Riot announces League of Legends spin-off mode Teamfight Tactics

Finally adding the “s” to “Riot Games” a new game mode called Teamfight Tactics will be coming to the League of Legends client soon!

For a long time, Riot has tried to live up to their name by pairing their flagship franchise, League of Legends, with another game. While, yes, they did release a board game (Mechs and Minions), it seems the company has finally decided to venture out with a new game in the recently announced Teamfight Tactics.

Based on the popular Dota auto chess custom map, Teamfight Tactics will put you into a free-for-all game mode against eight players. In the game, you’ll be able to buy, sell, or upgrade “units” before setting your team out to battle. While you won’t actually take part in the battle, your success and failure will be dependent on how the team you built fares against one of the enemy players.

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Winning these mini skirmishes will grant you gold (to buy new units or items) while losing them will cost you life points. Once your life bar is depleted, you are out and the game progresses with the remaining seven players.

Although the game is named “auto chess” it doesn’t have the same intricacy or strategy of playing 1v1 against a player, like setting traps and performing certain, planned maneuvers. Instead, it’s more akin to the game Risk, where you build up a force and set it against an opponent’s to try and diminish their life. It does, however, take place on a chess board and the positioning of your “pieces” can be instrumental in whether you win or lose.

In a breakdown video, Scarra claims that the game will include a lot of aspects that League of Legends players are familiar with. The game’s units will be familiar champions like Graves, Ahri, and Blitzcrank and they can be upgraded with items like Negatron Cloak or B.F. Sword.

The game will also be available through the League of Legends client, meaning that you can play it as soon as it gets released! Riot also announced that the mode will eventually have a ranked system as well, meaning we might be able to get some neat custom skins or chromas for those who get to high ranks on Teamfight Tactics.

Of course, in Riot’s announcement, there will also be another personalization aspect that will be monetized: Little Legends. These custom critters – which seem to be akin to the current emotes like Pengu – will dance and emote while you’re playing to cheer your team on.

That said, this looks like an incredibly fun game mode that will be much shorter than a typical Summoners Rift game. It will also introduce League of Legends to a new audience, as most of the playtesters Riot invited were Hearthstone players (according to Scarra).

What do you think about Teamfight Tactics? Are you looking forward to playing this brand new game mode?

Teamfight Tactics will hit the PBE later this month, and is anticipated for launch in Patch 9.13!