Teamfight Tactics turns 5, stepping out from League’s shadow

polygon.com:

There have been many game modes in League of Legends, and few of them survive long-term. A lucky few get entered into a rotation, showing up as short events for a bit of fun before being removed again. One game mode has been lucky enough to escape that fate; it’s now a stand-alone project that’s stepped out from League’s shadow. Teamfight Tactics turns 5, and the game mode continues to be one of Riot’s best bets so far.

Teamfight Tactics pits eight players against each other in a technically competitive but extremely chill battle. Players are offered units, which allow them to build basic teams that auto-battle it out — first against computer-controlled bots, and then against each other. As the matches progress, players have access to a shop and the occasional carousel of more units.

“Teamfight Tactics, when it launched as a game mode with a relatively small team, saw incredible reception from our players,” said Peter Whalen, game director for Teamfight Tactics, in a call with Polygon. “There were so many people that tried out TFT and then continued to stick with it.” Today, Teamfight Tactics has a monthly player count of approximately 33 million — not as high as parent game League, but certainly a respectable fan base.

For a totally new player who isn’t familiar with the genre or League itself, Teamfight Tactics can be confusing to pick up. There’s a high learning curve if you want to master all the intricacies, and if you’re not familiar with League’s vast cast of characters, it can be hard to recognize the potential strengths of the characters assembled at the carousel But there are a few key aspects of the game that are very easy to understand — if you get three of the same unit, it gets upgraded to tier 2. If you get nine units, that champion becomes tier 3, which makes them a game-changing presence in each battle.

It doesn’t take a lot of know-how to take advantage of that stuff, but doing it feels great — and the matches are short enough that a loss rarely