It is undeniable that Teamfight Tactics Season 2 is a successful product from Riot Games; it helps gamers understand what it means to build a real team composition, rather than just stacking items on a few carries like in Season 1. However, up to now, it’s hard to say what the standout composition of the season is or which unit represents Season 2, as there are too many units considered, but none really stand out.
The first reason is that the champion abilities in Season 2 do not make as strong an impression as in Season 1, especially the expensive units. In the previous season, we had Draven dealing thousands of damage with a single hit, Swain transforming into a demon, or Miss Fortune unleashing a barrage that obliterated the enemy team. Meanwhile, in Season 2, the expensive units lack such impressive mechanics.
Upon release, champions like Ashe (with Focused Arrow), Zed (Shadow Clone), and Taric (Radiant Universe) might be strong, but the impression their skills leave is not significant. Even Ashe’s Ultimate Ice Arrow would surely attract more attention compared to her current continuous shots. Riot Games understands this and they tried to introduce Amumu with a wide area stun ability; however, it’s not enough to salvage the other units.
Not only the champion skills, but the visual effects of the traits in Season 2 are also much less appealing. This comes from Riot removing all buffs for the entire team such as Wild (team attack speed buff), Knight (damage block buff)… as in Season 1. Perhaps Riot Games anticipated this trade-off, having to sacrifice player attention for the quality of the game.
Additionally, the elemental battlefield mechanics do not significantly impact the game; aside from adding a bit of stats, it doesn’t bring anything too impressive. Therefore, in Season 3 of Teamfight Tactics, Riot Games has changed this, not just a few elemental tiles but the entire universe of the game will change after each match. Everything will live up to the name Teamfight Tactics: Galactic Infinity.
The appearance of champions in this season 3 also draws much more attention, skin lines such as Star Guardian or Superstars will definitely be more impressive than Frosted Ezreal, Default Brand, or Toxic Kog’Maw. With the addition of many colors and an expanded universe, Season 3 is certainly going to be more exciting with what the Rise of Elements patch brings.
Of course, Season 2 is not a failure for Riot; it provides a relatively good depth of strategy for the game. It also highlights how overpowered the Golden Shovel is and why this item should not be in the common pick phase. What’s lacking is just some standout element, a composition or a unit so impressive that mentioning it immediately brings to mind this season, like Draven from Season 1. True, we have Lux, but with her high cost and infrequent appearances, that’s just not enough.
