Teamfight Tactics: Riot reveals new League of Legends game inspired by Dota Auto Chess

Riot Games has lifted the lid on a brand new game mode for League of Legends – and it’s not what you’d expect.
Teamfight Tactics (TFT) is more akin to a separate game than it is an actual limited-time mode like Ultra Rapid Fire, Hexakill, Doom Bots, One For All and so on. It will have ranked functionality and Riot said ‘there’s a possibility’ it could become a permanent game mode.
The game, which represents Riot’s take on a turn-based autobattler game and was inspired by Dota Auto Chess, will hit the League Public Beta Environment (PBE) on June 11th and become available to players around the world starting on June 25th.

Up to eight players will be able to battle it out in a strategic free-for-all to be the last player standing on The Convergence, Teamfight Tactics’ equivalent of The Howling Abyss. The eight players will face-off in one-on-one matches until the last player remains.

Players spend gold in the store before each round in order to recruit League champions to their team, which can become stronger depending on characters that share origins and classes. They need to pick the best combination of champions from a randomised pool.
 

“Players have expressed a tremendous amount of interest in the autobattler genre, and we hope League of Legends fans are excited to see the game’s signature art, style and deep gameplay come to life in this new mode.”
Richard Henkel, Riot Games

 
Each team travels to an opponent’s board and an automatic battle will unfold. At the end of each round, teams earn gold to spend on items and battle formations.

Players can combine three duplicates of the same champion to upgrade them into a super version, and combine three supers to make an ultimate version of said champion.

To win, players will need to grow their army by recruiting units, upgrading their avatar and forces, managing gold resources and structuring battle formations to protect their board and beat their opponents.

You can see some of the gameplay in this video from Kripparrian, a content creator known for his Hearthstone videos who was an alpha tester on Teamfight Tactics:

“We believe in making big commitments to our players and fans, from updating the game every two weeks to creating seasonal events and game modes,” said Richard Henkel, Product Manager of TFT.

“Players have expressed a tremendous amount of interest in the autobattler genre, and we hope League of Legends fans are excited to see the game’s signature art, style and deep gameplay come to life in this new mode.”

TFT will also have ‘Little Legends’, avatars that can emote. Players unlock their first one by playing and others will be available for money (750RP) in the game store.
There’s more info over on the official Teamfight Tactics game reveal page.

Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.