Teamfight Tactics
Teamfight Tactics is an auto battler game developed and published by Riot Games. The game takes place in the League of Legends universe and is based on Dota Auto Chess, where players compete online against seven other opponents by constructing and optimising team compositions to be the last one standing. The game released as a League of Legends game mode for Microsoft Windows and macOS in June 2019, and later, the mobile version of Teamfight Tactics released for Android and IOS in March 2020 as a standalone game.
Gameplay
Teamfight Tactics mode in the League of Legends was inspired by Dota Auto Chess from Dota 2 competing with 7 different opponents by building a team with champions, optimising synergies and equipping items to be the last one standing. Teamfight Tactics consists of the champions and items in League of Legends. However, the game-play of Teamfight Tactics is distinct from other League of Legends modes that the players do not have a control of the deployed champions but their Little Legends during the combat time, whereas the players have a control of the champion throughout the game in other League of Legends modes. Each stage of Teamfight Tactics incorporates several rounds constituting creep rounds, player versus player rounds, creep rounds and shared draft. In prior to each round, players are given 30 seconds to deploy or change positions of champions in their battle-fields, where players are able to deploy their units.Teamfight Tactics consists of two types of matchmaking games which are normal and ranked games, and ranked matchmaking game has a ranking system which allows players to compete against other players with similar abilities and understandings. Teamfight Tactics consists of nine different divisions, including iron, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, master, grandmaster and challenger, and iron is the lowest division while challenger is the highest division in ranks. In addition, iron, bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond have four sub-divisions. Every ranked game, players will either loss or gain League Points based on their places. Players will be immediately promoted to the next higher division when they reach 100 League Points, and players will be demoted when they lose anew while at 0 League Points.
Star level
All champions start from one-star, and three-star is the highest star level a champion can achieve. In comparison to champions with lower star levels, champions with higher star possess more enhanced basic stats, including health, damage and ability. Three equivalent champions with an equal star level are required to attain a higher star level, and champions will be automatically combined when a player recruits three of the same champions. In order to obtain a three-star level champion you must obtain three champions with a two-star level.Shared-draft
Shared-draft, also known as carousel is the round where players have an access to a free rotation of various champions with a randomly equipped base item or combined item. One champion can be recruited each player per shared-draft. Shared-draft is available before the commencement of the first round in the first stage, or once in each stage. The priority to choose from a shared-draft is based on player’s remaining health, and the two players with the lowest health are given the first priority to choose from a shared-draft first, followed by the next two lowest health players, and so on.Player versus player (PvP) round
During the player versus player round, each player is randomly paired with another player for 40 seconds to compete. One of the players is matched with a random player’s team, when the number of remaining players is odd. URF overtime mode commences for 15 seconds, only if a fight or fights are still in progress.Little Legends
Little Legend is an avatar that expresses emotions, recruits, deploys, picks up dropped items and golds during the rounds, and select a champion with an item during a Shared Draft on the behalf of the players. A player is not able to participate in the game, and completely loses when the Little Legend of a player loses entire health points.Gold
Gold is the main resource of the players in Teamfight Tactics, and gold is used to purchase champions and experience, and to refresh the five champions offered at the store. Players obtain golds every beginning of each round, and players can also obtain gold by re-selling owned champions or winning a player versus player round, or via creeps. Players are awarded additional golds per round based on interests, or/and winning or losing multiple rounds in a row.Level
The level of a player’s Little Legend determines the number of champions that can be deployed on the Arena and the average rarity of champions available in the shop. The number of champions that can be deployed in the Arena is equivalent to the level of Little Legends, and also the average rarity of champion increases in conjunction with the level. In additions, all players start from level 1, and the maximum level that Little Legends can reach is 9.Items
Items consist of basic items, combined items and consumed item. Items can be obtained via creep rounds or shared draft, and items provide unique effects, and enhance abilities or attacks when they are equipped on a unit. To make a combined item, two basic item has to be equipped on the same champion, and two equipped basic items will be combined automatically.Origins and classes
The origins and the classes of champions provide unique effects that strengthen allies, and/or weaken enemies. Each champion has at least one fixed origin and class, and synergies can be activated and enhanced by deploying multiple different units with the same traits.Development
Teamfight Tactics was inspired by the first auto battler genre game, Dota Auto Chess. The idea of auto battler chess was emerged and developed from Chinese traditional game, Mahjong, where players pick up tiles and discard tiles in order to complete a Mahjong hand by forming a pair and sets such as a sequence, or three or four identical tiles, while preventing other players to complete a Mahjong hand. Auto battler chess games resemble to Mahjong in aspects of discarding or picking up appropriate units to counteract the units of other players and forming favourable combinations to win a game, and auto battler chess games and Mahjong require techniques and chances as both games are dependent on chances and chance error.Riot Gaming has developed and released Teamfight Tactics modes in June 2019. Several bugs and systematic shortages such as imbalance, game pace and shortages in ranking systems, were detected when Teamfight Tactics mode was first launched. Since the first launch of Teamfight Tactics mode, Riot gaming has been attempting to fix the problems, and updated new champions, contents and seasons.
In March 2020, Teamfight Tactics was released on mobile for Android and iOS, and Riot Games has also supported cross-platform play with the PC players.
Music
The music for Teamfight Tactics was produced by Riot Games Music Team. Riot Games stated chapters of the music for Teamfight Tactics is synchronised with phases of the game. The first section of the composition lasts until the first player is eliminated, the second section goes until only three players are remaining and the final section is sustained until the game is over. Riot Games noted that the music style is also adjusted by the mood, for example, the music is soft and “calmer” during non-combat phase, but becomes more upbeat during the combat phase to better accommodate the atmosphere. A senior sound designer of Riot Games Bryan Higa has proposed that they conducted a live performance with an orchestra for the music recording to strengthen the quality of the music.Seasons
Seasons in Teamfight Tactics refers to a term when Riot Games provides new items, systems and a roster of champions, and a season changes every few months.Business model
Riot gaming revenue comes from purchase of digital currency, Riot Points, by the League of Legends players in the in-game store. Physical currencies can be converted into, Riot Points, in League of Legends which is used to purchase new skins for Little Legends and Arena, upgrading skins, emotes, and Galaxies Pass. Use of skins, emotes, Arena or booms is for aesthetic purpose, and does not provide any advantage for a game-play.Esports
In April 2020, Riot Gaming made an announcement for the first global Teamfight Tactics tournament called Galaxies Championship. The sixteen qualified players from ten different regions will be competing for US$200,000 prize pool in August 2020.In advance of the first major tournament, Galaxies Championship, Red Bull organised a minor tournament with the prize pool of US$150,000, and another minor tournament was organised by Twitch Rivals with the total of US$100,000 in combination with Riot Games.
Reception
By September of 2019, the popularity of Teamfight Tactics players was over 33 millions every month, and reached 1.725 billion hours of accumulated game time since the launch of Teamfight Tactics. According to Sensor Tower, the mobile version of Teamfight Tactics reached 3.6 million installs across Apple store and Google Play in the first week of launch. In the first seven days of its launch, Teamfight Tactics attained 15.2 millions hours of watched time on a video live streaming platform called Twitch, and in the month of its release, Teamfight Tactics reached accumulated 81.4 millions watched hours on Twitch.Teamfight Tactics has received an aggregator score of 79 out of 100, labelled to be “generally favourable review” for iOS version, from review aggregator Metacritic. The game-play of Teamfight Tactics has been generally received positive critiques. James Chen in PC Gamer has noted that “Teamfight Tactics is a super fun Auto Chess variant” and further commented that Teamfight Tactics needs to fix the issues “but it is already a struggle-worth enjoying, complex and satisfying”. The Washington Post’s Ethan Davison has highlighted that “Teamfight Tactics has been successful by almost any measure”.
Nevertheless, Teamfight Tactics has not only received positive critiques, but also received criticisms due to the randomness in competitive game design. Polygon’s Daniel Friedman has noted that if Riot is too cavalier about the randomness in competitive game design, it may provide unfair feelings towards Teamfight tactics players. By contrast, Wesley Yin-Poole of Eurogamer noted that despite the randomness of the game mode, Teamfight Tactics is tactical, and it provides an enormous sense of satisfaction from seeing tactics pay off.