What's Auto Chess/Auto-Battlers?

Auto Chess-like games, also called auto-battlers, are a new and popular strategy subgenre that involves purchasing units with set skills and behaviors, then placing them on a board and letting them auto-battle opponents' units. Players compete in a pool of typically 8 players, fighting one random opponent's board or neutral enemies every round. Each round, players gain currency that can be used to buy more units, while duplicate units can be merged together for a stronger unit. At the end of each lost round, players lose health based on their units' performance, with the last man standing crowned the winner. The typical game runs around 30-40 minutes. For those familiar with the card game, it can be described as a "draft" style game and fills a similar niche. In fact, many Hearthstone players have been playing these games.

Which is the "Real" Auto Chess?

The development of these games has a bit of a story to them. The original Auto Chess (widely known as "Dota Auto Chess", or DAC) is a mod for Dota 2 by Drodo Studios. After Valve and Drodo failed to reach an agreement on developing it into its own game, Drodo worked with Chinese studio Dragonest to create their own standalone game, Auto Chess:Origin, while Valve created Underlords instead. Meanwhile, Riot Games developed their own take on the genre, Teamfight Tactics, as a new gamemode for their popular game League of Legends.