Riot Games have announced a $125,000 Twitch Rivals tournament to celebrate the launch of ranked play for League of Legends Teamfight Tactics.
Teamfight Tactics is Riot Games’ take on the autobattler genre popularized by Auto Chess, and sees players build teams of League of Legends heroes that then face off against other players’ compositions.
Unlike League of Legends itself, the game involves no mechanical skill – fights must be won by putting together compositions with synergy bonuses and powering up champions with level increases and items.
Teamfight Tactics was fully released on June 25, but players who wish to take the game more seriously will have to wait until the next update to jump into ranked play, and Riot are partnering up with Twitch to celebrate the launch of ranked with the game’s first real tournament.
Teamfight Tactics ranked mode
Ranked mode for Teamfight Tactics is due to be released in the next major League of Legends update, Patch 9.14.
Details on exactly how ranked will work have yet to be revealed, but during a recent stream Riot developer August ‘Riot August’ Browning revealed that, with the game’s current MMR system, placing within the top four counts as a ‘win’.
Due to the random elements of Teamfight Tactics, August states that expecting to finish first in every game simply isn’t realistic, but that if you finish within the top four on average your MMR should increase.
August didn’t go into any greater depth on the MMR system, so it’s not clear how much more MMR a player might earn for actually coming first, but it certainly seems that players need not worry about losing MMR for not technically “winning” every match so long as they finish in the top half.
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While August was referring to the hidden MMR behind standard Teamfight Tactics play, it seems likely that the ranked mode will be based on a similar system.
Twitch Rivals Teamfight Tactics
The Twitch Rivals tournament is due to take place on July 17-18 and will see 64 Twitch streamers go head-to-head for a share of the $125,000 prize pool.
The tournament will feature a group stage with two groups of 32 players each on July 17, from which the top sixteen players will advance to the second day of play on July 18 with a shot at taking the title.
So far, the streamers participating in the event have yet to be confirmed, although it seems likely that Hafu, who was revealed as the highest-rated player during the game’s PBE phase, will be one of the big favorites to watch out for.
Full details on the participants and the format will be revealed on July 8.