Teamfight Tactics is coming for your phones in March, but for a few, it’s actually coming a bit sooner.
Over the next few weeks, Riot Games will be testing the mobile version as a closed beta in a handful of countries around the world.
If you see a friend, family member, or dog playing TFT on their phones, do not be alarmed: They’re probably in one of the test countries. The beta will expand a little bit over the coming weeks. However, as Riot Games mentioned at the start of the year, they’re still aiming to get the first big group of folks mobile access for the first time in March. The details on that launch will come later. As a reminder, if you’re on Android you can still pre-register in the Google Play Store.
In most countries, Teamfight Tactics will be a cross-platform game with shared inventories, progression, and rank. This means it’s important for Riot Games that TFT looks and feels like the same game on PC and mobile. While the play experience may vary slightly, they believe no one should be disadvantaged from their choice of platform. Playing TFT should feel intuitive and familiar when switching between mobile and PC. It’s all about when and where you want to play!
When Riot Games sets out to bring TFT to mobile, they immediately realized that the existing out-of-game experience for League is not mobile-friendly. So, they decided to make a new one that would be tailored to TFT and your mobile devices. The new experience is all about one thing: getting you into the game. As part of this streamlined approach, the TFT mobile client initially supports social (lobbies, friends, and invites) as well as the ranked system and the progression pass. They will be adding more functionality steadily over time.
In order to make items more “finger-friendly,” TFT mobile has a dedicated items inventory panel. From there, you’ll be able to drag to preview, equip, and combine items the same way you do on PC!
The in-game Champion Shop can’t remain open all the time without compromising the battlefield, so instead, the shop is opened and closed with a button. The shop automatically opens at the beginning of every round, appearing near the top of the screen so that you can still position your champions while buying and selling. In addition, the stage tracker only shows the time left in the current phase while the Store is open to make sure you have a complete view of your battlefield.
In-game chat would need to occupy a large section of a phone screen, especially when the keyboard is open. Riot Games felt it was more important to prioritize gameplay parity, so in-game chat on mobile is not supported at this time.
For now, and assuming all this testing by Riot Games goes smoothly, expect the full launch in March.
