Teamfight Tactics Esports Coming Soon!

The release of Teamfight Tactics (TFT) was critically acclaimed since launch. Riot Games took the Dota Auto Chess (DAC) mod and put their own spin on it. Taking a look at Twitch.tv, Teamfight Tactics hovers around the top most-viewed categories with average viewership near 40,000. Their predecessors in DAC and Dota Underlords (Valve’s official auto battler) are nowhere near as popular. In comparison, DAC and DU don’t often see more than 10,000 viewers and average less than 3,000. Summarizing that point, Teamfight Tactics is 13 times more popular than their auto battler competition.

With these stats in mind, Riot Games is at the forefront of yet another genre of video games. Trailblazing has been their specialty for over a decade and they’ll be taking a new path into the esports industry. Quoting Riot, they’re looking to “double down” on TFT and make it as competitive as possible. Blog posts from MapleNectar confirm this stating “…We’re committing to building a competitive scene for TFT starting in 2020”. (You can find the blog post here: https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2019/09/tft-update-numbers-whats-next/)

In the same blog post, the data shows that Teamfight Tactics is one of League of Legends most successful game modes ever. At some points, it even outpaces All Random Ultra Rapid Fire (ARURF). It's crazy to think that a strategic auto battler can retain more players than a fast-paced, chaotic no holds barred game mode like ARURF. As a result of this, it's obvious why Riot sees the potential in developing a Teamfight Tactics league in the future.

What Lies in store for Teamfight Tactics?

There isn’t a lot of information being shared as of now about competitive TFT. We’re still months away from getting any concrete evidence on how the league will operate. All we know is that Riot is investing in league development and orgs are following. Earlier in the year, Travis Gafford interviewed Steve Ahrancet and spoke about signing TFT players. Although the interview happened two months ago, even then Riot was planning something big.

It's interesting to see how Riot will go about creating their competitive scene for Teamfight Tactics. Sharing that TFT hits 33 million active monthly players, it's safe to say there’s definitely a demand for the game. You can stay updated with the development of the league by following the newly created official TFT Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/TFT and by checking out more of ESTNN’s coverage in the future!