Patch 1.7 for Legends of Runeterra will arrive today, August 5, Riot Games confirmed Tuesday, but it's mostly going to be focused on the Spirit Blossom festival and the non-standard game modes. The Patch will introduce a new Gauntlet mode called Tri-Region, which will allow players to break the two-region limit.

"[Tri-Region] will further differentiate Singleton from Standard, and we’re excited to see what new combinations you discover," Riot writes. The Tri-Region mode follows the Singleton Gauntlet, which was the debut format for Gauntlet.

That said, Patch 1.7 won't bring any card updates at all, and according to Riot, there won't be much card balancing for over a month. Patch 1.8 will only introduce minor card changes, Patch 1.9 will be skipped, and only Patch 1.10, to land on September 16, will "contain our next significant round of balance updates."

• Patch 1.7 will go live normally tomorrow, but will last an extra week (so three weeks in total rather than the usual two) before we update again.
• Patch 1.8 will go live August 26 (rather than August 19), and will also last for three weeks. 1.8 will contain a couple minor card changes but won't be a full-fledged balance patch, though it may feature a few other things...
• Patch 1.10 (yes, we’re skipping 1.9) will land on September 16, and will contain our next significant round of balance updates. This patch will last the usual two weeks and resume our normal update cadence.

The light content schedule has to do with Riot Games' decision to take a week off work in the wake of the controversial partnership between LEC and Saudi Arabia city of Neom, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the recent Twitter discussion about mental health and work/life balance in gaming. 

So, for now, at least, Runeterra players are stuck with the Patch 1.6 meta, which has seen a great disparity between the Tier S decks and everything below. Frostbite Midrange is the undisputed king of the meta, with Ezreal/TF Combo and Ezreal/Karma Control following close by. In the past week, old archetypes like Sea Monsters and Tempo Endure also climbed back to Tier S. 

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