Despite promises that Riftbound's Spiritforged launch was under control, League of Legends' TCG sells out again

Riftbound has been both a blessing and a curse for Riot. The League of Legends card game is by far the most exciting thing the developer has done in years, but heavy is the cardboard crown. Set 1, Origins, sold out everywhere, with players waiting weeks for restocks and rares going missing from quite a few packs. Speaking to us at the TFT Paris Open last year, game director Dave Guskin admitted that Riot “undershot” in its estimations, but assured that it was “pulling all the levers [it could] to get the product out to players as quickly as [it] can.” The Spiritforged preorders, however, tell a different story.

Now, to give Riot some credit, you never really know how popular your product is going to be, especially when it’s a somewhat experimental card game based on a MOBA that, while absolutely colossal, doesn’t necessarily hold the same weight as Pokemon, Star Wars, or One Piece. But, given the demand for Origins, you’d assume it had learned its lesson and upped how much product it was producing. Turns out that hasn’t been the case.

Avid League of Legends fans reported issues with Riot’s official merch store as soon as the preorders went live, with servers being unable to cope with the demand. As expected, all things Spiritforged sold out almost immediately, with resold booster boxes appearing on Ebay for prices as high as £250 (~$336.37). If the Pokemon TCG is anything to go by, scalpers kill games, and going by how little Riftbound stock their seems to be, the cost of even the most mundane cards is quickly becoming absurd.

In a nine-part X post, Guskin apologizes for the issues with Spiritforged’s preorders, writing “as you all saw, Spiritforged preorders went fast today. We know it was a frustrating experience for a lot of you.” He notes that there was approximately “50% more product” than with Origins, and identifies two key issues with the preorder process.

“We still didn’t have enough to meet demand,” is the first one, and the second is, well, you guessed it: bots. “The sales process was overwhelmed by a mix of real traffic from Riftbounders and bots. We’re in the process of canceling all fraudulent orders. If you’re a real player who placed an order, your order will remain valid and it will still ship.

“To prevent bots from cycling back in and claiming that inventory again, we’ve paused preorders. Our priority remains getting Riftbound cards into the hands of real players as quickly as possible. We’re working on a new plan to reopen a significant amount of Spiritforged preorders to give players a fair and stable way to purchase cards,” he continues. “We’ll share details as soon as we have a clear path forward.”

Botting appears to have been the core issue this time around, perhaps unsurprising given that the TCG is now confirmed to be a hot commodity, whereas Origins’ launch could really have gone either way.

“Due to the volume of traffic created by both legitimate purchasers and bots, our prevention was slow to take hold, and unfortunately resulted in a rush of fraudulent orders placed by bots,” Guskin writes. “You might’ve seen fluctuations in items going in and out of stock, which is what happens when orders are cancelled by the antibot measures our ecommerce site has in place, and someone tries to purchase that same item again.

“Some of those fraudulent purchases got through, though – even if they weren’t canceled by those antibot measures, we’re still able to detect them. We’ll continue to thoroughly investigate the situation and implement proper solutions to reopen preorders as soon as possible.”

“Our team is made up of core TCG players and fans – we know how frustrating it is to feel like you didn’t even get a shot at getting cards. We don’t have all the solutions, and it’ll be an ongoing process, but we’re deeply invested in improving here,” he says, concluding: “We’ll keep working and taking your feedback along the way to ensure we’re delivering the best experience possible. Thank you!”

It’s unclear when preorders will return, and what measures Riot will take to ensure that bots are squashed and players do manage to get their hands on all things Spiritforged. As a sucker for Ionia and the Spirit Blossom thematic, this is absolutely my most-anticipated Set, so hopefully things iron themselves out – I need that Irelia deck.

League of Legends Riftbound Set 2, Spiritforged, drops on Friday February 13. Preorders are no longer live, and I really would urge you not to drop over $300 on a shady Ebay booster pack. It’s frustrating, sure, but give Riot time – it’s better for everyone.