balance changes. Aegis had forced us to stay on our toes and we were familiar with the new top dogs: Kayn
Aatrox
was pretty obviously the best LoR deck, and it became our lineup's deck #1.
Jinx
was the other big player in that meta. Lulu
Jinx was clearly a very strong deck, but we opted for Ekko
Jinx instead because it won Jinx mirrors.
For our third deck, though… all of the available options were pretty mediocre. I settled on Leona
Diana
, but I wasn’t happy about it and was worried that it would just draw some bricky hands and lose me the Seasonal.
My Open Rounds decks:
World Ender Seasonal: Open Rounds
Open Rounds started in quite the unexpected way, as I lost 0-2 to a lineup with… Udyr
Tahm Kench
!!
It sucks to take a loss so early in the tournament, obviously, but I didn’t let it get to me, and focused on the next match.
I bounced back and won the next four rounds, and in round 6 I ran into Erigby… who happens to be the pilot that won the very same Seasonal that we started our story with, the one in which I reached Top 4.
And, specifically, Erigby happens to be the one who beat me in that Top 4.
Our set was very high-level. He exploited the clunkiness of my Daybreak deck, and took smart passes where not many players would have. Looks like Erigby is my kryptonite: I lost the set, leaving me at 4-2.
I clenched my teeth and said to myself, "Winning 3 sets in a row won’t be easy, but it's not something I haven’t done before; let's take it one game at a time." I played the best Runeterra I could, and despite some nail-biters along the way, I ended up winning the next three matches and moving to Playoffs on Day Two.
World Ender Seasonal: Playoffs
RPG decided that targeting Kayn Aatrox was the way to go for top cut. Of the handful of options to do this, I settled on Twisted Fate Katarina with Ravenbloom Conservatory
, Trundle
Tryndamere
, and Pantheon Varus
, with my Pantheon list teched for aggro so as to have outs against Jinx decks.
My top cut decks:
Top 8 versus Elder Senior
Lulu Jinx, Miss Fortune Twisted Fate, Zed Hecarim – This set was streamed here.
Elder Senior, unfortunately for him, timed out in the ban phase and banned my weakest deck versus his lineup (Pantheon).
Game One pitched Katarina Twisted Fate versus Lulu Jinx. This game's most important decision happened on round 4, on defense, staring down at Lulu, Flame Chompers!
, and a wide board. With an Arachnoid Sentry, Twisted Fate and a lot of removal in hand, I decide to just Arachnoid Sentry the Flame Chompers. I wanted to make sure I could block exactly how I needed that round, so as to set up a Red Card
for the following round. The Red Card ended up swinging enough tempo that I took over the game with Katarina while holding removal for Jinx.
Game Two: Trundle Tryndamere versus Lulu Jinx. I got a good Avalanche
on round 3 but I was forced to just ramp on round 4, leaving me vulnerable on round 5. Elder Senior likely readed that I had no Quietus
during the previous round and developed on the fifth round, but I top-decked the spell allowing me to cast Quietus with Vile Feast
on the stack and The Box
as follow-up, to minimize damage and keep control of the board. I easily survived an attack on round 7 with just a Flash Freeze
, and developed Trundle to end the game next round with Feel The Rush
.
Finals vs DrChekhov
Katarina Twisted Fate, Trundle Tryndamere, Gangplank Sejuani – this set was streamed here.
I was incredibly happy to meet my teammate in what was the first all-RPG finals. Chekhov’s lineup had a very similar theory to mine, but he was playing his signature Gangplank
Sejuani
instead of Pantheon. This difference made this set unfavored for me, but I knew the matchups and I had been playing well all weekend, so I just focused on doing my best.
Game One: Pantheon versus Gangplank Sejuani, aka Plunder. My plan in this matchup was to deny plunder triggers, force cards out of his hand, and limit potential board freezes from Sejuani. My hand ends up pretty miserable in the mid-game, where all I can really do is advance my Pantheon...
… then I luckily draw into Pantheon and his Barrier saves my Nexus some health…
… and then I realize that I have a copium-drenched lethal next round, if I top deck Momentous Choice
and Chekhov doesn’t have a ping, so I go for it as it's my best out. Momentous Choice is indeed my draw, I close my eyes and pray, and…
… Chekhov dies!?
Remember: play to your outs!
But this fight wasn't over yet: onto Game Two.
For Game Two, Chekhov again brought Gangplank Sejuani against my Katarina Twisted Fate. The game started out rough, with a Spirits Unleashed
on round 3.
I flip Katarina on round 4, to set up a Ravenous Flock and give me access to Blade's Edge and rallies for the rest of the game. I’m able to shut down his round-five attack with my Fast-speed removal, but my hand is low on interaction now and I fear that I won’t survive his go-wide onslaught much longer.
I open-pass on round 6, and Chekhov jams a second Spirits Unleashed – I now have an opening to apply pressure, so I play House Spider, swing my 1/1, then play Katarina to remove Chekhov’s blocker and push 7 more damage. Next round Chekhov plays Gangplank, which I stun with Arachnoid Sentry and then play Katarina. He only takes 1 damage from the attack, but I put his Nexus at 3 health and give myself outs with burn or hard removal for Gangplank…
… and, sure enough, I top deck the Make it Rain
that gives me burn lethal, and I win my second Seasonal in a row.
I was really happy to earn my GOAT status for becoming back-to-back Champion. But in all seriousness, I think my run tells a good story about never giving up.
I had my back against the wall many times, and I could have thrown the towel at any point, but I kept my cool and played my best Runeterra. I think grit is one of the most underrated skills, and one of my key strengths as a player: I see too many pilots that just give up after something doesn’t go their way, and they stop looking for their outs to win the game.
The Glory in Navori Runeterra Open
Glory in Navori Runeterra Open: Decks and Lineup
I hadn't played competitive LoR since the World Ender Seasonal, and I was excited to get back into it.
This time Samira
was so obviously broken that the main question was which Samira deck to play. In our testing, Aatrox Vayne Quinn came up as incredibly well-positioned into the meta, so we locked it as our 2nd deck. We did most of our prep assuming our Samira deck would be Samira Leona, but when we tested Samira Varus it performed great, and its matchup tables were a perfect match for Aatrox's. This also allowed us to cut Samira from the Leona deck, and thus 'Lone' Leona became our third deck – our lineup was amazingly strong against the field, while also targeting the popular Piltover & Zaun control decks.
My Open Rounds decks:
Glory in Navori Runeterra Open: Day One
Saturday was so beautiful that I even ate my breakfast outside – insane gamer experience, I know!
I had never felt this relaxed on a tournament day: I love this new system that the Runeterra Opens have, allowing us to play at our pace and take as many breaks as we like. In the old Seasonals, each match had to be played at an exact time, whereas we can now play our Day One games in a much wider window. I find it much better, and an incredibly enjoyable experience overall.
The games themselves varied in quality but there wasn’t all that much to write home about. I finished Day One going 9-1.
Our lineup felt amazing, and I was very happy to run it back on Day Two. We tested some alternatives to hit specific fields, but everything else was making sacrifices somewhere and I really wanted to maintain the high-power level that decks had. After a couple of minor tweaks, running the same lineup again seemed like the best option.
My Day Two decks:
Top 32 vs Sudrakon
Leona Jarvan IV, Fizz Samira, and Ashe LeBlanc – Part of this set was streamed here.
Game One was a sunny battle: Leona Kayle Diana against Leona Jarvan.
This was a pretty clear counter matchup, so I had to think out of the box to find my outs. I kicked all my early drops in the mulligan and kept a lone Sun Guardian
– my opponent had to mulligan respecting my aggro draw, so my goal was to go bigger than his low-value starting hand.
I didn’t quite win the midrange war, but my second Rahvun, Daylight's Spear
created an Eclipse Dragon
which created The Great Beyond
, which I could Might
to put him in range of my double Noxian Fervor...
… unfortunately, his Rahvun created a Solari Sunforger
and he had the Single Combat
needed to heal his Nexus.
Game Two was Aatrox Quinn Vayne against Fizz Samira.
I opened a premium hand for racing this matchup, and Sudrakron wasn't pressuring me early so I was able to develop Vayne
on round 3 and trade my Petricite Broadwing
for an All Out
. By round 5 I started mounting pressure with a Ranger-Knight Defector
into full swing with a two-mana Tumble
and The Darkin Harp
in hand. He flips Samira, but I’m able to push a lot of damage, eat some units, flip Vayne (level 2)
, and I have Fish Fight
to kill Samira, effectively neutering all the progress he had made that round. Without Samira, his Elusive units can't race my Ranger-Knight Defector, and a few attacks later I win the game.
Game Three: Leona Kayle Diana versus Fizz Samira.
I opened with a solid curve, able to build a strong board and tax resources early against what seemed to be a pretty slow hand from Sudrakon. By how he played the first four rounds, in round five I was pretty sure that he had a second Pirouette
and a Fleet Admiral Shelly
– I open-attacked to brick Pirouette and pushed a solid chunk of damage.
He indeed plays Fleet Admiral Shelly next and I, in the punt of the Tournament, decide to Sunburst
Shelly instead of Inferna
, giving him outs to unbrick his hand next round… which he proceeds to do, developing a wide board. I use a defensive Noxian Fervor to kill Samira, but in order to have lethal next round I need his Swindle
to have missed my Noxian Fervor. In my next attack I commit my Might in the best way to play around a potential Noxian Fervor...
… I don’t have to worry about playing another round, though, because he doesn’t have it, and it's game and match for me.
Top 8 versus Tippy Tipz
Leona Samira, Jarvan IV Illaoi, Karma Sett
Game One was Aatrox Quinn Vayne versus Jarvan Illaoi. He makes a very big Tentacle
very fast, but finds neither Illaoi
nor The Sea's Voice
, so the Tentacle never becomes a threat. I grind down the board and kill Illaoi when she finally does show up, then cast World Ender
to take the game home.
Game Two is Varus Samira versus Jarvan Illaoi. I set up a nice Furious Wielder on round 4 that kills Illaoi and the Tentacle, which puts me in a pretty good spot to develop Varus and start pushing my advantage. Jarvan comes down to kill my Varus next round, but it’s no big deal since I have a spare. He casts Cataclysm
on my second Varus, which I answer with The Expanse's Protection
and Momentous Choice to flip my second Varus and save him.
My next attack was pretty good, but he had both his single Prismatic Barrier
and Single Combat to beat my tricks and kill my Varus.
A second Jarvan pops out next round to eat my Ionian Hookmaster, but my new game plan is to grind him out with Naganeka of Zuretta
. Naganeka kills two units and pushes a solid chunk of damage, but guess who shows up for Tippy’s next attack… Third Jarvan! I lose my Naganeka and there’s no way I can out-grind the infinite Cataclysms, so I surrender.
Game Three is Varus Samira versus Karma/Sett. The game got interesting on round 7 when, after my non-committal attack, Tippy tapped out to cast Hexbliterator
on my Ambitious Cultist
with The Darkin Ballista
on it, allowing me to flip Samira with my generated Tag Out!
, which puts me super ahead.
On round 8 I develop another Ambitious Cultist, and Tippy plays Sett
. I should have instantly cast Furious Wielder
on Sett: I had lethal next round because I had a Celestial Blessing
in hand to save Samira from Aftershock
. But I over-played around a double Mystic Shot
or High Note
and passed, therefore burning one mana and leaving an awkward board to swing into. The following round was a bit sus because I was only able to Rally once with Samira after she got stunned and I was forced to play into his Tag Out!, but thankfully he didn’t have it and I won the match.
Finals versus Card Gamer
Aatrox Quinn Vayne, Samira Varus, Leona Kayle Diana – This set was streamed here.
Another RPG final! Card Gamer has been an invaluable part of RPG since its founding, and I was delighted to finally see him have his breakout performance.
Game One was an Aatrox Quinn Vayne mirror – and Card Gamer literally wrote the guide for this deck. My hand was incredibly awkward, with double Ranger-Knight Defectors and The Darkin Lodestone
as my only Equipment. I was not able to play my Ranger-Knight as it was just too low tempo, and too easy to punish with my only weapon being Lodestone. And Card Gamer had The Darkin Harp, which is the best card in the matchup – he kept attacking while I couldn't get an edge, and eventually I just died.
For Game Two I brought Aatrox Quinn Vayne and he brought Leona Kayle Diana.
He doesn’t build too much early pressure, so I’m able to develop my own board pretty freely. Rahvun, Daylight's Spear creates an Eye of the Ra-Horak
, and Card Gamer sets it up to make a big swing on round 7: he starts developing one-drops and I decide that the best way to beat Might is to play Xolaani. Unfortunately for me, he had Diana, Might, Pirouette, and Noxian Fervor as his last four cards, which is the hand that beats my line and I just die to Noxian Fervor next round.
I didn’t really feel sad after the loss because it was to Card Gamer. This guy has been such a hard worker and incredible player for so long now, that I was thrilled to see him finally get his break. A completely deserved win by him!
Takeaways
Here are what I think are the main takeaways from my LoR Seasonals and Runeterra Open runs:
- Ditch the ego. Giving people the impression that you’re good on twitter isn’t doing you any favors when it comes to actually winning tournaments. Admit your flaws and try to fix them.
- Don’t tilt. It’s a nice coping mechanism to complain about being high-rolled, but this will only ever hurt your development as a player. You can only play the position you’re given and it’s your job to give yourself the best odds to win.
- Never give up. It sounds cheesy but I’ve seen too many players give in when things aren’t even over yet. If your odds to win are 1%, you play for that 1% – what’s the point of reducing it to 0%?
- I only lightly touched on it, but an important thing I do on tournament day is to take lots of breaks to refocus my mental. Sitting at your computer for hours on end can be incredibly draining, so if you have time, make sure to get up after every match and walk around for a bit.
And that’s all I have for you today. If you read this all the way through, thank you! It’s honestly surreal that there’s people out there who care enough to read about my experiences playing a children's card game.
I hope you have learned something along the way, or better yet, got inspired to join us in the LoR Competitive circuit. Best of luck, and see you in the next Runeterra Open!