Sixty four of the best Teamfight Tactics players across Europe competed last weekend in the first half of the TFT Reckoning EU Qualifiers. The 64-player field played six games on Day 1 with the top 32 moving onto Day 2. The second day saw the 32 remaining player field cut in half. After 12 long games, 16 players have moved onto the regional finals which will determine which four players will represent EU at the TFT Reckoning Championships in China later this year.
Here are three takeaways from this season’s top 64 portion of the regional qualifier event.
Salvyyy looks like the best player in EU heading into top 16
Historically, Team Vitatlity’s “Salvyyy” has been the most dominant player on the EU ladder throughout the history of TFT. The German-born TFT pro has reached the top rank on the EU West server in every single set in the game’s existence. However, even though he has dominated the ranked ladder, he has failed to qualify for the World Championships in back to back seasons. But this season may be different.
During Day 1 of the EU TFT Reckoning Regionals, Salvyyy finished in third place going into Day 2 with a point total of 43. In Day 2, Salvyyy repeated his consistency with another 43 point performance. That consistency paid off for Salvyyy as the 86 point total put him in first place going into top 16. On the topic of consistency, Salvyyy placed in top four of his lobby in nine out of the 12 possible rounds.
Two of those three bottom four games came in the first two games of Day 2 which but Salvyyy at risk of not qualifying all together. But with four games remaining, Salvyyy won three of the last four games which skyrocketed him up to first place. Now that he leads the pack going into top 16, Salvyyy is looking like the overall favorite to win the EU Qualifiers and earn a spot at Worlds.
All six of Europe’s Worlds representatives have been eliminated
After Karmine Corp’s “Double61” won the Season 3 TFT Galaxies Championship, Europe was named the best region on the world. As a result, they received six spots at the following seasons TFT Fates Championship where they put on another strong showing. Unfortunately for KC Double and the six players from last seasons’ championships, they did not put on a strong showing at the EU Regional Qualifiers.
Out of last seasons’ six representatives, four of them managed to qualify for the top 64 portion of this event. “Ging”, “Bränk”, “Pas De Bol” and “Lyyyress” came into the event trying to defend their titles and get back to Worlds for the second straight season. On Day 1, three of the four fell flat along with TFT Galaxies Champion, KC Double61. The only player who managed to make it to Day 2 was Lyyyress who placed 19th after six games with a point total of 35.
Needing to make up a little bit of ground in Day 2, Lyyyress scored only 31 points on the day but came extremely close to the top 16 cut off. The 16th place player “Luque” finished with a point total of 67. Lyyyress finished with 66.
EU is sending four players to Worlds this season. Since there is no one left in the top 16 that has been to Worlds before, every player going to the Championships this season from the region will be doing so for the first time.
Lucian controls the meta game at the TFT Reckoning EU Qualifiers
The most popular strategy throughout the weekend involved using Lucian. The four-cost Sentinel Cannoneer has been quite strong in the first patch of Set 5.5. Lucian does an incredible amount of damage while staying safe the entire time on the back line. Most of the top players have gravitated towards him.
A user on Twitter compiled the data from the qualifier events. On Day 1, Lucian saw the most representation as he was played 71 times. The second closest was the Abomination strategy which summons a giant Sion that doubles as a tank and potential carry. That comp was only played 50 times in comparison. In Day 2 the numbers stayed relatively the same. Lucian was played 45 times while Abomination again sat in second place with 25.
As for underplayed compositions that had success, the Miss Fortune Cavalier strategy was the best performing comp during Day 2. The comp had an average placement of 3.36 and a 36% win ratio. The comp abuses Miss Fortune’s insane area-of-effect damage output while having an unkillable Cavalier frontline. The Aphelios Ranger composition was the worst performing comp overall in the event. Aphelios functions essentially as a worse Lucian. Aphelios can potentially do more damage to more units but takes longer to cast his ability. On Day 1, despite being the fifth most popular comp, it had a poor 4.63 average placement. On Day 2 it did even worse with an average placement of 5.
