As usual, with each new season of Teamfight Tactics, the gaming community has to almost “learn from scratch”, as the mechanics and traits from the previous season are almost entirely replaced, making way for new and intriguing traits and gameplay styles.
However, getting used to Teamfight Tactics Season 5: Judgement Day doesn’t seem to pose any difficulties for the top players. Recently, Bebe872 – a Teamfight Tactics streamer currently signed with T1, officially became the first player in the world to reach the Challenger rank in Teamfight Tactics Season 5. This “record” has been confirmed by Riot Games, and the project’s director for Teamfight Tactics – Riot Mortdog also congratulated the Korean player.
In previous seasons, Bebe872 became famous for applying a unique mindset in each match. In Season 4.5, he was the first to reach Challenger rank in the Korean server. This player achieved a very high win rate thanks to a strategy called 1-0-2, informally known as… AFK or “empty garden”. This means Bebe872 often placed very few units on the board, below the maximum number, to “enter a losing streak”.
The goal of this playstyle is to accumulate gold and maintain a sufficient rank to have an advantage in the shared selection round. Additionally, not rolling in the early rounds allows him more options to pivot his team composition. Once he reaches the necessary level, Bebe872 rolls “intensively” to upgrade 3 or 4-cost champions to 3 stars. In other words, this playstyle is an upgraded version of hyper-roll, but bolder and more “all or nothing”.
Moving into Season 5, Bebe872 is “going solo” as he chooses a rather creative playstyle, where he almost never rolls 1 or 2-cost champions to 3 stars. Instead, this streamer focuses resources on leveling up quickly to roll for 5-cost champions. Looking at Bebe872’s match history, it is evident that 3-star champions rarely appear in his lineup, while he frequently successfully upgrades 5-cost champions to 3 stars.
To explain the effectiveness of Bebe872’s gameplay, we can understand that the power dynamics between 3-star 1-cost champions, compared to 4 or 5-cost champions upgraded to 2 stars, are imbalanced. 1-star or even 2-star champions (excluding Leblanc) in Season 5 possess very limited power, so even when upgraded to 3 stars, they cannot compensate for the gap compared to activating traits and upgrading 4-cost carry champions to 2 stars.
Moreover, rolling 1-cost champions to 3 stars consumes quite a bit of resources and delays the leveling-up process, generally resulting in more loss than gain. During his streams, Bebe872 has also mentioned that if players want to climb ranks in Teamfight Tactics Season 5, they should prioritize leveling up quickly and upgrading 3-cost champions and above.
The 4-cost and 5-cost champions themselves possess quite specific skill sets, especially many of the 5-cost champions (or 6 health like Teemo) not only activate their existing traits but also have unique traits, so simply leveling up early to increase the chances of rolling 5-cost champions significantly raises the chances of placing in the top compared to having “cheap” 3-star champions in the lineup.
For Bebe872, he seems to particularly favor using Volibear and the accompanying traits. This champion not only has a wide-range control skill but also boasts ideal stats, can activate multiple traits, and often serves as a tank in the late game. Bebe872 typically prioritizes upgrading Volibear to 2 stars, and the effectiveness of this strategy is evident in his rank.