First, for those new to Teamfight Tactics or who have just heard this term, “eco” means economy – financial management, or in the context of TFT, it refers to saving. The white eco playstyle involves accumulating money, maximizing gold savings, or in other words, the “blood-selling” playstyle. Players using this strategy do not focus on purchasing and upgrading champions in the early and mid-game. At the same time, whenever they face off against opponents, other players will always see their gold displayed at the maximum level (50 gold or more).
The white eco playstyle is usually applied when players receive items or champions that are unsuitable or not strong enough, with each shop offering different traits, or when reaching level 4 without having any 2-star champions… In short, this playstyle is for players who are not very fortunate, or for building an exodia team (where the main carries are 4 to 5 gold) because typically, white eco players maintain their gold at around 50, using the rest to level up.
One benefit of the white eco playstyle is that players will always be in a low position in the early stage until close to the end of the game, thus giving them an advantage to acquire desirable items or champions in the shared pick rounds. Maintaining a losing streak also helps them gain an economic boost similar to that of winning streaks, but from a certain perspective, it is much riskier.
Additionally, the white eco playstyle requires players to have a certain skill level because reading situations, observing other opponents to know when to spend gold is a skill that not everyone possesses, especially newbies and low-ranked players. Particularly, with continuous “blood-selling”, players need to calculate to maintain the white eco playstyle without their health dropping too quickly, leading to elimination before they can build their team.
An advantage for players who prefer the white eco playstyle is that in the new season, Riot has introduced a mechanic called Divine Blessing. With this addition, when health drops below 40, players will receive a Blessing Mark that allows them to obtain champions, gold, items, and weapons… This is why the white eco playstyle, which is quite dangerous, is being widely adopted in TFT season 5.5.
However, this playstyle is a double-edged sword, especially for players with little experience or who are not used to adapting their team composition based on items, champions available, or arranging their board to counter opponents. Specifically in season 5.5, many 1 and 2-cost champions are very strong and can easily serve as team carries like Tristana, Irelia, Senna… and even Olaf. For players building around 2 and 3-cost champions, maintaining a winning streak and saving gold from the start of the game is not difficult for them. Moreover, they also have much better health compared to players using the white eco strategy.
Some players will use the gold gained from Divine Blessing to compensate for health and rank gaps, as well as to leverage the advantage of having many favorable items and champions to turn the tide at the end of the game. But one point to note is that experienced players mostly determine their playstyle around round 3, at the latest when they have obtained the Light item, and immediately after, they complete their team. For them, an effective playstyle revolves around the items and champions they have, so in reality, they do not need to care about 4 and 5-cost champions that do not fit the playstyle they have built.
Except for a few names that are proving to be overwhelmingly dominant or have good defense toward the end of the game such as Lucian, Volibear, Ivern, Rell, or Vel’Koz, Garen, Akshan… most players at the end of the game will focus on upgrading their carries and adding champions based on the direction of rolls. At that point, the health gap will become apparent, and the returns from Divine Blessing or previous advantages in shared pick rounds can no longer cover it.
In general, the white eco playstyle is high-risk and only suitable for players with good team pivoting skills. Players in lower ranks who want to adopt this playstyle need to be very careful if they do not want to be stuck in hell Elo indefinitely without making any progress.