Lorcana Competitive Play 2024: Challenges and Championships
It’s a good time to be alive for Lorcana players: we finally have some info on what to expect from Lorcana competitive play in 2024.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Lorcana without some drama. Just about everything Ravensburger has tried to do with the game has been met with insane demand. From the very start, products have flown off the shelves, cards have seen incredible prices online.
Today, Ravensburger has yet to face another challenge: the demand for competitive play.
Disney Lorcana Challenges
We’ll start with the biggest news first that’s on everyone’s mind: Lorcana Challenges. Challenges are the big, regional level events being held by Ravensburger. They’re basically the major leagues of Lorcana competitive play. They’re pretty large in size with hundreds of players already signed up. Apart from the bragging rights of doing well at a tournament of this size, players are really excited about the prices you can get from competing. Not only can you get a host of epic prizes, you also get a beautiful extended art Dragon Fire card just for attending!
This card is going to be worth ALOT of money online once it becomes available, and that could be the reason allegedly 40,000 people attempted to get tickets to the event that was capped at a little over 500 players. Hopefully Lorcana competitive events won’t be so hard to come by in the future and more players and collectors will be able to add this epic card to their collection/decks.
Prizes based on placement
There are additional prizes you can get for doing well at the tournament. These are going to be the ultimate brag as they’ll denote how well you did. They also feature some gorgeous alternate artworks we’ve not seen yet for popular cards. Apart from the cards, you can also win a Rapunzel play mat (which you can see below).
Lorcana Challenge Format
The Lorcana Challenge format will be familiar to people who have played card games competitively before. There are nine Swiss rounds where you can earn points in hopes of making the top cut. If you make the top cut, you can further battle it out to make it to the very top.
That being said, there is one large difference in the Lorcana format, and that is the decision to make rounds best of two.
In this format, each player takes turns going first. If neither player wins both battles (and both players win one), it results in a tie which awards the players one point. If one player manages to beat the other in both rounds, then the winning player gets an extra point for the effort for a total of three points.
Lorcana Challenge controversies
Of course, anything as hot as Lorcana has proven itself to be is rarely free of controversy. Lorcana Challenges are proving to be quite the topic of discussion amongst the Lorcana community. A major tournament held on Pixelborn tested the new two-game format out only to have many of its most notable players online highlight how disgruntled they were with the two-game format. Ace player Savjz (currently the highest ranked online player for Lorcana) points out how the two game format makes ties feel like losses when winning both battles flat out (a feat very hard to do thanks in part to the high advantage to going first in the Lorcana game) awards higher points.
Weirdly enough, it’s much easier to win a best-of-three match or just a single match than it is to win both games back to back (especially with each player going first).
Apart from the two-game format and odd point system, players are equally disgruntled by Ravensburger’s decision to limit its inaugural event in Atlanta to such a small player cap.
Lorcana Challenge US event dates
May 25-26: Atlanta, GA
June 8-9: Chicago, IL
July 20-21: Fort Worth, TX
August 24-25: Toronto, ON
September 21-22: Las Vegas, NV
October 26-27: Seattle, WA
Lorcana Challenge European event dates
May 25-26 - Lille, France
July 6-7 - Bochum, Germany
August 3-4: Bologna, Italy
September 21-22: Birmingham, UK
Lorcana Set Championships bring competitive play local
Lorcana players disgruntled about the Challenge events being sold out for the time being might be a little relieved to know that these aren’t the only official competitive events they will be able to attend. They can also attend smaller scale, local official tournaments called Set Championships. While not boasting the same scale of prizes as Challenges, you can win a sick Stitch – Rockstar play mat and Enchanted card.
Given these events are called “Set Championships” it’s probably safe to assume this will be an event that will continue for each set released in the future.
Lorcana World Championship set for 2025
Finally, really competitive players will be excited to know that Ravensburger is planning to have a Lorcana World Championship competition at some point in 2025. There is next to no info on this event, where it will take place, or how it will be conducted. However, we do know that it will be invite-only and that there will be additional ways to earn points towards attending besides Challenges.
All that said, Lorcana is certainly heating up, and there’s enough happening from an official/competitive standpoint this year and next to keep us all looking forward to more!
