Riftbound Heads to Vancouver After Azir’s Xi’an Win

Riftbound’s next big stop is the Vancouver Regional Qualifier, running May 29-31 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. It is Canada’s first Regional Qualifier, with players competing for a $25,000 prize pool and $6,000 going to the champion.

The event comes right after the Xi’an Regional Qualifier this past weekend, where Azir took the win despite making up only 3.12% of the field. That is the kind of result that makes Vancouver more interesting, because the winning deck was not simply the most popular choice in the room.

However, Irelia, with 68 decks (10.69%) and four players in the Top 8 in Xi'an, might draw more attention heading in. Diana also reached the finals, while LeBlanc posted one of the better conversion rates, sending 8 of its 32 decks into the Top 128.

Will Irelia carry the same presence in Vancouver? Azir just proved it can win the whole thing, and decks like Diana and LeBlanc are close enough to punish anyone who overprepares for a single matchup.

With Unleashed still shaping the format, Vancouver should be a useful test of whether Xi’an was the start of an Azir rise, or just one strong player finding the right weekend to strike.

Sources:

• https://riftbound.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/announcements/all-eyes-on-vancouver/