With numerous champions, traits, and items undergoing significant changes, version 11.4 is considered the “season 4.75” of Teamfight Tactics. As a result, this version has had a powerful impact on the game meta. The most notable change is the end of the hyper-roll meta, with players shifting towards utilizing 4-cost champions like Kayle, Olaf, Aurelion Sol…
In addition to gameplay changes, major versions like 11.4 also introduce a “new feature” that allows item transfer between players. Specifically, one player discovered that they could buy a champion already equipped with 3 items. The interesting part is that the champion and items this player purchased were identical to the carry of a player who had been eliminated earlier.
Player: “I just played a match where I bought a champion from the shop that was already equipped. Specifically, I bought an Aurelion Sol with Runean’s Hurricane, Forest Spirit Seed, and B.F. Sword. Another player in the match said they did not see Aurelion Sol’s items. However, when I sold that unit, these 3 items were transferred back to my inventory.”
“I reviewed the match history of the eliminated players and found something interesting. A player who was eliminated earlier also had Aurelion Sol with the exact item set as the champion I bought. Could it be that I bought both the champion and the items from that player? I hope Riot Mortdog (Lead Designer of Teamfight Tactics) will fix this bug as soon as possible.”
Essentially, this is a significant game bug in Teamfight Tactics since champions bought from the shop should never come equipped with items. Currently, you can only acquire basic items from 3 sources: monster rounds, shared draft rounds, and Lucky Lanterns (not counting Ornn’s special items). Purchasing a champion that comes “attached” with items will greatly amplify that player’s power.
Furthermore, the items players receive when encountering this bug are not random; they will be identical to the items that the eliminated player possessed. Remember, no player intentionally assembles bad items for their team composition. If a player encounters this scenario, they will almost certainly secure victory by suddenly gaining an overwhelming amount of power from the items.
In the latest tweets from the Lead Designer of Teamfight Tactics – Riot Mortdog, he announced that there will be a 11.4b patch to fix the bug. Hopefully, the issue regarding item transfer mentioned above will be detected and corrected by Riot in the upcoming patch.