The drawing for Riot's Riftbound x T1 2025 Worlds Champion Signature Edition did not go smoothly. Hours after the first round of results went out on August 20, 2026, Riot's Player Security team was already investigating screenshots circulating on social media.
What they found changed the outcome for a meaningful share of entrants: bot and scalper accounts had made it into both the selected pool and the broader entry pool for this 10,125-copy commemorative release.
Here is exactly what happened, what Riot did about it, and what it meant for anyone who entered the original drawing.
The investigation started after collectors began sharing screenshots online that raised concerns about suspicious activity in the first round of results. Riot's Player Security team treated that as a real signal worth acting on rather than dismissing.
Reviewing the full pool, not just the winners, let Riot catch accounts that hadn't been selected yet but showed the same suspicious patterns, removing them from the pool before they had a chance to win in the second round.
Any Signature Edition copy tied to a suspicious selected account was voided outright. That copy did not simply disappear from the release; it went back into the same eligible pool for the second drawing round on August 21.
This is a meaningful distinction: Riot didn't shrink the available print run to cover the fraud, it redistributed the same 10,125 copies to legitimate entrants instead.
No. Riot confirmed that anyone who registered before the original August 17 closing date remained automatically eligible for the August 21 second round, with no additional action required.
That mattered for entrants worried they'd missed their shot entirely once the first round's problems became public. The pool carried over, just with the bad actors removed from it.
Riot's own public statements framed the response as ongoing and deliberate rather than a blunt purge. The team specifically noted a concern about not applying security measures too aggressively, since an overly broad sweep risks mistakenly catching legitimate players along with the actual bots.
That balance, real enforcement against scalpers without punishing genuine collectors, is a harder problem than it sounds for a drawing this size, and it's part of why the resolution took an extra day rather than an instant fix.
Whether a Signature Edition copy came from the first round or the second, every winner is receiving the same serialized, gold-stamped card once shipping begins. The EVORETRO One Touch Magnetic Card Holder gives that card rigid, display-ready protection the moment it arrives.
For anyone building out a larger Riftbound collection alongside the Signature Edition, the EVORETRO Magnetic One Touch 25 Pack covers additional high-value singles at a lower per-card cost.
Riot didn't handle this quietly behind the scenes. The official Riftbound account posted directly about the investigation as it unfolded, and community manager Trick Jarrett publicly confirmed on social media that emails were delayed while teams worked through the second round.
That kind of real-time public communication, rather than a delayed statement after the fact, gave entrants a way to track what was actually happening instead of guessing why their results were late.
It also created a public record collectors could point back to later, which matters for a release this closely watched by a large, engaged fanbase.
Riot's Player Security team found bot and scalper accounts among selected winners and the broader entry pool after the original results went out.
No, anyone who registered before the August 17 closing date was automatically included.
Those orders were voided and the copies were returned to the pool for the second drawing round.
Beginning August 21, 2026, with the same 24-hour purchase window as the original round.
With the drawing controversy resolved and copies now confirmed heading to legitimate winners, the practical next step is making sure a serialized card has somewhere secure to land. Pick up EVORETRO's One Touch Magnetic Card Holder before your Signature Edition ships.
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