On July 5, the team behind Teamfight Tactics released a dev blog with the initial plan for the new ranked mode. Here is what you can expect when Teamfight Tactics ranked launches during the 9.14 League of Legends patch. The patch is expected to hit the live servers on July 14, with the Teamfight Tactics ranked mode going live in the days following.
Teamfight Tactics ranked mode
The developers explained that TFT’s ranked mode will look similar to the ranked mode of League of Legends. There are several important differences, however. One of these lies in the amount of LP (the ranking score for League of Legends) you can earn or lose in any given game. As there are 8 places you can finish any given game at, this amount will depend on what rank you ended the game at.
For example, placing 5th will lose you a small amount of LP, say 10 LP. On the other hand, winning a game of Teamfight Tactics’ ranked mode might earn you up to 40 LP. The amount earned was not specified in the dev blog, but they stated it would be more fluctuating than on Summoner’s Rift. There, the gains and losses generally sit between 5 and 30 LP in either direction.
The difference we are most excited about is that there will be no promotion series in Teamfight Tactics’ ranked mode. This is by far the most frustrating aspect of trying to climb in League of Legends. When you hit the 100LP point, you will move up a tier on the ranked ladder, and any excess LP with you provides a head-start to further your climb.
While this fluctuation in LP makes climbing much easier, it also means that losing a tier in ranking will happen more frequently. But don’t let that discourage you, since climbing back up will take far less time than before. The devs did note that is still only possible to demote after losing at 0LP in a tier, which should help with this problem of highly fluctuating LP.
Premade ranked restrictions
Premade groups in ranked have always been a somewhat controversial thing in League of Legends. The main aspect people have an issue with is duo-queuing. Duo-queuing with a friend generally increases your winrate. Since Teamfight Tactics is primarily a solo game, there has to be a balance between the competitive and playing with friends.
A major concern of many was team-ing in Teamfight Tactics, which could become a potentially huge problem for ranked mode. Players could work together to help another player get better items through the carousel, or even lose on purpose to help a friend get ahead. To prevent this, there will be certain restrictions set on the Teamfight Tactics ranked mode in order to maintain competitive integrity.
If you are in the gold bracket or lower, you will be able to queue with up to 5 friends for a total of a 6 premade-party. Riot made this decision because they intend the lower ranks to focus more on learning the game and having fun. For platinum and above, however, you will only be able to queue up as a party of three at most. This rule comes into effect if any player in the party is at the platinum rank or above.
Teamfight Tactics ranked rewards
The developers have stated that end-of-season ranked rewards will be available through Teamfight Tactics. What they will be, however, has not been finalized. As with League of Legends’ ranked mode, the rewards will likely scale with your end-of-season rank. Another thing the devs did speculate about is that the end-of-season rewards from Teamfight Tactics ranked mode will likely be separate from those in League of Legends.
Seasonal changes
The final talking point of the dev blog surrounded their plans to change up the game entirely between seasons. As of now, there are ideas of experimenting with all aspects of the game. These include different sets of champions, new items, and system changes to make each season a new, unique experience. The plan, at least currently, is to start a new season of Teamfight Tactics every few months. They could possibly even align the seasonal large meta changes of League of Legends with those of Teamfight Tactics. An important note is that, with the seasonal changes, all players will be demoted several tiers on the ladder. This will allow everyone the chance to learn the game again without having to worry about their rank.
The full developer blog can be found on the Nexus page of League of Legends. For more news surrounding Teamfight Tactics, be sure to check out one of our various composition builds. Our latest one is a class guide of the Sorcerers.
