Have you heard about Mechs vs. Minions? Released in 2016, this tabletop game was created by Riot Games and became wildly popular to such a point that it almost instantly sold out. Directly inspired by League of Legends, Mechs vs. Minions was described as "a challenging triumph" by the Guardian, but it went a bit unnoticed among the online game community.
That being said, it seems that Riot Games' craving for board games is far from over. We recently discovered that they were working on a brand new game — we're not talking about Teamfight Tactics here. Rumors quickly spread that it would be a fighting game — and it was confirmed at Evo 2019.
Here at Millenium, we had already started to prepare: during our breaks, we trained in Street Fighter V and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — hoping that these hours would instantly transform us into pro players.
Well, it turns out this trademark is for something completely different.
During the summer, they filled two trademark applications that suggest their next license is going to be a board game of some sort. The first trademark, RIOT TABLETOP, is seemingly Riot's board game brand — but the real piece of news revolves around the second filing.
TELLSTONES appears to be the name of Riot's brand new license. According to the Goods and Services description, the trademark includes the possibility of "arranging and conducting live competitions, exhibitions and tournaments featuring board games, tabletop games, and video games". According to Surrender at 20, four new lines of loading screen text were added to the game giving context to Tellstones' place in Runeterra's lore.
In other words, Riot are preparing a board game and they apparently intend to build a competitive scene around it.
Earlier today, we learned that Riot Games were also intending to build a competitive scene for Teamfight Tactics, and we can't stress enough how happy we were to spread the word. Now, with this new piece of information, we're suddenly realizing that 2020 is going to be an incredible year.
Get ready, folks, because Riot Games' bag is apparently still full of surprises!