2022 brings with it a robust Organized Play schedule. Since the start of Everfest, we have begun the ProQuest series with 250 events planned. There are Callings, Pro Tours, Nationals and Worlds in the pipeline for this year. But what does it all mean for the Living Legend system? In this article, I will outline the few possible pathways for what might happen, including whether we can expect a hero to reach the Living Legend Status!

In Flesh and Blood, none of the cards rotate out. This means that each new set, you can use all the cards from the newest set all the way back to the first set of the game – Welcome to Rathe. This, of course, excludes cards banned and restricted in the Ban and Restriction announcements. The way Legend Story Studios approaches rotation is in the form of the Living Legend system. Each time a hero wins a high-ranking event, the hero is rewarded a certain amount of points, depending on the event. Once a hero reaches 1000 points in Classic Constructed or Blitz, they become a Living Legend and cannot be used in future tournaments. 

ProQuest season contributes six points per event to the Living Legend System. This might not seem like much, but there are 250 ProQuest events planned for this season. This amounts to a total of 1500 living legend points. Just with the ProQuest season alone, some exceptionally performing heroes can amass a large chunk of Living Legend points. A hero that wins a third of events would end up with 500 from the ProQuest events alone. As I am writing this, Bravo, Star of the Show has really put his name to practice, taking out 47 percent of all the wins in week one. If the new Bravo can keep this win rate up, he will end up with 705 living legends points! A couple of Calling wins or a Pro Tour win and some more could get it close, or even over the Living Legend threshold. 

Callings and Pro Tours are big contributors to the Living Legend system, giving 100 and 200 points respectively. These are the tournaments that are most likely to have a huge contribution to whether a hero reaches the Living Legend status or not. While not all of these events will be Classic Constructed, chances are we’ll see big movement in both the Classic Constructed and Blitz side of the rotation system. If we assume roughly five Callings this year are Classic Constructed, and at least one Pro Tour is as well, that is roughly 700 more living legend points to the total tally, making the total points given out to be about 2200 points. Theoretically, just this is enough for two heroes to rotate out, but chances are as the metagame develops these numbers will spread out over a bigger number of heroes. 

This is where things get interesting. Worlds gives 300 points and could be the tipping point for the winning hero. Using the Bravo, Star of the Show example, a World title win after a 47 percent win streak in ProQuest is enough to send the hero to the stars. The national season adds even more to this. Just the USA Nationals reward a hero with 80 points. Depending on the size of other countries’ nationals, this number will be 40 or 20 points. Taking the rough data from the 2021 Nationals season, we can assume we will see roughly 15 countries rewarding 40 points and 15 countries rewarding 20 points. That’s another 900 points given out to the total rotation system. With a grand total of 3100 points give or take, I predict it will be exceptionally unlikely a hero won’t rotate in 2022.

ProQuest season is already showing Bravo, Star of the Show and Prism as top contenders for raking in the most points from the season. Unless there are drastic shifts in the metagame, these two could take over Chane and Briar, who are currently on the top of the leaderboard.

Will it be enough to see a hero rotating out? I doubt it. ProQuest is still early in the metagame, with a number of heroes showing ability to win. While ProQuests do give lots of points, it’s going to be the Callings and Pro Tours that will really be bridging the gap towards Living Legend status. After the first Pro Tour, we have a brand new standalone set coming out, most likely giving us totally fresh heroes to add to the standings. If these heroes drastically affect the metagame, we might have to wait a bit longer to see a hero making Living Legend, but if they do not affect the metagame, current favorites might get there sooner rather than later. All in all, the points will keep on accumulating and will have roughly 3100 points on the line this year. I expect that even with some powerful new heroes, we might see at least one hero making it to Living Legend this year. I would say, potentially even two or three. 

As heroes rotate out, we will see powerful shifts in the metagame. It is usually the heroes that have a tight grip of the metagame that rake up the most points. Having them leave should send fresh waves of possibilities throughout hero choices in all of organized play. Heroes that previously couldn’t compete can become viable. Decks that didn’t have the power level might finally see more play – and win.

I also expect the game to slow down. Heroes with the most powerful hero abilities and most powerful cards have a tendency of speeding up the game. Once these slowly phase out, we might see a shift in pace of how quickly or slowly games finish. I expect heroes rotating out to have a similar, if not greater, impact on the metagame as a new set. 

This year is a pivotal year for the Living Legend system, because we might actually see it work. The interesting thing is, we could see multiple rotations at the same time, which would keep the metagame fresh, new and exciting. My favorite thing about this system is the way players themselves impact the game. How many heroes will we see leave us this year? It is really hard to predict, but with roughly 3000 Living Legend points up for grabs, I do think there will be at least one. Now, with the ProQuest season and upcoming Callings and Pro Tours, it is up to you to decide which hero you want to help reach the Living Legend status.