Everything we know about Project K: League of Legends TCG

Project K is the upcoming physical trading card game (TCG) from Riot Games set in the Runeterra setting, the same setting from League of Legends, Legends of Runeterra and Arcane.
While Riot already has an online card game in the form of Legends of Runeterra, Project K will be a standalone product, with physical trading cards, different mechanics and a new system designed around TCG games as a social experience.
Riot said that Project K will cater both to enthusiasts who enjoy sweaty 1v1 matches in a competitive scene like those in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and to casual players who want a group experience and mechanics made for free-for-all play, like those present in Magic: The Gathering's Commander format.

The competitive TCG scene is full of absolute giants as both publishers and developers, and if there's anybody who can make a break into it at the moment, it's gotta be Riot Games.

What Makes It Different?

In many ways, players can look at Project K and Legends of Runeterra, and notice that they both have cards and conclude that they're both the same game. They are not comparable by any stretch of the imagination— having cards isf where the similarities end.
Aside from being a fully physical game focused around social and competitive play, rather than Legends of Runeterra's bigger emphasis on theorycrafting and deckbuilding, there are a handful of differing philosophies between the two:

New Mechanics and Rules: In Project K, players choose a Legend and optionally a partner, a mechanic likely ported over from the EDH format from Magic: The Gathering. Decks are focused around empowering or utilizing the Legend's abilities, and cards have new decks and mechanics to interact with, such as battlefields (inspired by Field Spells from Yu-Gi-Oh!, but are either played), rune decks (a port-over of lands and mana from Magic: The Gathering, or energy from the Pokemon TCG).
From what we've seen so far, Project K takes a lot from some of the most characteristic mechanics of its competitors, in an effort to properly feed into the

Multiplayer Support from Day One: Project K includes a wide array of decks with different playstyles that are designed to create an existing meta from day one within a free-for-all or even 2v2 match. Its rules are also designed to offset any of the tradeoffs inherent to playing against more than one player.

Competitive Ecosystem: Riot is going all-in on making the game available from day one to all players, regardless of why they're getting into Project K. The launch of the game will be far more than just cards hitting the shelves; it'll be available on local game stores that host events that promote the game, with investments directed to creating meetups and social events, along with establishing a competitive scene from launch. There's even the possibility of global events.

Insights into Development

Key Figures

The trading card game is developed by a small team led by Game Director Dave Guskin, in charge of core rules, card design, and balancing, and Executive Producer Chengran Chai, focusing on the overall vision and production quality of Project K.

Design Philosophy

Most trading card games tend to either specialize in competitive scenes with complex and deep systems and interactions, or simpler mechanics that prioritize card games as a social experience. Even if they are able to answer both, it's usually under different formats, with different rules and restrictions.

Project K's taking a bold step in the middle, taking a shot at game mechanics that allow for a whole table of 4 to sit down, have a few beers and try out new decks against eachother, and for players to refine their decks for competitive play while pushing the system to their theoretical limits, all in one comprehensive format. One ruleset to rule them all.
So far, playtesters, developers and publishers feel that Project K is on the path to achieving that sweetspot that answers both niches without compromising the other.

Art and Aesthetics

The current card illustrations come from the already plentiful source of great art that is League of Legends and Legends of Runeterra. Expect to see detailed champion arts, iconic Runeterra locales, and references to items or spells known from the broader League universe, along with environments inside the Runeterra setting.

Launch and Distribution Plans

Staggered Global Rollout

Since Project K already had a publisher in China, it will first launch there in early 2025. Riot already has partners there handling printing, distribution, local store support, and organized play, and the reason it's coming out globally is due to its surprising success in the region. We can expect more regions to follow as Riot finalizes partnerships to ensure the competitive ecosystem they're going for, along with card translation and consistent tournament structures.
Regardless of when the cards are actually printed in other region, full rulesets and cards will become available way before that, letting players sample the gameplay a little over games like Tabletop Simulator.

Competitive Ecosystem

Riot intends to invest a meaningful amount into following the launch of the game with a comprehensive competitive framework, consisting of:

Local Game Store Events - Weekly or monthly gatherings for play, where you can participate in casual or sanctioned tournaments, purchase cards from retailers or other players, and engage with the community.

Native Competitive Support - A robust, tried and true ruleset for competitive play, to ensure early tournaments will be as fair as they can be, along with dedicated locations and events.

Global Championships - The possibility of bringing players from all over the world into organized tourneys with official support from the publisher.

Special Editions

Limited products and card packs, such as the Arcane Box Set, which showcases characters and themes from the Arcane animated series. It will be first available first in China in events, followed by its English counterparts through pre-orders and future events.

Game Components

Card Types

Champion Legends and Champion Units
Each deck revolves around a Champion's color(s), which define that Champion's identity and what kinds of cards can be in their deck (for example, Jinx is Fury/Chaos, Viktor is Mental/Order, Yasuo is Calm/Chaos, and so on).
At the start of the game, players choose a Champion (for example, Yasuo), or and optionally a Partner for that Champion, which always includes the name of the Champion it's a variation of (for example, Furious Volibear partners with Volibear).
Champions are put in the Champion Zone at the start of the game, where they can be played from for their cost at any time, much like an EDH commander.
Your Champion Unit is different from your Champion Legend. Legend is the "color identity" of your deck (such as Calm/Chaos), while your Champion unit can be any Champion card that fits that Legend.

Units
The primary board presence of a player, synonymous to Monsters in both Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh!.
Units enter the battlefield exhausted (turned sideways), and have both stats like Might for combat, activated abilities, or passives. Exhausted units will be able to be readied once you begin your turn with them on the board.

Spells
They have an immediate effect, and are discarded. They can often only be played during your turn, except for Reaction spells, which can be played in response to interactions, even outside of your turn.

Gear
Gear function much like spells, where they have an immediate effect once used, but there's no such thing as Reaction gear (not yet, anyways). Once used, however, Gear goes to your base (more about this later), rather than to the trash or discard pile.

Battlefields
Your deck will include three battlefields, which are colorless (meaning you can take any of them to your liking, regardless of your Champion's colors). In a one-off match, each player will select one at random. When playing a best-of-three, you’ll pick one at the start of each game, but can’t use any of them more than once. The chosen battlefields are then shuffled and one is chosen at random, determining the starting player. If your game includes four players, that battlefield is then removed, meaning you’ll only use the remaining three.
Battlefields have different minor effects, granted to the player who currently controls them.

Deckbuilding

You first start by choosing a Champion Legend for your deck, which defines its colors, along with a Champion unit.

You then build a deck of exactly 40 cards (max. 3 copies of any card) from the colours of your Legend.

Then, you can pick 3 battlefields for your deck, which are colorless.

Rune Deck

Your Rune Deck is a separate deck from which you draw Runes. Each rune can be exhausted (turned sideways, or "tapped") to pay energy costs, or recycled (shuffled into the end of your deck) to pay color costs.

Rune and Color Identities

Fury (Red)

Direct, hard aggro playstyles. Conquer Battlefields before your opponents, and set up powerful Ganks to destroy enemy defenses. No one will be more powerful than you on the first few turns, but be careful, or you'll run out of cards.

Champion Units: Jinx, Tryndamere, Vi

Main Keywords:

Accelerate: You can pay an additional Rune cost to play a unit on the board and ready it for combat straight away.

Assault: Units with this Keyword are more powerful when they're attacking. Assault 2 means they'll have +2 power, for instance.

Ganking: Units with this Keyword can move from a battlefield to another without going back to base first.

Chaotic (Purple)

Versatile, adaptable, and at best, a little gimmicky. Chaotic cards are powerful, but making them work is a bit difficult - you'll need a bit of finesse to truly get the most out of them.

Champion Units: Kayn, Jinx, Miss Fortune

Main Keywords:

Deathknell: When a unit with this Keyword dies, it activates a certain effect.

Tank: During combat, units with this Keyword must be targeted before all other cards.

Ganking: Units with this Keyword can move from a battlefield to another without going back to base first.

Physical (Orange)

Focused around ramping resources and putting big Units on battlefields that are hard to contest. The best Units in the game, at an incredibly steep cost. Slow to pick up and late-game focused.

Champion Units: Volibear, Miss Fortune

Main Keywords:

Deflect: Your opponent will have to Recycle a certain number of Runes before they target units with this Keyword with spells and effects.

Tank: During combat, units with this Keyword must be targeted before all other cards.

Shield: Units with this Keyword gain a certain amount of power when they're defenders.

Order (Yellow)

Defensive mechanics, and great value from sacrificing your own Units, along with the opponent's. Defend your Battlefields like no one else can, and kill enemy units by merely snapping your fingers. You'll have the best soldiers at your disposal - they remain loyal even in death.

Champion Units: Viktor

Main Keywords:

Deathknell: When a unit with this Keyword dies, it activates a certain effect.

Legion: If you play another card before you play a card with this Keyword, you'll get a bonus effect.

Hidden: You can play cards with this Keyword face down on a Battlefield you Conquered. Later on, you can play this card as an answer for an X number of Runes.

Calm (Green)

Calm cards are very often also Reactions, and decks centered around green cards are perfect if you're patient and prefer to wait until the right moment to attack. Play with very few allies that, even when they're alone on your Battlefield, are worth an entire army when combined with your spells.

Champion Units: Yasuo

Main Keywords:

Reaction: Cards with this Keyword can only be played as an answer to another spell or ability.

Mental (Blue)

So far, this is the color identity we know the least about so far, but the existing cards work very close to how blue cards tend to work in Magic: The Gathering— tons of slow, high-cost spells and gear with powerful abilities, along with card draw by the handfuls.
We don't have any Champions or keywords that define Mental cards yet.

Structure and Gameplay

Number of Players

1v1 Competitive Format: Two players, two battlefields. Emphasizes tight resource management and direct strategies, and rewards having a well-formulated gameplan.

Multiplayer: 3-4 players, with three battlefields in play. In a 2v2, your points, along with your partner's, immediately go to a collective pool. In free-for-all, it's every man for himself.

Game Objective

The objective of the game is simple: every time your Units take a Battlefield, you score 1 Point, and each turn you Hold that Battlefield, you earn 1 more Point. The first player to 8 Points wins.
However, you cannot simply conquer a single battlefield for your 8th point, if that's all you need. The winning point can’t come from just a conquer— you must either get it from a Hold, or by scoring all battlefields in a single turn. If you Conquer but don’t achieve this, you may instead draw a card in place of that point.

Game Flow

The game starts with players shuffling their Main Deck and Rune Deck.

Players draw 2 cards from their Main Deck.

The starting player is determined by shuffling the battlefields and selecting one at random. The player whom the battlefield belongs to goes first.
3a. Before starting, players may mulligan up to 2 cards, recycling them (placing them on the bottom of their Main Deck) and drawing two more.

The last player to take their turn plays an extra Rune on their first turn.
4a. With 4 players, the first player also skips drawing a card on their first turn.

Turns proceed clockwise around the table.

Turn Steps

At the start of the turn, players ready all their exhausted (sideways or "tapped") Units and Runes, and score a point for each battlefield they control (this is Holding). After that, they draw one card from their Main Deck.

In any order they choose, and as much as they're able, players may:
-Play cards from their hand by paying their costs, or their Champion.
-Use the abilities of your cards, including your Legend card
-Move Units to or from battlefields or your base by exhausting them. If they move a Unit towards an enemy-controlled battlefield, this starts Combat.

At the end of turn, all Units return to full health.

Moving, Conquering and Controlling Battlefields

If a battlefield is open (not controlled by anyone), you can take it by simply moving a Unit there, scoring a Point (this is Conquering). Once you take a battlefield, you control it as long as you have units there. You can take control of enemy battlefields only through clearing it of enemy units, and then Conquering it.
You can only score each Battlefield once per turn, and Units cannot move between battlefields unless they have the Ganking ability.
To move a Unit from one battlefield to another, they must first go to your base, a space you always control, adjacent to all battlefields.

Combat

When you move units to a battlefield occupied by the enemy, that starts Combat.

Resolve any "When I defend" abilities, then any "When I attack abilities)

Players involved in the combat can cast spells, play Hidden cards, or invite other players when in multiplayer to participate in the combat.

Each player sums their Might, then divides that as total damage to the opposing unit. If a Unit is assigned more damage than its Might, it dies.

If all defenders are slain, the attacking player Conquers the battlefield. Otherwise, the attacker goes back to base.

Showdowns

In some special instances, playing an Epic card can force a “showdown,” which plays out very similarly to Combat, but can happen out of the normal attacking/defending step.

Future Prospects

Set 2 and Beyond

Although the current pool of Champion Units is limited, new expansions will roll out in waves, much like in Legends of Runeterra, introducing new units, mechanics and archetypes. The meta of the game is designed to evolve over time, and new releases are designed with that new meta in mind.

Future Localizations and Language Support

The Chinese edition will arrive first, with English following it. After that, other language editions will follow once local distribution, event support and printing are arranged in their respective countries.

Community Engagement

The dev team has already shown up in player Discords and has indicated that they welcome feedback. Tabletop Simulator mods have been released for early playtesting, letting eager fans test the waters.

Conclusion

Project K is shaping up to be a deep and social TCG tailored for many different audiences: League of Legends veterans looking for a new battlefield, seasoned TCG players looking to try out something new, and newcomers to both TCG games and the Runeterra setting who are just looking to have fun and see more characters from the world. It merges the familiar setting with rules designed to encourage head-to-head duels and lively multiplayer tables. The nature of the combat system actively rewards participating in other players' battles, and choosing the side that will better further your interests. The game promises variety, strategic depth, and that crucial "fun around the table" factor.

With a very promising Chinese launch planned in early 2025, Project K is set to have a great shot at becoming a main player in the TCG genre. Riot’s commitment to local game stores, structured tournaments, and an ongoing release cycle means players can look forward to a thriving community and meta. If you enjoy collecting, analyzing combos, or playing politics with your friends over a lazy Saturday, keep an eye out for news on Project K, because it's heading your direction now.