Riot Games have revealed the first new champion being released for League of Legends Teamfight Tactics since the game’s official launch.
Teamfight Tactics launched with 50 champions, leaving Riot plenty of room to expand the game by drawing from the much larger pool in standard League of Legends, which as of June 28 features 145 champions.
It seems the first of those extra champions to Teamfight Tactics will be Twisted Fate, who is due to join the game with the next major update, Patch 9.14, which is expected to go live around July 17.
The addition of Twisted Fate was first hinted at with a section of champion art, which fans were quick to identify as TF – although not in his standard “base” model, but rather sporting his ‘Cutpurse’ skin
Tf is the first champ we'll be releasing as drip content for tft on patch 9.14
— Richard Henkel (@RiotMapleNectar) July 2, 2019
The use of this skin might suggest implications for Twisted Fate’s traits, specifically implying that his Origin might be Pirate, which would see him join the likes of Graves – who’s seen in the full artwork – Pyke, Gangplank, and Miss Fortune.
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This lines up with previous statements from Riot that they might use champions’ skins to create “variants” of champions that play differently from their standard model, although in this case they seem to be skipping the base model entirely for the first version of Twisted Fate.
Riot have said that their plan for Teamfight Tactics is to add new champions with every patch or two until the game has around 60 champions, so players can expect more to follow after Twisted Fate.
Once the game hits that number, Riot will then look to keep things fresh by rotating in new sets of champions or variants of champions, rather than further expanding the number of champions available at any one time.
Patch 9.14 is also expected to introduce a ranked mode for Teamfight Tactics, and Riot will be celebrating the launch with a $125,000 Twitch Rivals tournament for the game on July 17-18.
Teamfight Tactics has proven very popular with both League of Legends players and viewers on Twitch, and many will undoubtedly be pleased to see Riot actively working to keep the game fresh and engaging.