It’s quite remarkable how far competitive Lorcana has come in such a short time. Last weekend I attended the Disney Lorcana North American Continental Championship, the culmination of NA’s first competitive season where the top players from six previous regional events went head-to-head in the biggest, most high-stakes Lorcana tournament to date.
Related
Disney Lorcana Creative Director Spills The Secrets Of Azurite Sea
Shane Hartley talks about building the world of Lorcana through Azurite Sea’s art and story.
As I sat in the Disneyland Hotel ballroom, surrounded by a thousand excited fans, watching Lorcana being played at the highest level on a massive movie screen, I couldn’t help but think that just seven months ago, the Disney Lorcana Challenge (DLC) organization didn’t even exist yet.
The Developers Always Wanted Season 1 To End This Way
During the tournament, I sat down with the game’s co-designers, Ryan Miller and Steve Warner, to talk about the first season of Disney Lorcana Challenge, reflect on the last seven months of competition, and share some thoughts about the present and future of competitive Lorcana.
“Even before we had a finalized game, we were talking about needing organized play,” Warner tells me. “We really wanted to have events at Disneyland, and of course Worlds had to be at Disney World. That was one of my dreams I was really hoping would happen, and here we are.” Worlds, the grand finale of the first competitive season that will pit the top players from the North American championship against the top players from the European championship, will take place at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida later this year.
Organized play is particularly important to Miller, who started his career at Wizards of the Coast as a judge for Magic: The Gathering. “I’ve always enjoyed making experiences for people to come together, because I think that’s one of the great things games do,” Miller says. “They’re great at bringing people together to make memories, make new friends, and make connections.”
While these events are built around competitive tournaments, they’ve quickly grown to be so much more than that for Lorcana fans. Fans have loved having a place to meet up with fellow players and celebrate the game, and, for the designers, that’s been an important aspect of the competitive series.
“Our community is the best that we could possibly hope for,” Warner says. “Disney fans love being with everybody and talking about Disney, and card gamers love talking about cards, everyone has something to talk about.” He says his favorite stories from these events are the ones about families coming together to enjoy Lorcana. “Those stories have always been truly special to me, and at these events we always hear stories that are so fun to hear.”
Miller was at the season’s first competitive event in Atlanta, and says the first thing that really impressed him was how many newcomers to TCGs were there. “That was awesome,” he says. “That told us we aren’t just getting the very competitive players, we want to make sure there’s something here for everyone.”
That event is where Miller first came up with the Pack Rush format, which was originally called Inkcaster. At the NACC, Miller and his fellow developers spent the entire weekend playing games of Pack Rush with as many fans as possible. He says he hoped that DLCs would be more than just competitive events, and evolve into celebrations of our love for Lorcana. “To see that play out and to see people coming and having a great time is so much fun. That, to me, has been the biggest evolution of the Challenges.
Two-Game Format
One of the big features of Disney Lorcana Challenge is its Two-Game Format, a unique structure for organizing tournament play where opponents play just two games together rather than the standard best-of-three. This format was chosen for competitive Lorcana for a multitude of reasons, and now that it’s been in place for the entire first season, the designers say they’ve got a lot of data to process. “There’s a lot of learnings we’ve had from the two-game format,” Warner says. “There will be a lot of discussion within the organized play team and what would be the best way to move forward. It’s a matter of wait-and-see at this point. We want to do what’s best for the players.”
The designers are committed to learning from the reactions within the community and making changes whenever possible. We saw that ethos take form early on with the decision to eliminate First Edition cards, and we’ve seen that repeated throughout the lifespan of Lorcana with things like the Bucky errata. Warner says the evolution of the spectator experience, which started with small TVs streaming the games and evolved to a big theater-style viewing area at the NA championship, is another example of the team recognizing where shortcomings exist and moving to make improvements.
The team also tries to be careful not to bite off more than it can chew. Starting out basic and expanding overtime ensures that they can provide the best experience possible without overextending or overpromising. Miller cites the lack of on-demand events in Atlanta, and the initial decision to release just 512 tickets (later increased to 2048) as an example of their attempt to establish the program without overextending.
“Let’s just keep it simple, let’s get the system going, and then we can start layering onto it,” he says. “If you try to do too much too soon, that’s worse.” At first they wanted to focus on manageable growth. “Of course, it became clear very quickly that we had way more demand than we even anticipated.”
Miller says mistakes, especially early on, are inevitable. “We didn’t always hit it off, we made our mistakes. But I’m so proud of this team because we come back after every event and say ‘Okay, what didn’t work, what can we do better, how do we make changes that are manageable long term?’”
The quote “We’re not here to be right, we’re here to get it right.” is something Miller heard on a podcast once, and it means a lot to him. “It would be nice to hit a home run on the first swing, but really, going through the effort, iterating, getting feedback, and just putting your ego aside and saying ‘this is how you get better’, that is the true work of a great experience.
“We’ve got a great team, and we’re always trying to make things better.”
Disney Lorcana
Lorcana is a trading card game developed by Disney and published by Ravensburger, featuring iconic characters, settings, and more from the studio’s long history. As an Illumineer, you must build your deck and help protect Lorcana.