Riot's open beta for Legends of Runeterra is about to launch, but fans are already slightly disappointed.
Players from North American, Asian and European servers will be able to chat to each other, but not challenge them to a match. You will be able to see whether your friends are playing Legends of Runeterra or League of Legends, but that's about as far as you can go if they're not on the same regional "shard" as you.
The open beta will feature an operational friends list across all shards and including a so-called cross-game presence, as well as the ability to challenge a person within your local shard to a match. "As a note, you can friend and chat with anyone on all three current LoR shards (Americas, Asia, and Europe), though challenges are within-shard only," the game's patch notes read, adding that, "LoR’s friends list & chat are built on a different service than challenge, and are shared between our games (i.e., with LoL), while challenge & matchmaking is game-specific."
Plus, the operational friends list is not all that operational after all, as the company admits in its patch notes. However, by their next release - two weeks from now - they intend to fix the biggest issues, such as delays when adding/removing names from your block list, not receiving unread message notifications when offline, problems with active conversation notifications, and receiving/accepting challenge invites. While inconvenient, none of these issues are game-breaking, and they are almost expected for a game only in open beta.
The patch notes also include news about the updated cards, among which are Anivia, Ezreal, Vladimir, and Tryndamere, as well as some follower and spell cards. Additionally, all accounts have been reset for the last time, which means that everything you achieve during the open beta remains part of your game profile in the future. Prices, values, and rewards have also been adjusted, including XP rewards which promise less grind for progressing. Not challenging enough for you? The open beta is also introducing a ranked mode to the game, where this beta season will last all the way until launch.
While the news of shard match exclusivity may be a disappointment to a lot of fans, many do understand that implementing this option would have been very difficult. Then there are those who say they'll just force their friends from other shards to join their own shards. Nothing like minor inconveniences to bring people together and solve problems.