Just a few hours ago, top 8 Challenger player on the North American server – Mismatched Socks provided us with some shocking statistics. According to Mismatched Socks, the number of players participating in ranked mode in Teamfight Tactics on major servers like Korea, North America, and Western Europe… has seen a significant decline in Season 5. This player also boldly pointed out the reasons that make Teamfight Tactics Season 5 a failed product compared to previous seasons.
The first reason pointed out by Mismatched Socks is that Riot has continuously implemented overly large changes that have made it difficult for them to balance the game. Just like League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics updates its version every two weeks. While those updates need to create new compositions, it doesn’t mean that Riot needs to drastically change the gameplay after each patch. This forces players to almost continuously relearn how to play from scratch, creating a lot of frustration.
Looking at the three consecutive major patches 11.10, 11.11, and 11.12, we can clearly see Riot’s mistake. These patches introduced adjustments to dozens of champions, changing the strengths of many traits and items. Furthermore, Riot’s updates also did not adequately address issues with certain team compositions, allowing them to remain dominant despite being nerfed. Meanwhile, some compositions that are too weak have been completely overlooked and not boosted at all.
For example, the Knight – Mage team composition was once incredibly dominant in patch 11.11 with a reroll meta for 2-cost champions. After being nerfed in recent patches, it remains a strong composition that allows players to rank up effectively. The reason lies in the fact that Riot has only adjusted the strength of champions like Hecarim, Brand…, while the roll rate for 2-cost champions at level 6 remains too high.
Another issue that Mismatched Socks mentions in his video is that the team composition of Season 5 is truly very dull. This is because the compositions with major traits are proving to be too strong in the current meta, forcing players to use them. The characteristic of these major traits in Season 5 is that they have champions spread evenly across various price points. If you start with Warrior, Divine… units, players almost have only one way to build, which is to complete that trait.
This is also a major reason leading to the “spam composition” situation in the current meta, as matchups in each game of Teamfight Tactics repeat continuously. Along with that, units like Draven, Vel’Koz, Karma… are highly contested. Players may not want to “spam compositions”, but to climb ranks, you must play the most effective compositions to ensure a top 4 placement.
In conclusion, with Riot Games releasing too many major updates at the beginning of the season and a rather dull team composition approach, Teamfight Tactics Season 5 is not as enticing to players as before. Hopefully, in the upcoming 5.5 season, new champions and traits will help the meta of Teamfight Tactics become less monotonous and repetitive than it is now.
