It’s been a long wai🐠t, but we finally have the Disney Lorcana Challenge Season 2 schedule. The next season starts this October in cities in Europe and North America before expanding around the world throughout 2026 and culminating in the next Disney Lorcana World Championship.

These are the details fans have been asking for, but unfortunately, as often seems to be the case in Disney Lorcana, this has turned out to be a bit of a monkey’s paw moment for the community. While it’s a relief that players can finally start to plan trips for upcoming tournaments, there’s a smaller number of DLCs across North America🔴 and Europe this season, stretched over a much longer period. For some, Season 2 feels like a step backward for Lorcana after an already lengthy delay for in-person events.

I reached out to several players who competed at the Disney Lorcana World Champio♓nship this past weekend, as well as Ravensburger leadership, to get some perspective and insight into the changes coming to Disney Lorcana Challenge Season🙈 2.

Season 2 DLC Big Changes

We got a lot of info about Season 2 during the World Championship broadcast last weekend. Ravensburger is ditching the divisive two-game set-up in favor of a traditional best-of-three format, and increasing the number of Swiss rounds from nine to 12; eight on the first day and four on the second. Top cut will only include 32 players🔴 after Swiss, but all top cut players will automatically qualify for international championships this time.

🍸Prizing has been expanded for Season 2. Attendees will get a promo Pegasus - Gift For Hercules (confirmed reprint in Fabled), winning five rounds will earn you a promo Mulan, Charging Ahead, while the Top 64 will earn a promo Simba, Pride Protector. All Top Cut finishers will receive a promo Elsa, Iceཧ Maker, with additional prizing awarded for each round you win in top cut, including, for the first time, uncut sheets of cards.

The prize wall is also getting expanded for Season 2 with new playmats, pins, hats, and ♎uncut sheets.

These are all positive changes that show Ravensburger is listening to common community sentiments. The two-game format isn’t going away completely as it will still be used for some side events, but these are all changes that the community has been asking for, and have been well-received. There’s some concern that the additional promo prizing will﷽ replace incremental prize tickets in the main event, which was a great incentive to keep people pl🌺aying even when they were out of contention for top cut last season, but that’s yet to be confirmed. Hopefully, no one will have to choose between playing for a promo and leaving the main event to earn prize tickets.

Season 2 starts after Lorcana’s first set rotation, so the last event in each region will feature an Infinity format main event. Infinity is Lorcana’s version of a legacy format that includes cards fro♈m every past set. It will maintain its own banlist separate from the core constructed ban list.

Players are responding positively to all of these changes. Morgan “Mo” Shamblin, who finished in the Top 8 at theಞ World Championship, says, “I love the changes to the format, best of three is a fantastic change and the prize wall additions are incredible. I am very interested in the Infinity event and future support for alternate formats in general.”

The DLC Season 2 Schedule

There will be 18 DLCs - up from last year’s 11, but with a more even spread around the world. Last season, there were six DLCs in North America, four in Europe, and one in Australia. Season 2 will include three events in North America, three in Europe, two in Brazil, one qualifier and one DLC in Australia, three in China, four in Southeast Asia, an💛d two in Japan. So while there are more DLCs overall, Europe has one less than last year, and North America has three, half as many as in 2024.

The location of the tournaments is also a point of cဣontention. While last season saw DLCs in France, Germany, Italy, and the UK, Season 2 will only have events in Belgium, Germany, and I🌳taly, leaving out the UK and Italy, two of Lorcana’s most dedicated regions. The North American host cities for Season 2 are Milwaukee, Richmond, and Indianapolis. These three cities are all within a day’s drive of each other, leaving the South and West without any events, and excluding Canada completely.

Understandably, many North American and European fans are disappointed. Edmond Chiu, winner of DLC Fort Worth and North American Champion, who finished second at the World Championship, feels there are t𒊎oo f𒊎ew events in Western regions now, and the cities they’re set in are less desirable locations to visit. “I personally went to all 6 NA DLCs in Season One and had a blast at each one,” he says. “A big part of that is that each of these places was a major metropolitan city that had some landmarks or attractions. The cities in Season 2 seem to be less exciting for me personally, but I will still go to compete as that's what I love to do.”

"I would love to see more events! Any chance for the community to get together and celebrate ou🉐r shared love of this game. I've said it already, but this community is a family. We've built such a tight bond that I've never seen from a TCG before. We have something so special here and I just want to see it fostered and grown into the most beautiful, flourishing community. What I really want 💛to see? As a wise toy once told us, 'To Infinity and Beyond.'" - Morgan Shamblin

If Disney Lorcana Is Growing, Why Does It Feel Like It’s Shrinking?

Global expansion is good for Lorcana. Getting the game to more people around the world is a wonderful thing, and having more players out there can only help Lorcana survive and thrive. Season 2 has a bigger, more a𓆉mbitious schedule based on the number of events and countries being included, but over a much longer period of time, and with fewer events for regions that have already been supporting the game for years. Many players in these regions were expecting more events to attend, not fewer.

There’s no way around it: fewer events in NA and EU means fewer opportunities for those players to compete and be part of the community. The most competitive players who can afford to travel the world and who make an income playing the game will be happy to see more DLCs total, but a lot of people who count on being able to drive to an event or don’t have flexible schedules that a𒁃lign wi꧅th these weekends are bound to feel excluded.

During today’s Lorecast, it was confirmed that Season 2 events will be capped at 2,048 players per main event. It isn’t just half as many events in No༒rth America, it’s half as many players😼, too.

It’s not just the number of DLCs per region, but the time frame too. We had 10 DLCs across Europe and North America in six months last year. It will be a year between the last DLC in Season 1 in Seattle and the first DLC of Season 2 in Milwaukee, then three months until the next one in Richmond, and five months until the last one in Indianapolis. That’s one North American DLC in 2025, and two in 2026 (Season 3 will start in 2026, but no dates or locati🌜ons have been announced). How does Lorcana keep its momentum when there won’t even be a Challenge for every set?

Steven Cooper, Senior TCG Tournament Operations Manager at Ravensburger, explains the factors that are driving these changes in Sea🙈son 2. First is the reorganization of the schedule to coincide with each year’s set rotation. “Because of that, we have a hard deadline as to wh❀en we need events to finish each calendar year,” he says. “This differs from Season 1 where we had all the time in the world and less markets to build around.”

Those additional markets are the other factor. Cooper says putting together a regular series at this scale is a challenging puzzle that requires building a calendar that ൲fits the release schedule, choosing locations, and locking down venues. Adding more regions makes solving that puzzle even more challenging. “We’re going to be in more countries and locations, which means we have to take a much more global approach,” he explains. “Increasing all those difficulties as we look to have more balance in event availability and expectations around the world.”

"The selection of event locations has nothing to do with the office locat🐟ion of Pastimes. They have experience hosting events all across North America and we’re really excited to be partnering with them for next seas꧃on”

As is often the case, disappointment around Season 2 stems from unmet expectations. When Ravensburger took a step back to get organized for the World Championship and the next season earlier this year, the messaging was that the success of the game took everyone by surprise, and the studio was over🧔🙈whelmed by how many players were eager to attend Challenges. But when the first thing we learn about the next season is that there will be fewer events for those players, 🅷it doesn’t align with that messaging.

“We have learned a lot so far, and I think we can do better to communicate our plans and goals with the community so they understand our future vision,” Cooper says. Unfortunately, there’s little chance of anything changing for Season 2. “Nothing is impossible,” he says. “But we’re pretty confident this schedule of events for Season 2 won’t change.” That said, we won’t necessarily see the same kind of schedule for season 3 either. “It’s likely we will make more changes to the schedule and/or format for future seasons based on feedback from our players. When we make changes, we hope they’re in the best in✱terest of the players and the overall ecosystem.” Cooper says the team will treat each new season as a chance to build upon the previous one and create a better overall experience than the year prior.

The DLC schedule isn’t the totality of Lorcana events happening around the world through 2025 and 2026. Ravensburger is going to support unofficial events throughout the next year, starting with Geekfest in Everett later this month. Cooper says Ravensburger will be supporting these events with convention playmats, product support, broadcast, and marketing support, as well as additional unique prizes. Some events may even award winners with continental championship invitations. “The announced third-party events Ravensburger is supporting was really just the beginning of what this program will be,” he says. “We expect to have more events for players to attend and continue to build communities for Disney Lorcana TCG worldwide.” On today’s Lorecast, we learned that a new type of event that’s scaled to be in between set c𝓀hampionships and DLCs is in development.

While having fewer events in North America and Europe is disappointing, Cooper says some of the scheduling decisions were made to ensure a more regular cadence of Challenges for fans to look forward to. “We would love to see Disney Lorcana TCG continue to grow and support more events year-over-year - whether they be a Disney Lorcana Challenge or more large-scale community events♎,” he says. “The adjustments we’re making right now are enabling us to lay a foundation for us to build this TCG globally and provide amazing experiences for fans not just in one market, but anywhere in the world.”

“Fans should rest assured that we have many more exciting🌱 announcements to share over the coming months, both for the Disney Lorcana TCG as a whole, its competitive circuit and the social players.”