When League of Legends released a game mode called Teamfight Tactics in June, it quickly shot to popularity and has had immense success since then.
The game throws eight players together in an arena where they purchase champions, combine them to create strong team compositions, and itemize and strategize their way to the top. While players have been non-stop queuing up for the auto-chess game mode, there are a lot of changes and additions being made to smooth things out.
For TFT Patch Notes go here!
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— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) July 16, 2019
One of the most prominent features coming to TFT will be ranked play. The ranking system will work similarly to the current League of Legends set-up, with players able to place in tiers from Iron to Challenger and divisions 1-4 within all tiers in Diamond and below.
Unlike the traditional League of Legends system, however, players can fluctuate within tiers and divisions more severely due to Riot taking away promotion series and protection against demotion. Instead, players will gain or lose LP based on where they place out of eight players, and the amount of LP they end with can skyrocket them to a new tier or drop them a division.
Another substantial addition to the game comes in the form of the first new champion to be added – Twisted Fate will be joining the TFT arena as a Tier 2 Pirate Sorcerer worth 2 gold. His ability will allow TF to pick one of his infamous cards, and just like in regular LoL games, he can choose from blue – to restore mana, red – to deal AoE damage, and gold – to stun a target.
Riot is also using this patch to make some much-needed changes to various aspects of the game. One of the most significant issues players have had is with the set-up for RNG and how necessary yet unbalanced it is within Teamfight Tactics. Specifically, players have seen problems with PvE rounds where some people receive five items, and some receive none.
Now, according to the official 9.14 TFT patch notes, “In the event that you do not get an item during a PvE round, one of the minions, monsters, or epic monsters will now drop gold instead.”
Riot is also updating many components of the TFT interface, which previously lacked a lot of valuable information such as champion statistics, recaps and damage reports for each round, and a more functional layout to indicate gold income and win or loss streaks.
Updates are also being made to adjust the power and capability of certain traits and champions, meaning Darius won’t swing at empty spaces anymore and Rek’Sai will actually feel a little more relevant.
Across five tiers of champions in the game, base stats have been altered to help champions who feel overwhelming and underwhelming reach a more balanced position. This includes making Evelynn actually feel like she has the damage to be an assassin and taking Draven’s attack speed down a peg.
In general, champions will also have their attack speeds better-balanced, because stats from items will coincide with base attack speeds. This makes strategical itemization even more essential and will, hopefully, create even more balance.
Bug fixes are too plentiful to name them all, but players can also feel content knowing that they won’t be losing rounds anymore to champions stalling, failing to use abilities, or disappearing altogether.
Patch 9.14 is due to release on July 17th and is the perfect opportunity for both seasoned TFT veterans and excited newcomers to queue up in the arena and auto-battle to victory.
