TFTactics is an application developed by Overwolf aimed at “reminding” players while playing Teamfight Tactics. This app provides all the information you need, from suggested team compositions, item builds, to detailed stats for each item and the appearance rates of champions by level.
Is the widespread adoption of TFTactics a double-edged sword?
Initially, this application proved very effective in helping players remember the Traits/Classes, how to combine items, and the complex team compositions that were once thought to be too numerous and confusing. However, since mid-Season 2, the “widespread adoption” of TFTactics and its ranking feature has caused most players to become dependent and “spam” the same type of composition from match to match.
For instance, in Season 1 – when TFTactics had not yet been released, Teamfight Tactics was a true entertainment game, and players played a crucial role in item picking and combining according to the situation. Bloodthirster Shyvana, Graves with Infinity Edge, Demon Katarina, or Volibear wielding two Giant Slayers were remarkable innovations at that time.
However, currently, as everyone has installed TFTactics, Teamfight Tactics has become a problem of who can pick items similar to the textbook. The scenario is to turn on TFTactics to see which composition is at the top, enter the game, try to pick exactly the same items, and “hold on” until the end of the match. The issue of the entire map spamming one type of composition has occurred with the Gunner, Rebel, or Protector compositions when they were ranked S by TFTactics.
The item build is gradually losing its inherent “crazy innovation”?
The excessive dependence on TFTactics has caused many players to end up in the bottom 8 when things do not go according to the textbook’s instructions, while their ability to adapt their compositions is nearly non-existent. “Picking items not according to TFTactics leads to losing” is the thought of many players, and that is why Teamfight Tactics Season 3 has already gone through numerous changes and champion adjustments in such a short time since its release.
Many League of Legends streamers have shown that stepping away from TFTactics still offers many extremely effective composition combinations. Ignoring which compositions are ranked S on TFTactics’ leaderboard, adapting based on the strength of each champion and combining with new Traits/Classes to maximize their potential is the key to victory. Clearly, Vietnamese players have done an excellent job of innovating compositions and item builds in the past, but that was when such a convenient application did not exist.
The consequence is that many powerful champions are discarded simply because they do not appear in TFTactics, relegated to being placeholder units waiting for other chess pieces. For example, Kassadin at the beginning of Season 3 – a champion with wide control, high damage, and a direct counter to the strongest melee compositions currently, but “because TFTactics doesn’t teach that way,” this Void Walker remains just on the fringe of the meta and later gets… removed entirely.
Another equally important reason is the balancing issues that Riot has been handling poorly. Confidently claiming to have over 200 years of champion balance experience, yet since Season 2, there have continuously been overly imbalanced compositions, excessively powerful champions, resulting in Riot having to nerf time and again, adjusting one item after another, yet nothing seems to improve. Remember, it wasn’t until the Golden Spoon no longer appeared in the shop that the Knightblade empire of Season 2 finally came to an end; in other words, Riot balanced one type of composition by… removing that composition entirely from the meta.
And the “cancer” champion Urgot has been confirmed to be targeted for removal in patch 12.14 due to being too overpowered – something Riot should have recognized early on when designing this champion’s “unconditional kill” ability.
The purpose of creating TFTactics is correct, but it does its job of “reminding” too well that Vietnamese players no longer want to think of new compositions, new paths, or perhaps they feel they cannot surpass the “textbook”.
It is known that it will still take a long time for Teamfight Tactics Season 3 to conclude, but the question remains whether throughout that remaining time, this auto chess genre can rekindle players’ excitement and interest once again.