Riot Games is introducing a new game-mode called Teamfight Tactics into their League of Legends client. From their blogpost, they made it clear, that Teamfight Tactics is “inspired” by Auto Chess. It will release later this month in PBE – Public Beta Environment. PBE is a “test-centric” server on which upcoming patches are available for public testing.
Here’s how Riot describes Teamfight Tactics:
Teamfight Tactics is a totally new game mode in League that’ll hit PBE later this month. TFT is a round-based strategy game that pits you against seven opponents in a free-for-all race to build a powerful team that fights on your behalf. Your goal: Be the last person standing.
Riot also gave an explanation as to how and why they’re making Teamfight Tactics.
Recently, we’ve been trying different kinds of modes that are deep and unique additions to the League experience. TFT is our next big exploration in that space and the first time we’re jumping into a different genre. We’ve always loved strategy games and recently we’ve gotten into the new auto-battler genre—folks around the office have been playing an insane amount of Dota Auto Chess in particular. We love it, and it actually got us inspired to create something new as a mode in League.
Riot is basically saying exactly what Valve said, when they brought in IceFrog to create Dota 2. The story was that many developers and employees at Valve were big fans of DotA Allstars which was a custom map for Warcraft III, made using the World Editor. It was being managed and kept fresh through updates by IceFrog. Some time around 2009, Valve invited IceFrog for a tour of their offices, and hired him to create the beautiful game of Dota 2.
However, there is a big difference between the story of Valve and Riot, which makes me feel that Riot is clearly being dishonest, and that they are leaving out critical information in their blogpost.
The difference is that DotA was not as big as Auto Chess is right now. The employees at Valve were genuinely interested in DotA, and with the help of IceFrog, they made Dota 2 as big as it is right now.
However, Auto Chess is already on the path to being one of the biggest games in the world. Currently, Dota Auto Chess has around 9 million subscriptions, and Auto Chess Mobile is also on its path to dominate the mobile gaming scene. So its quite clear that the true reason for Riot to invest into Teamfight Tactics is because of Auto Chess’ popularity. Riot employees being fans of Auto Chess is just a factor in this decision that they made.
13 years of MOBA experience show that the best practice remains to copy Dota https://t.co/YzPxpu2QXE
— Skim (@SkimGaming) June 10, 2019
What’s more? They are also trying their best to monetize this new game-mode, by introducing ‘Little Legends’. Little Legends are basically couriers with a name-change. They have to do this because there is no concept of couriers in League of Legends.
With the introduction of Teamfight Tactics, we’re excited to bring a whole new personalization option to League: Little Legends. These critters will be your avatar in TFT, dancing, emoting, animating, and generally showing off. After your first few games, you’ll unlock your first LL just by playing.
After picking up your one-time-only free Legend, you can purchase additional species in the store for 750 RP. We’re launching with six species:
Before ending this article, I had to include the following comment from the Auto Chess subreddit. I just had to.
For anyone who didn’t get it, the commenter is referencing Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm.
I write about Auto Chess, Dota 2, Esports and Gaming in general. I’d love it if you followed me on Twitter and Facebook . Thanks for reading.
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