The Teamfight Tactics North American esports circuit is rapidly approaching the halfway point in the TFT: Gizmos and Gadgets season. There is one more big event before the Mid-Set Finale in February, which is the Zaun Cup. 160 of the highest-ranked players across NA will compete for valuable qualifier points as well as a shot at qualifying directly to the Mid-Set Finale with the ultimate goal of getting into the NA Regional Finals. Here are all the details needed to follow the three-day TFT Zaun Cup, which kicks off Friday.
TFT Zaun Cup format
The tournament will feature the top 160 players based on a mix of rank on sign-up and previous performance at the Piltover Cup. The top 32 players will not have to play during Day 1 of the Zaun Cup.
The remaining 128 players will be split into different eight-player lobbies that are seeded based on sign-up rank. These lobbies will play three games each, with the lobbies remaining the same throughout. After three games, the top four of each lobby will advance to the next stage while the rest are eliminated. The 64 remaining players will then play three more games with the top 32 moving onto Day 2.
Day 2 will feature a total of 64 players. 32 of these players will be the ones who qualified through Day 1. The 32 other players will be from the highest-ranked based on sign-up, which includes eight players from the Piltover Cup. These 64 players will be split into eight lobbies and seeded by rank. After five games, the top four of each lobby will qualify for Day 3.
Finally, Day 3 will include the remaining 32 players from Day 2. These 32 players will be seeded based on Day 2 performance and will play five games in static lobbies. The winners of each lobby will qualify for the Mid-Set Finale.
Players at the event
The 160 player field has already been decided. Open sign-ups were available last week and the top 160 players at the end of sign-ups qualified. The LP cut-off for the top 160 ended up being 769 LP. A player who goes by the IGN “One Reason” barely squeaked into the last spot.
As for notable names in this event, Rank 1 NA player, Cloud9’s Micheal “k3Soju” Zhang, will be competing alongside Team Liquid’s Robin “Robinsongz” Sung, TSM’s Duy Minh “Souless” Nguyen, TSM’s Ki Yoon “Kiyoon” Yoo, Invictus Gaming’s Daniel “DQA” Li and many others.
Spectators can check out the official player list to see who is playing and who is on the waitlist.
How to watch the TFT Zaun Cup
Day 1 of the three-day event will not have an official broadcast. However, fans will still be able to catch the action live on Twitch from many of the player’s own perspectives through their own personal streams.
There will be official broadcasts on both Saturday and Sunday. The official stream will feature analysts and casters and will be broadcast live on the Teamfight Tactics Twitch channel.
The tournament kicks off each day starting at 7 p.m. ET on Friday.
