Riot launches LoL-inspired trading card game to rival the likes of Pokémon, Magic, and Yu-Gi-Oh!

Riot Games is bringing League of Legends into the TCG world with Project K, a game the developers believe will be the “best social TCG out there.” Despite reports earlier in the year suggesting a global release is not in the works anytime soon, Riot appears to be going in the other direction towards Project K being available in multiple regions.

According to Riot, the game was created by Rioters with a deep love for the trading card game genre. This means the community will know the developer is taking extra care to ensure a thriving community built with a vast competitive ecosystem. To accomplish this, Riot is taking measured steps to find the right publishing partners for Project K. It has found a publishing partner in China and will launch the game early in 2025.

In the announcement video, players are met with the leaders of the dev team looking to bring the League of Legends IP into the TCG world: game director Dave Guskin and Riot Games executive producer Chengran Chai.

Riot confirmed that this is not a physical version of Legends of Runeterra but will take inspiration from the artwork and extensive lore that the digital game has brought to the world. Riot is aware that for the game to have a thriving community, it needs to work with local stores to promote the game and flesh out the competitive scene.

Riot’s vision for Project K is to see the game go from local events where friends get together to compete against one another to global events where the best in the world compete for major honors. As mentioned, Riot has already started working on a staggered approach to launching Project K so that everyone can have it from day one.