Grandmaster Tips for Adapting in Teamfight  Tactics

TFT patches often shake up the meta quite a bit, especially early in the set. For many people, patches are a blessing as the comp they detest is finally getting nerfed. For others, patches are a curse that nerf their favorite comp to play. Either way, patches create meta shifts that can be difficult to keep up with regardless of how you feel about the patch.

Back in set 1, patches always seemed to be a toss-up for me. I either played very well and consistently or instantly bottom 4’d my first 5 games.

In set 2, I started to find much better success throughout each patch, and wanted to share my tips on how you can create a competitive edge against other players with a bit of critical thinking and preparation.

As more and more sets have come out, I’ve learned to find a window of opportunity within patches. A lot of this comes with experience, but I’ll share some tips here about what I mean.

Leveling Strategy

One of the things I noticed about set 1 was that I always had the same leveling strategy regardless of what comp I played. I, like many other players, have learned and adjusted our leveling strategies to match the comp we are playing. I won’t go into every leveling strategy in this article, but I’ll explain a basic gameplan.

If you want a more in depth look into leveling strategies, check our in-depth guide here.

Slow Rolling: Looks to use early game gold to reroll for 1 and 2 cost units to snowball the mid game, gain a lead, and punish greedy players. Here are some examples of some slow roll comps in the game’s history.

“Regular”: Looks to level mostly after every creep round and rolls down only slightly in order to stabilize. Often uses 3 or 4 cost carries as the center of the team.

I say regular, but there is quite a large variance of leveling strategies within this category. I simply group them together for simplicity’s sake.

Fast 8: Looks to save up gold to 50 and sparingly reroll until hitting level 8 (before other players) to find 5 cost units to become unbeatable late game.

Carry Cost

Carry Cost simply refers to the cost of the main carry of your team. For example, if you see a comp that has Zeri and you want to try, you should understand that leveling with the “Fast 8” Strategy will be best for your success.

Being able to discern the leveling strategy for a new comp or a comp that has recently gained popularity will net you an advantage over other players who haven’t put in the same thought.

Applying this knowledge

The best way to explain this would be through examples.

Follow the trend, but do it better

In set 2, 6 Shadow comps became very popular after other top tier comps received nerfs. Shadows were buffed over the course of many patches, and eventually, players found out that it was a top tier comp.

While I may not have innovated this comp myself, once I lost a game to a 6 shadow player, I was able to understand the key points of the comp, and figure out an appropriate leveling strategy to replicate it before there was any reddit guide or Youtube video explaining how. While it may not have been the perfect strategy, it was a strategy that worked for me in Grandmaster elo.

6 Shadows had 3 main carry units. Kindred, Sion (both 3 cost units), and Master Yi (5 cost unit). With this, I understood that Kindred and Sion allowed this comp to have a mid game power spike, but the comp did not rely on 3 starring either unit as Master Yi became the late game carry.

I decided that once I hit level 6, I would roll down and ideally find Sion and Kindred 2 star to carry me through the midgame. I would not roll all my gold down, however, and cut my losses if I didn’t hit Kindred and Sion to ensure my economy can bounce back. After that, I would stop rerolling until I can comfortably hit level 8 to find Master Yi.

This strategy follows more of a “regular” leveling strategy, with a slight inclination toward saving gold for level 8. This allowed me to cover the weaknesses of Fast 8 (weak midgame) and reliably find Master Yi while staying fairly healthy.

If you’re watching a new comp on a popular stream, you’re likely already late to the party. Being able to dissect comps you play against, or theory craft your own comps, will be what gives you an edge against other players.

Play against the trend

Conversely, early in set 2, while everyone was playing comps that relied on 5 cost units like Singed or Zed, some players found success by win streaking early. Some players even rerolled in the first round of PvP by looking for Nasus (A strong early game unit and item holder).

This resulted in the popular 6 Inferno comp that took over the meta. By building up an early win streak, these players consistently landed top 4 and even took first every now and then.

6 Inferno may seem like a comp that would gravitate toward Fast 8, since it relies on finding Amumu (5 cost unit) for an ideal endgame comp, but players didn’t do this. Kindred allowed for an extremely strong midgame, and Zyra allowed for an extremely strong early game.

Furthermore, the late game strength of 6 Inferno lied in the synergy buff rather than the carry units.

Because of this, players rerolled aggressively in the early game to build a win streak and hit level 8 at an average pace while maintaining high gold and health. Hitting Amumu 2 was not necessary as long as you had your 6 Inferno buff.

This is a prime example of how players understood the leveling strategies of the current meta and devised a comp with a corresponding leveling strategy that countered the meta.

How this applies to Set 6: Gizmos & Gadgets

(For those of you reading in the future, this may not be useful information anymore, but it may give you some insight on how the meta can shift.)

The game has evolved so much since the early days of TFT. In the past, strategies were not so set in stone, and players often innovated to see what worked and what didn’t.

For example, nowadays, you rarely see anyone hyper roll due to the nerf on finding 1-cost units at level 4.

But with the many changes over the course of the game, many smaller micro strategies have come up.

Aggressive Leveling and Pre Leveling

• Players will often level up to 4 on 2-1 in order to try to start a win streak.
• Many players will continue this trend by purchasing XP on 2-3, resulting in 8/10 XP.
• This means that after the carousel, you will naturally level up to 5, increasing the odds you find 2 and 3-cost units.
• Some players will take this a step further and level up to 5 before the fight on 2-3.
• This can be further continued by leveling up to 6 on 3-1, to ensure you keep your win streak.

The Game is Faster Now

Back then, going Fast 8 often meant that you would level up to 8 at 4-5, and then hold onto your gold to roll down at 5-1.

With Augments in the game, the gold players can generate has increased a lot. Players can often reach level 8 on 4-2 with a lot of gold leftover. This can result in players finding strong end game boards much earlier than before.

As more players become better at the game, the pace of the lobby also increases. You can’t simply lose streak 10 rounds in a row and expect to have a healthy life total anymore.

A Huge Selection of Hextech Augments

Hextech Augments are one of the best ways to increase the power of your comp. Getting Augments with a beneficial trait can drastically raise the power ceiling of your comp.

Many comp guides and team comps are built around the assumption that you won’t get the best augments every game. If you are able to get a strong Augment like a Heart or a Crown, it’s on you to figure out how to build your best board in that situation.

It can be easy to simply pick the Augment that is generic and good on many team comps, but being able to find the Augments that drastically improve a comps power ceiling is a huge edge you can give yourself.

Final Thoughts

These thoughts can be quite simple to think of yourself, but you should ask yourself more thought-provoking questions.

• “If the meta will likely shift this way, how can I follow the trend but do it better?”
• Or, you can ask yourself “If players will likely do this, how can I counter that.”
• What strategies can I apply to a team comp to give myself an edge?

These are the questions that top players consistently ask themselves as they are playing. They are able to come up with solutions and react to the meta much faster than other players.

Even if you come up with a solution that didn’t work out in practice, you can watch how the meta shifts over time, learn, and take in that information.

Figure out what you didn’t expect, and what you did expect. Over time, you will find yourself making correct predictions more and adjusting quicker if you pay close attention.

Thanks for reading! Head to our Team Builder to theorycraft your own counters or explore our best meta comps to find another answer to climb with.

The post How to Adapt to Meta Shifts in TFT (Grandmaster Tips + Analysis) appeared first on Mobalytics.

New TFT team comps often appear quite quickly in TFT as bi weekly meta shifts change things dramatically. Some comps are invented on patch notes day, while others are adjusted over time and appear close to the end of a patch.

New comps can be quite jarring to play as it’ll feel like learning the game all over again. So here are a few main things to keep in mind when playing a new comp.

1. Know the purpose of items

If you are learning a new comp, chances are that you are reading a guide that already has optimal items for you to build. While this will be very helpful to follow, you don’t always follow the guide precisely.

Recommended Items

For example, here we have an example 3 item for Twitch. These may be our recommendation for best in slot items, but you can swap some items depending on what you have.

Infinity Edge is the best damage scaling item for Assassins. It synergizes perfectly and results in massive damage. Giant Slayer is another item to scale damage, but in a different aspect.

While Infinity Edge scales Crit Damage, Giant Slayer will simply give bonus damage. If you don’t have an extra Negatron Cloak, you can simply replace Runaan’s Hurricane with Giant Slayer.

Replacement Items

Edge of Night can be a possible third item for Twitch as well. He can output great damage, but is somewhat frail. This can help him survive just a bit longer in the late game to deal with enemy teams.

In situations like these, you should experiment with different items and see what results you get. Maybe you are able to find other items that are also strong, or maybe you fail and your team is nowhere near as strong.

Either way, you will learn what items will be good for a new comp, and judge whether or not you should play said comp based on your items.

2. Have a leveling strategy

Leveling strategy is one of the most important things to consider when seeing a new comp. For example, a comp like Draven and Friends will play a fairly “normal” strategy that looks to find 2 star units for a complete level 8 comp.

Conversely, comps like Talon Reroll or Mutants look to find 3 star units and stay at level 6 or 7 for longer. This is why at Mobalytics, we’ve added a leveling guide to our comps to ensure you know what you should prioritize at certain points of the game.

However, maybe you find a guide that doesn’t go in-depth on this topic, or maybe you play against a comp you’ve never seen before. In these situations, you should learn how to come up with a leveling strategy for yourself based on your previous experience.

Depending on the cost of your carry, you will be able to determine this yourself. If the comp carry is Ahri (4-cost), you will likely level normally to level 8 to finish your comp. If the comp carry is Kai’Sa, you might want to greed more to hit level 8 early.

If the comp carry is Senna, you may want to stay at level 7 longer to reroll for 3 star Senna. If your comp carry is Talon, you will want to stay at level 6 to reroll for 3 star Talon.

These leveling strategies have evolved over the course of the game’s history, and for a more in-depth guide, check out our resource on Leveling Strategies.

3. Optimize your positioning

Positioning in TFT is a unique aspect to comps and in my opinion, one of the least important aspects of any guide. While there may be a general positioning you should follow, positioning has a direct correlation to the enemy comps.

If you are playing against Assassins, you want to put your carries more to the side or front. If you are playing against Blitzcrank, you want to position your carry so they won’t be hit by his ability.

What if enemies have Zephyr? What if enemies have Shroud of Stillness? Or Blitzcrank? Or Blitzcrank with Zephyr?

Positioning will always be a choice based on the opponents you face. As such, when reading a guide, or looking at a new comp, simply try and see what things are necessary.

Ask yourself why the positioning is the way it is rather than simply copy it. As you find answers throughout your games, you will start to understand the general concepts of positioning like:

• How do I protect my carry?
• Who should be my main frontline
• Should I turtle in the corner or spread my units out?

4. Adjust your team comps according to game state

If you see a new comp, or read a new guide on a comp, you will be tempted to simply buy only the necessary units. While this may work out, you might not hit your units early enough, take too much damage, and bleed out in the late game.

If the guide you read covers everything you need to know, you might not need to know this, but there are a few ways to improve your game knowledge, and adjust to new comps.

Use transition units

Transition units are a great example of adjusting comps. Maybe you are running a comp like Draven and Friends and have items like Infinity Edge + Runaan’s Hurricane.

There are a plethora of units that can hold these items for Draven in the early and mid game. Ezreal, Warwick, Senna, Ashe, are some easy examples.

Even if your final team comp runs a unit like Senna, it’s important to still use your items to stay strong. You can eventually find more units to get your items back, but you can’t get your health back. (Unless you have Metabolic)

Adjust your item choices

We touched on items previously, but items are also an important counter play mechanic. If you see an enemy that has a lot of healing, you may want to prioritize getting a Morellonomicon over your ideal carry items.

If the enemy has a lot of CC or Enforcer, you may want to prioritize getting Quicksilver. Carries will often have ideal items, but make sure to also itemize against what you are playing against.

Understand interchangeable units

Let’s look at this team comp. It’s a fairly standard build that runs 5 Innovators along with other traits like Clockwork, Enchanter, Socialite, etc.

You can follow this exact team comp every game and find success, but learning how to adapt and react to opponents will make you an even better player.

Examples

• If I have an Innovator Emblem or Heart, who do I take out for Singed for Innovator 7?
• If I can’t find Jayce, what does my ideal team comp look like?
• Should I replace Ezreal with a stronger unit or keep Scrap?
• What’s the best unit to add in at level 9?
• Or do I swap out multiple units at level 9?

There are many variations you can do for any comp. Just look for traits that support your team or units that have powerful abilities. If they have both, even better.

Conclusion

When learning a new comp, it will be easier to follow the guide word for word and see what happens. While you may get decent results, thinking critically about what you should do to make the comp optimal for every game will allow you to truly master a comp faster.

There will be times where straying from the path will result in bad games, but you learn so much more in the process. Think about it like an investment. If you push the comp and change things, you will learn things that will improve your game knowledge.

Eventually, you will reach a point where you only need to know what units are run in a comp. After that, you will be able to fill in all the blanks yourself.

This will be even more useful on patch days. When many changes happen, new guides can be a bit delayed as they wait for the meta to settle.

In situations like this, your primary source of comps will be the opponents you face or streamers.

The moment you play against a new comp, or see it on stream, try to fill in the blanks yourself. Eventually, you will reach a point where you can master a new comp even before a fully fleshed guide comes out for it.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out our recommended team comps, champs, and items to help you adjust and adapt.

To learn about the new TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6.5 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post How to Learn New TFT Team Comps Faster appeared first on Mobalytics.

If you find yourself being hard stuck in a certain elo or lose way more LP than you gain, it’s time that you look at what you can improve on rather than queuing up and expecting better results. There are likely habits you can improve on that will greatly improve your climb.

Over the course of the game’s life span, I’ve watched many streamers and friends play at varying different ranks. I’ve successfully reached Challenger in both Set 1 and Set 2, (although I ended the sets at about 400 LP Grandmaster). Since then I’ve mostly floated around High Diamond / Master in the sets since then.

I’ve coached a player who was new to TFT to Diamond after only a few sessions. While I may not be the best, I have studied and seen things that I believe players should work on during their climb up.

With this in mind, I’ve categorized what I believe is lacking from most players at certain ranks in the game. Do note that this is a generalization from what I’ve seen from other players. You may be a Gold player that does certain things better than most Plat Players.

You may be a Diamond player that might not have the fundamentals of a Plat player. Keep this in mind when reading through my tips and see what you can apply for yourself.

Iron – Bronze

For these first two ranks, I group them together because you are likely new to the game, or possibly new to auto chess as a whole.

One lucky win in your placement is almost enough to separate Iron from Bronze.

Also, note that these tips are great for anyone trying to get their friends to play TFT. Slowly introduce them to the game rather than throwing them into an information dump.

In this elo, I recommend two things.

Learn all the mechanics of the game.

You should understand how the game works, how gold works, how rolling works, what champion abilities are, etc. It can be quite daunting for a casual or new player to quickly learn 50+ champions and even more item combinations but focus on the core gameplay rules first. My next tip will help you slowly build your knowledge of the game over time.

Learn 1 Comp, and play it until you understand how it works

As a new player or casual player, you don’t want to spend too much time learning everything before you go into a game. You should queue up in ranked or normal and simply play and practice one meta comp. Learn the 8 or so champions that make your final build, and learn a few good champions to use in between.

After you are able to play 1 comp a few times, you will slowly learn what the items do, what the champions do, how to make the items, etc. Once you feel like you’ve learned it and can replicate the comp without a guide, move onto another comp. This process will be fresh as you are exploring new comps constantly. Over time, you will learn what all the mechanics of the game are.

Silver – Gold

Silver and Gold can be quite the large range to group, but most of the ideas for climbing out of Silver and Gold are quite similar.

Learn fundamental skills

Things like economy, scouting, positioning, and itemization are all things that you will slowly pick up over time by either playing the game or watching others play. When you learn a new comp, you may follow a general guideline, but start to branch out and begin to understand why certain things are the way they are. Ask yourself question like:

• Why is this item good for this champion?
• What other items should I make?
• Why do I position this champion here?
• When should I roll down? Or why do I roll down at this level?

Silver and Gold are where you should begin to understand the game on a core level rather than following a guide perfectly.

While you can climb very high playing one build the same way over and over, patch updates or meta shifts can put your climb to a halt.

By learning these skills, you will be able to know when to adapt certain comps in certain situations.

Maybe instead of hyper rolling, you decide to slow roll, or maybe you decide to build a suboptimal item to try and reach top 4. Learning fundamentals will allow you to make the most out of every game rather than going all-in on one strategy.

Platinum

Platinum players usually have got the basics down, but don’t necessarily apply many of the fundamentals every game. Platinum is very achievable for players who follow a guide for the strongest comp in the meta, but recently, TFT has shown more diverse metas that reward players for playing flexibly and adapting to the situation.

For Plat players, I have two main tips:

Apply the fundamentals throughout the game

By this point, you should understand how to build your economy, how to scout, how to itemize, etc. But you should be able to apply the skills you’ve amassed throughout the game. The best players scout almost every single round and reposition their board to give them the best possible chance of winning.

You may have found solid success in following a strategy, but learning how to adapt and being disciplined enough to do it throughout the entire game will give you a much better chance of climbing through plat.

Start to create your own playstyle

Playstyle is something often overlooked in TFT, but it is something that is very important to climbing higher and to possibly even climb to Challenger.

What do I mean by playstyle?

For example, you may be a player that likes to play only 1 comp and to play it to perfection. Kiyoon is a perfect example of a player who for a long time only played Mech Infiltrators. He was arguably the best Mech Infiltrator player and knew every single detail about the comp.

On the other hand, you may want to play like Polt’s, who plays very aggressively and mixes and matches synergies based on what he finds.

Either way, you should begin to understand how you enjoy playing the game, or what you have found brings you the most success. By doing so, you will have a clear vision of how the game will play out, and can make decisions to best achieve that vision.

By understanding and coming up with your own playstyle, you will make faster decisions like:

• What item should I go for here?
• What starting item do I want?
• What possible builds can I go for in this situation?
• Do I want to be a one-trick?

By figuring out your own playstyle, you will be able to make decisions faster. With that extra time, you can use it to scout and reposition or talk to chat if you’re a streamer.

Furthermore, by solidifying a playstyle, you will begin to understand your strengths and weaknesses. Maybe you have found a system of itemization that works for you, but you are lacking when it comes to champion selection in the early game.

Eventually, you will be able to create a unique playstyle that only you can replicate. No two TFT players will make the exact same decisions in a game, and this is where you need to find what gives you an advantage.

Diamond

Unfortunately for Diamond players, this is where it can start to get rough. For the most part, climbing out of Diamond is simply the skills you learned to climb out of Plat, only, you do it better.

Everything you’ve learned up to this point should be refined even more.

If you’ve been scouting and repositioning well, you need to do it better. Find the position that gives you the best chance of beating multiple boards.

If you are committed to playing the same comp every game, learn every single minute detail about it. Every possible item, every possible position, every possible adaptation.

Every minute decision you make will be the difference when you’re trying to hit Master. Many games will end with multiple players in single-digit HP. One mistake in the early game can be the difference between a 6th and a 3rd. Or in some extreme cases, the difference between a 1st and an 8th.

Get in the right mindset

If you’ve hit Diamond, it’s likely that you are fundamentally sound. At this point, if you haven’t already, take a step back to put yourself in the right headspace.

If you lose a game that’s extremely close, don’t tilt. Instead, ask yourself what you could’ve done better. It’s impossible to top 4 every game, and you should always be looking for ways to improve.

Master

If you’ve reached Master, first of all, congratulations. While some may discount the achievement, getting Master is not a simple feat for the vast majority of the players. You should feel proud of your accomplishment up to this point.

It would be boring to simply say do everything you’ve done up to this point but better, but really, climbing higher in Master is just that. If you think you’ve mastered an aspect of the game, you likely haven’t yet. And if you truly believe you have a skill down, master another skill. While this will be a majority of the improvement you will strive for, you should also do one more thing…

Find a Competitive Edge

At this point of your climb, you should look to find out what it is you excel at and hone in on that. You’re starting to compete with the best of the best, and you need to find what it is that makes you stand out.

For me personally, I found that I learned new comps very quickly, so I would often play new and strong comps early when the community would find out about them. As more players caught on, I would lose my edge. As such, I usually played more games when patches first hit, or when a new comp gained popularity.

If you haven’t figured out that special sauce that you have, don’t worry. It took me many months before I realized what my strengths were. Take your time, continue to improve, and you will over time begin to realize what it is you have that other players don’t.

Grandmaster+

Honestly, at this point, you just have to commit to being the best. If you want to climb up and into Challenger, you have to really put in the time and effort to compete with those that live and breathe TFT.

If you’re like me, you’ll be happy with Grandmaster and continue playing for enjoyment, but if you really want to hit Challenger, you must have the drive and determination to make it happen.

Rank 1

Good luck!

To learn about the next TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post Tips for Climbing Every TFT Rank (From a Grandmaster Player) appeared first on Mobalytics.

If you’re new to Auto Chess games or came from a different Auto Chess game, you might have trouble knowing what to do during the carousel. The game throws you right into it, so it may catch you off guard, but it is something that you will quickly pick up.

In this article, we’ll be explaining how the carousel works, and what items you should look to go for.

If you’re brand new or still have trouble figuring out what items combine into what, make sure to download our overlay for an easy in game resource for items.

What is the Carousel?

At the start of the game, every player will see a spinning carousel of units with an item on it. By right clicking, you can move around and try to be the first to grab a specific champion and item. At the start of the game, all of the units will be 1-cost and this will gradually increase as the game goes on.

Starting from Stage 2 (the first pvp stage), every 4th round will be a carousel round. Once again, you will be able to grab a champion with an item, except now, players will be released 2 at a time, starting from the player with the lowest health. Because of this, being lower health early on can be a strategic choice to grab an item you really want.

Starting Carousel

The first carousel sets the tone for your early game and can play a solid impact on what comp you choose to play. Do note that for players around low Diamond or lower, you can do well by starting with just about any item component (except maybe Negatron Cloak).

To display this, I’ll go over each item component and some of the strong item choices you have. This will help you decide what item you want to start with and how you decide to play the game.

For the following section, check out our item page if you don’t know what each item does. Also check the main website to see updated Tiers for items every patch.

Recurve Bow

One of the most popular items to start with is a Recurve Bow. Recurve Bow is unique compared to other item components because some champions best items require multiple Bows. For example, Talon wants Rapid Firecannon and, meaning he requires 2 bows. Getting one at the start greatly increases your consistency in completing these items.

Other than that, Recurve Bow is still a strong item that can be used in many different comps

• Rapid Firecannon and Runaan’s Hurricane are a core item on many champions.
• Guinsoo’s Rageblade and Statikk Shiv are great early game items.
• Last Whisper and Giant Slayer are great for dealing with late game tanks.

B.F Sword

Another popular starting item choice is B.F. Sword. Almost all of the items you can build with B.F. Sword are strong both early and late game.

• Infinity Edge and Last Whisper are two of the best attack damage items.
• Spear of Shojin and Guardian Angel are strong on any team comp on many different units.
• Bloodthirster is great item for AD carries that need sustain.

Chain Vest

Unlike BF Sword and Recurve Bow, Chain Vest is strong for different reasons. Bow and Sword are mainly used to increase your early game attack damage. Chain Vest, however, is a more defensive item that starts out a bit weaker, but can fit into many comps.

• Locket of the Iron Solari and Sunfire Cape are good early game items on any team comp
• Guardian Angel is a flexible defensive item on carries or strong frontline units
• Bramble Vest is an amazing defensive item
• Titan’s Resolve is also a great item that is good on tanks and carries.

Sparring Gloves

Going back on the offensive, Sparring Gloves is a strong item because it helps you build offensive items for either attack or magic damage carries. It can also build into great defensive items as well.

• Infinity Edge and Last Whisper are great damage items on many attack damage carries.
• Jeweled Gauntlet is also a great magic damage item on most carries.
• Quicksilver and Banshee’s Claw are amazing defensive items as well.

Needlessly Large Rod

Rod is still a strong starting item, but it is slightly less flexible than B.F. Sword. There are some stand out items, but these items mostly transition into magic damage comps, which are usually less flexible than attack damage comps. However, Rod can be a stronger item late game on some carries compared to Bow and Sword items.

• Locket of the Iron Solari and Guinsoo’s Rageblade are great early game items.
• Rabadon’s Deathcap and Jeweled Gauntlet are great magic damage items.
• Morellonomicon is a great utility item on almost every team comp.

We rate this item slightly lower than the items above simply because you don’t have great attack damage items to build other than Guinsoo’s Rageblade. Even still, if you really enjoy playing magic damage team comps, this can be the item for you.

Giant’s Belt

Much like Chain Vest, Giant’s Belt is a strong and flexible early game item. It doesn’t necessarily point you toward a specific comp, so you can choose this item if you like having flexibility. We like Chain Vest a bit better than Giant’s Belt, but this is still a solid item.

• Sunfire Cape and Zeke’s Herald are strong early items that can fit into any comp
• Morellonomicon is a unique item that is also very strong as long as you have the right unit to hold it.
• Warmog’s Armor is a great defensive item for a frontline tank.
• Zephyr is a very powerful item, but is more powerful late game when you can use it to its fullest.

Tear of the Goddess

Tear is another solid item, but the items cater more for magic damage carries instead of attack damage ones. Similar to Rod, if you want to play magic damage comps, go for these items as they build into important items for magic damage carries.

• Statikk Shiv is a great early game item that also provides a nice debuff.
• Chalice of Power is amazing in almost any team comp to provide more Ability Power for your carry.
• Blue Buff is a powerful item that turns some units into hyper carries like Katarina or Karma.

Spatula

While Spatula is a very powerful item, it can sometimes become a dead item. Starting with a Spatula can be very strong as it opens you up to a lot of powerful combinations. However, in the middle or toward the end of the game, this item can become a dud if you aren’t able to effectively use it in your team comp.

Negatron Cloak

Negatron Cloak is still a very solid item, but the item usually takes last pick over the other ones. Some notable items include:

• Bloodthirster is great for high damage carries to gain some lifesteal.
• Chalice of Power and Zephyr are great on any team, but don’t provide as much power early game.
• Runaan’s Hurricane is great for scaling the damage of carries that auto-attack.
• Gargoyle Stoneplate is great for making one unit into a hyper tank.

Later Carousel Rounds

After the initial carousel, you will have a few goals for the rest of the carousels in the game.

Carousel Stage 2-3:

In the two carousels after the initial, you will simply want to pick up an item component that you need. Getting an item component that you can use and combine immediately will add the most power to your team. You could also consider getting an item component that you really need but can’t build an item immediately.

Ideally, the item you need will be on a higher cost unit, but sometimes you may just have to take the 1-cost unit if it has the item you need.

Carousel Stage 4:

In this carousel, 4-cost units will begin to appear.

• If you are strong and healthy, prioritize getting the item component you need the most.
• But, if you are behind, you may want to pick up a 4-cost unit if it is a carry that will help you stabilize.
• Lastly, you see a 4-cost carry with an item you want, run straight for it.

Carousel Stage 5+:

In Stage 5, the Carousel will have only combined items. Be sure to keep this in mind when combining items before this point. You may not make it to the carousel in Stage 6, which will have both combined items and components. As such, make sure to combine what items you can.

5-cost units will begin appearing here, so also think about if a 5-cost will carry your team more than a specific item. Lastly, you may also want to see what items or units other players want. You can choose to take something your opponent wants to prevent them from getting stronger rather than getting something you want yourself.

Closing

This was my basic introduction to item starts and things to keep in mind for carousels. After a few games, you should get used to this mechanic and know what to do. Try testing out certain item component starts to see what works for you. Many top players prefer different starting items, so don’t be afraid to try out something new.

To learn about the new TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post Teamfight Tactics Guide: How to Make the Best Carousel Picks appeared first on Mobalytics.

If you’ve read any of my past articles, you will know that there is a strong tie between carries and the corresponding leveling strategy. This guide will go over all the popular leveling strategies and how to follow them.

When playing TFT, it is important to learn how to manage your economy, so if you don’t know the basics of economy yet, check out our basic economy guide here.

Leveling strategies are essentially a basic blueprint that determines when you should level and spend your gold. Keep in mind that these strategies are rarely followed step by step as every game requires adaptation and flexibility.

In TFT, there are currently four prevailing leveling strategies:

• Hyper Rolling
• Slow Rolling
• Regular Leveling
• Fast 8 (Occasionally Fast 7 or Fast 9)

All of these strategies have their corresponding team comps depending on the cost of the carries in the comp. While there are other ways to play the game, these are the most common strategies used by players of all skill levels.

Hyper Rolling

NOTE: With the updated rolling odds, hyper rolling is arguably not a viable strategy anymore. Most comps that rely on 3 star units now slow roll as it is more optimal. However, the strategy is still there for those who want to try it for slow roll comps depending on 1-cost units.

Focus:

The focus of hyper rolling is to spend lots of gold early to try and 3 star multiple 1 cost units. This ideally will lead to a win streak in the mid game, allowing you to catch up in levels to create a strong enough team comp for late game.

Game plan

Stage 2:
Stage 2 is all about finding your core units while making as much interest as possible. Since you spend all your gold early, it’s crucial to also earn a lot of gold to ensure you can hit your units.

Stage 3:
On Round 3-1 you can roll all of your gold in search for your 1 cost units. If you 3 star your main carry early you can stop rolling and use that to carry you back up to 50 gold. You can continue to slow roll your gold for other 1 cost units if you have 50+ gold.

Stage 4:
On Round 4-2 you will be 8 EXP from level 6. If you are missing some units or even your main carry, you can continue rolling to search for them and then proceed to level with your last 8 gold. Ideally you won’t have to do this, but if you were unlucky in your initial hyper roll you can do this as a last resort to hit your units.

Stage 5+:
By this point in the game, you should have all the 3 stars you want and should be focused on catching back up in levels. Level up to 7 when you have a good unit to put in, and save up gold for level 8 to complete your team comp. After this, focus on other things like counter positioning or counter itemization to try and place as high as possible.

Notes:

Hyper rolling can be quite risky, so make sure you scout your lobby early to see who is taking the units that you need. Furthermore, with hyper roll comps, you can choose to also slow roll instead at level 5 instead of rolling all your gold down at level 4 8/10 EXP.

This can be more consistent, but if you found many copies of your carry early, it can be worthwhile to hyper roll to start an early win streak and save health.

Slow Rolling

Focus:

Slow Rolling is the process where you roll your gold above 50 to slowly find the core units you need to 3 star. This often happens when your main carry is 1 or 2 cost. This strategy can be strong if you hit your units early, but can also be scary if you find your units too slowly and lose too much health in the process.

Game Plan

Stage 2:
Like Hyper Rolling, you should look to save up as much gold as possible during stage 2. However, with slow rolling, you shouldn’t only pick up the units you need or else you will bleed out. Try to use cheap and effective early game units to stay healthy without spending too much gold.

Stage 3:
Slow Rolling also depends on the main cost of your carry. For example, in Katarina Reroll, you want to find Katarina (2 Cost), so you slow roll at level 6. For X-Men, you want to find Malzahar/Cho’Gath (3 Cost), so you level up normally proceed to slow roll at level 7. If you are lose streaking up to when you hit level 7, you may want to consider rolling down to 40 or even 30 gold in order to stabilize your team with 2 star units before you begin to slow roll.

Note for 3-costs: If you are having an extremely lucky game where you are strong, you can opt to slow roll for 3-cost units at level 8. This helps as you get access to higher cost units, but it can be risky if you take too long to find your 3-cost units.

Stage 4:
If at any point you find yourself hitting around 30 health, it may be time to all in to find 3 star units before you bleed to death. If you were lucky enough to find your core units 3 star, you can begin to slow level up to 8 to complete your team comp.

Stage 5+:
Stage 5 will depend on what happened during stage 4. If you are on the brink of death, you can all in to find your units and try to land in the top 4. If you found your 3 stars and stabilized, you should look to hit level 8 and find more units to compliment your team.

Notes:

Like Hyper Rolling, you should scout your lobby to see if anyone also plans to go the same comp as you. If you are uncontested, you will find better success in finding your units.

Some comps utilize units that are 1 and 2 cost. For example, in My Garen Academia, you may want to slow roll at level 5 to find Garen, Graves, and Kassadin. If you are able to, you can use that power spike to reach level 6, and proceed to slow roll for Katarina.

Regular Leveling Strategy

Focus:

This leveling strategy is considered regular as it has been in the game for so long. This strategy plays the game quite “normally” and focuses usually on a 4 cost unit as the main carry. In the late game, these comps look to 5 cost units to strengthen the team, but does not center on a 5 cost unit. However, this strategy also will have the most variation as it plays depending on the units you find and the items you find.

Game Plan

Stage 2:
In Stage 2, you can try to win streak if you find lots of upgraded units or strong items. You can level to 4 on Round 2-1 if you have enough gold, or even 2-2 if you won the first round and found more upgraded units. If you continue your win streak, you can level up to 5 right after the carousel on 2-4 to try and continue your win streak.

Alternatively, if you don’t find strong units, you can simply lose streak and start to build up your economy without leveling up. At the Krugs, if you don’t feel like you can beat them at level 4, you can level up to 5 to ensure you get all the possible item drops. 

Stage 3:
If you are fortunate enough to have a win streak going into stage 3, you can level up 6 on 3-1 to secure your streak. If you are feeling strong enough or risky, you can also level up to 6 on 3-2 if you won the fight on 3-1 without leveling. With a win streak, you will be able to continue building up gold without rolling for units to hit level 7 and 8 to find your core units.

If you were lose streaking up to this point, you can level up to 6 on 3-2 to try and stop the bleeding. You can roll down a bit of gold here to try and stabilize, or try to ride out the lose streak if you are playing a bit riskier. As long as you didn’t lose every fight without killing a single unit, you shouldn’t be too afraid of dying at this point yet.

Stage 4:
At Round 4-1 almost every player (who’s not hyper rolling or slow rolling) will level up to 7. Regardless of whether you were win streaking or lose streaking, you should ideally also hit level 7 at this point.

If you have a lot of health or are still win streaking, you can choose to not roll and try to hit level 8 early. If you are low on health and have a weak board, you should roll some gold here at level 7 to stabilize your board and find 4 cost units to carry you back up.

Stage 5+:
Similar to Stage 4, on Round 5-1 almost every player (who’s not hyper rolling or slow rolling) will level up to 8. Level 8 is often considered the largest power spike as most comps find an optimal combination of units at level 8. Level 8 also provides a solid chance to find 5 cost units, and a good chance to find 4 cost units.

You should hit level 8 on this round and roll down your gold to complete your team. If you find all of your units 2 star, you can proceed to build your economy back up to try and hit level 9 to further strengthen your comp, and to find 2 star 5 cost units.

Notes:

“Regular” Leveling often utilizes 4 cost carries like Lux or Jhin, and has variations about how greedy you should be with your economy. If you were win streaking, you can opt to go Fast 8 and sacrifice some health to have better odds of finding your core units.

Similarly, if you were lose streaking, you can also choose to go Fast 8 as a last resort to stabilize.

If you were constantly floating in the middle, you might have a hard time discerning whether or not you should go Fast 8, as you might not have enough gold to do it reasonably.

As such, following this regular leveling strategy can be a good way to secure a consistent top 4 finish.

Fast 8 (Occasionally Fast 7 or Fast 9)

Focus:

Fast 8 is the process of leveling up to 8 early (usually on Round 4-3 or 4-5) as a way to find 4 and 5 cost units faster and easier than other players. In the past, some 5 cost units could solo carry a team, like Set 2 Zed, or Set 1 Kai’Sa.

In those metas, this strategy was a way to rush level 8 to find these strong units to carry your team. Currently, Fast 8 is more of an option from regular leveling depending on the circumstances of the game.

If you find yourself with a very powerful early and mid game, or have an amazing economy, you can choose to go Fast 8 with a regular comp, or use this gold to find lots of high cost units for a more powerful late game.

Game Plan

Stage 2:
In order to Fast 8, you will need lots of gold to do so. In stage 2, you follow a regular strategy by either committing to a win streak or a lose streak depending on the units you find.

Stage 3:
Similarly, Stage 3 also follows a similar strategy to regular leveling. The only caveat is that if you plan to Fast 8, you should not roll down at all at level 6 and continue to commit to your lose streak. If you lose your win streak, you usually will be healthy enough to lose rounds to continue saving gold.

Fast 7 Option: If you have a large amount of gold, you can level up to 7 early after the carousel on round 3-5. You usually will not roll after this, and this option is taken when you have a strong 7th unit to put in. This will also increase the odds you naturally find a 4 cost unit in the following few rounds. This option is either taken to continue a win streak, or to slow the bleeding from a lose streak.

Stage 4:
This stage is what you were waiting for. At round 4-3 you should be able to hit level 8 with approximately 30-40 gold left over if you were greedy and smart with your economy. After hitting level 8, you will roll down to find your core 4 cost carry and possibly 5 cost carries that compliment your team.

Alternatively, if you are still strong without rolling, you can level up to 8 and simply do nothing. The natural shop refreshes may contain core 4 or 5-cost units, and you can simply wait for 5-1 to roll down. If you’re bleeding out, however, definitely roll down early.

Stage 5+:
By 5-1, almost everyone in the lobby will be level 8, barring Hyper and Slow Roll comps. If you are lucky enough to high roll your entire team without rolling down too much at level 8, you can look to Fast 9.

In order to Fast 9, you simply save up your gold to hit level 9. If you were fortunate enough to complete your team during Stage 4, you can save up even earlier and hit level 9 way before other players can. This usually will only happen if you are on a win streak, but can happen if you high roll your units after hitting level 8 on 4-3 from a lose streak.

Notes:

If you are on a heavy win streak, Fast 8 can be a reliable way to finish top 2 or even first.

If you are on a heavy lose streak, Fast 8 can be a risky option to try and compete for first even after a terrible start. Unfortunately, if you are on a losing streak and don’t find your units even after Fast 8, this will likely result in a Fast 8th.

Lastly, you may feel strong enough to Fast 8 or even Fast 9 if you naturally find your core units. If there are other players playing your same comp, it may be smart to roll down anyway at levels 7 or 8 as they may take the copies of the units you need.

Additional Tips and Tricks

Remember to adapt

Regardless of whatever strategy you are playing, there will be games where the correct decision isn’t always a simple level up here and roll down here. The best players know about these strategies, but also follow the flow of the game and make adjustments when necessary.

For example, if you are hyper rolling, you might not know when you should level up to 7. Is it when you have enough gold? Or should you slow level to 7 to ensure you can hit level 8? There are many other intricacies that you should try and figure out for yourself. If you stray from a strategy, ask yourself if it worked or if it didn’t.

Figuring out your own playstyle

If you are able to understand the basics of every leveling strategy, you will be able to find a play style that suits how you want to play. If you like playing 3 certain comps, you can strategize about how you should level and roll to keep all three options open throughout the game.

Conversely, if you want to become a 1 trick, you can master one comp and figure out every intricacy to your leveling strategy. These strategies are only basic guidelines for how to play certain comps, but finding a playstyle for yourself will be the most rewarding and help you climb in your own unique way.

Use our overlay to help get started

If you are new and just starting out, it will be helpful to have a basic leveling strategy planned out for any comp you decide to play. To help with this, you can download our overlay to give leveling recommendations depending on the comp you decide to play.

To learn about the latest new TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post When and How to Level in TFT (Four Fundamental Strategies) appeared first on Mobalytics.

He’s maintained a top ladder position in NA for basically the entire set and finished with 5 1st place games out of 6 in the NA Regional Finals.

The meta shifted a lot throughout the set, and it was clear he mainly preferred to go for an AD comp like Aphelios or Draven for the Reckoning Championship patch.

In this interview, we’ll discuss his performance at the Reckoning Championship and other thoughts about the game as a whole.

For more details on his match history, check out Robinsongz’s TFT Profile.

If you missed the TFT Reckoning World Championship, catch the VOD on Twitch.

Mobalytics: What do you think you could have done better at Worlds? How different was the experience at the Championship compared to Regionals?

I could have prepared better – reached out to more people for coaching and getting different perspectives from different people. I leaned AD way too much when Vel’koz is one of my best comps.

The experience for Worlds was completely different than Regionals mainly due to the time difference. I had to adjust my sleep schedule to wake up around midnight and sleep in the afternoon.

The event was played from 2 AM – 6 AM and I was super not used to this.  All the tournaments I’ve played started in the afternoon, so my mental was definitely not in the best place.

Looking back at my games at Worlds, there were key mistakes I made that I probably would not have made if my mental was in a better place – I was more nervous than usual.

The pace of the game was also very different compared to Regionals.

My lobby had 4 Asian players and they rarely roll at 3-2, they don’t play for mid game – so Stages 2 and 3 were often super weak but come Stage 4, their boards would spike really hard and I wasn’t used to the tempo.

I lost A LOT of HP Stage 4.

In a podcast you appeared on, you spoke about how preparing for a tournament is mostly jamming a lot of games in. Do you feel you were well prepared for this tournament? Or did the tide simply not go your way this time around?

I wasn’t really prepared for this tournament mainly due to the shift in meta from Regionals patch to this.

Even though I jammed a lot of games in, my game plan was not very good so these games were very inefficient for preparing. It’s like you’re doing the wrong things over and over again.

I should have reached out to people who were climbing that patch and asked for help.

Leading up to the Championship, I went from 1800 LP to 1000 LP in a matter of 2 weeks but I just chalked it up to not playing seriously and trying out new things when in reality – the way I was playing was outdated.

I also didn’t get the best luck at Worlds, but I definitely could have made it to finals if I prepared better.

What did your strategy look like going into the tournament? At Regionals, you were very comfortable flexing between Jax and Lucian as your main strategies. You seemed to have a similar approach this tournament, except with Aphelios. What do you think was the missing factor in these games compared to Regionals?

My strategy going in was lean mainly AD, playing Draven/Lucian if given the boards, and Aphelios if high rolling. It’s not necessarily a bad strategy, but I realized why I’m not so good at Aphelios.

I am not that comfortable going fast 8 (level 8 on 4-5) and shine when I roll down at 4-1 level 7, then 5-1 level 8, the traditional style.

Back in Regionals, playing Lucian and Jax, I would roll at 4-1 pretty hard to stabilize.

At Worlds, when I was playing Aphelios, I would often not roll at level 7 and go straight 8 at 4-5, which was a crucial mistake I made for games 2 and 5.

I ended up losing 50+ HP on Stage 4 since it was an aggressive lobby with everyone rolling down at 4-1.

If I just rolled down at 4-1 like the rest of them, I would have made it to finals.

How do you feel about Kledge having the role it did at the Championship? For example, Milk forced 5 games of Kled in his lobby. Is it a necessary evil? Or do you think the game would be better without it?

I think Kled being that strong at Worlds was really bad.

When you hit with Kled you basically accelerate the lobby and win out almost every fight – mid-late game, it comes down to matchmaking RNG of who can face the Kled player least, and I think this is really unhealthy for the meta.

IMO Riot should have b-patched Kled, but it didn’t make Worlds UNPLAYABLE. If I was given the opener I would play Kled.

There’s honestly no counterplay to Kled other than dodging Kennens.

Of the four major regions (NA, EU, KR, CN), NA is now the only region to not have taken home a Championship title. In your recent podcast appearance, you ranked NA at the top of the region ranking – do you think NA is still the best region?

I think NA and EUW are still the best regions.

HUANMIE and QITUX are insanely good players, but I think the 4-1 rolldown meta extremely complimented their playstyles.

I don’t think me and SpencerTFT were playing at our best due to the time difference and Milk turning into a 1 trick.

I honestly don’t think this Worlds performance was a good representation of NA’s strength.

Where does Set 5 as a whole rank in your favorite sets so far (both enjoyment-wise and competitive)? Do you think having set mechanics with higher variance situations is a good direction for the game?

In terms of enjoyment, Set 5 probably comes a close second to Set 3, but competitive-wise, it’s probably my number one.

I was able to accomplish so much during this set that it will always be a special set to me – I got 2nd at MSI, 1st for Duos tourney, 1st at Regionals.

I wished I would have done a better job at Worlds to cap out an amazing set.

TFT is a unique esport due to its frequent changes, both with set updates and patch updates. Does this make being a pro TFT player something very difficult? Is it something you can imagine doing for years?

I think what makes a good TFT player is someone who can adapt to all these changes.

I for one was not able to adapt to the new meta and that is why I didn’t make it far in Worlds.

It’s something that I will take and learn from. I imagine myself competing in TFT for many years.

What advice do you have for any players trying to become a pro TFT player?

I would say don’t go into TFT trying to become a pro player.

Enjoy the game first, play the game a lot, actually want to improve at the game, and if you end up getting Rank 1 and starting a following on Twitch, then you can think about becoming pro.

Thanks for reading and a big thanks to Robinsongz for the interview! If you’d like to see more from him, check out his Twitch channel.

Catch Robinsongz live at https://www.twitch.tv/robinsongz

The post Robinsongz Interview on the State of TFT and Lessons Learned From Worlds appeared first on Mobalytics.

TFT has been out for over two years now, and the game has been constantly improving.

Even still, there are some game or system mechanics that I believe could still be improved. It may not be a priority for Riot to update these, but these are definitely on their radar.

In this article, I’ll be going over some faults in the system, and some ideas I have for improving them. These improvements won’t drastically improve the game, but they are a nice way to benefit player experience for both gamers and viewers.

I don’t claim to be a genius problem solver, so these solutions might not work, but I thought I’d put some ideas out there.

1. The Scouting System

Scouting has been a fundamental aspect of TFT for a long time. It’s a form of skill expression that allows players to squeeze out an edge against opponents.

While scouting is definitely a crucial part of the game, it is a bit vanilla in how it’s done.

Problems

Simple Answers

Sniping an enemy carry with a Zephyr can be done maybe once or twice, but once the enemy knows you have a Zephyr, it becomes very hard to snipe them.

A similar thing can be said about countering enemy comps. If the enemy has Assassins or a Vel’Koz, the best move to be would be to switch your backline to the other side.

However, if the enemy only needs to reposition one Assassin, this becomes a very difficult thing to do.

Bland Gameplay

Even in high-level gameplay, most players “fake” opponents by moving some of their units to the opposite side before moving back.

From most of the gameplay I’ve watched, this rarely leads to any benefit. In tense 1v1 situations, you can see very interesting movements, but they all resort to moving a couple units at the very last second.

Possible Solutions

Fog of War

Mortdog recently brought up a possible solution in his recent AMA Video. The game could implement a “Fog of War” system that hides the enemy board once there are only 5 seconds left in the preparation phase.

This allows players to optimally move their units around without worry of being hard countered at the last millisecond. I am very intrigued by this possibility, as in my opinion, it opens up more skill expression than simply seeing who can move units the fastest.

Enemy Shadow

One other feature that may help this issue is to allow an option to view enemy boards on your own board. This doesn’t directly solve the issues with scouting, but it gives a better viewing experience and also helps newer players scout easily.

With this feature, you won’t have to constantly switch back and forth between yours and enemy boards to position.

This feature could also show enemy movements in real-time, allowing you to swap around reactively.

2. The Item Orb Drops

The first 3 rounds of every TFT game play out the same. You fight a few weak creep rounds and they proceed to drop orbs that contain things like gold, champions, items, or more.

Problems

Running out of Time

Sometimes, you won’t have enough gold to buy out the shop, when an orb drops from the last minion on the far side of the board. You rush to grab it with your little legend, and can’t pick up the gold in time to buy the units in the shop.

This can also happen if the orb drops Champions, and you quickly have to decide whether to sell that Champion or not, sometimes within a couple seconds.

These decisions are often small and won’t affect every game, but there will be the occasional game where you wish you had a bit more time to make a decision based on the item drops you were given.

Randomized Drops

People have complained for a while about the RNG involved in how much gold you’re given in the early game. Considering how the interest system works, the more gold you get earlier on, the better off you usually are.

The drops are somewhat balanced between giving gold, items, or things like Neeko’s Help, so I don’t find this issue as much of a problem. At the very top level, players will often prefer a specific opener compared to others, but considering the game itself has a lot of built in variance, I don’t mind this mechanic so much.

Possible Solutions

Are Minions Necessary?

One thing the creep rounds do for players is give them time to make transitions as well as gain items. However, the minion system is very different now compared to before. Almost every team regardless of how weak you are can beat the minion rounds. As such, are they even a necessary component to the game?

One could argue that having creep rounds makes sure that players don’t simply open fort completely as they still need a team to defeat minions.

Early Drops

I don’t mind having minions in the game. They’re a fun little break from the PvP rounds, but the item orbs in my opinion should come a bit earlier in the round if possible.

Maybe instead of random drops from each minion, just have one loot orb that gives you your drops at the start.

The minions can stay the same, but this way, players are given more time to plan around what they get rather than spazzing to pick up items and do everything else they need to do.

3. The Matchmaking System

TFT is usually supposed to match you up against a “random” opponent every round, but players have figured out how the matchmaking system works.

Players who use third party tools, or who can keep track of their enemies very well can accurately predict who they will fight next round.

Problems

No Longer Random

The matchmaking system was never intended to be figured out by the community. Players were incentivized to position in a way that allowed them to win the most fights against the most enemies.

However, ever since the system was cracked, players found themselves with a large advantage given they spent the time to track their fights.

Some players will argue that this gives players more ways to show their skill. Even if the matchmaking system were changed, players will still likely not position against the last enemy they fought.

Even still, I think this system presents an issue to players new and old.

New players are at a large disadvantage without knowing the system, and even older players don’t always want to spend time tracking every match to scout to perfection.

Possible Solution

Unfortunately, I don’t have an easy solution for this system. I do believe that the matchmaking system needs an update, but I’m out of my depth in determining a new system that will be fair but still random.

Way back in Set 1, there were issues where players would constantly fight the same opponent, and the matchmaking system has come a long way from there.

Even still, I believe there is room for improvement. The matchmaking system should ideally be one that is untrackable, but still gives some room for skill expression.

Players should be able to assume that they won’t fight someone they recently fought, but it shouldn’t be with certainty.

Closing Thoughts

The game has come a long way since its release, and I’m confident that the game will only become better.

The dev team is constantly trying new things and testing different solutions, so I imagine that these problems won’t be around for too much longer.

Even if these problems aren’t fixed soon, the game is still in a very enjoyable state.

Frequent content updates and balance patches make the game a refreshing experience for many players around the world.

These were just a few small issues I believe are in the game that could use some time to update.

Thanks for reading! Head to our Team Builder to start theorycrafting and be sure to check our best meta comps to find another answer to climb!

To learn about the latest TFT Set 6, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post 3 TFT Mechanics That Need Updating appeared first on Mobalytics.

One of the core fundamentals of Teamfight Tactics is being able to manage your economy. If you have seen our build guides or any build guides, you will notice that often times, you need very specific units to make the best team comp you can.

Many times, players will often say “The hardest part of this build is finding the units” or “I never have enough gold to find my units and then I die.” While this can be true and you can have unlucky games, the best TFT players are able to consistently build the units they want because they manage their economy efficiently.

The single most important aspect of achieving consistent performance in this game is managing your economy and the strategic decisions around it. This article is going to cover the fundamentals and then break down three different approaches for economy management.

If you want to learn other fundamentals that are critical for learning TFT, be sure to check out our Absolute Beginner guide as well.

The Fundamentals of TFT Economy

Let’s start with the basics. If you’re a new player, focus on learning these fundamentals:

• The first few rounds, you’ll gain increasing gold every round starting from 2 gold up until a base of 5 gold per round.
  • Starting from round 1-2, you will receive 2-2-3-4 gold, and then 5 gold every round after that.
• You collect interest for every 10 gold you have up until 50. Interest is calculated at the very end of the round and ranges from 1-5 gold.
  • So if you have 30 gold when the round ends you’ll get an extra 3 gold. (Here Vi is sold to reach the 10 gold interval)

• There are win streaks and lose streaks in the game. If you are on either you will gain extra gold.
  • 2-3 win/lose streak: 1 extra gold
  • 4 win/lose streak: 2 extra gold
  • 5+ win/lose streak: 3 extra gold

Knowing the above information, there are three basic ways to play each game of TFT. Knowing what style to take and how to adjust it is the beauty of the game, and what sets apart the master from the good player.

For this article, we won’t go into too much detail but will instead focus more on conceptually giving you the tools you need to be successful. The three main approaches mirror playstyles you would find in other games of strategy (if you are an RTS veteran, now is your time to shine):

• Aggressive Economy: This focuses on power spiking early and win-streaking, punishing greedy opponents, and hopefully solidifying an advantage into late game.
• Greedy Economy: This sacrifices the early game to get you more overall gold, access to higher tier units earlier, and more chances to reroll.
• Balanced Economy: Weaker than both extremes, but with this type of economy, you can win any game if you make good decisions and are favored by fortune.

1. Aggressive Economy

The goal of this strategy is to spend as much gold as possible early on to gain an advantage. That means rerolling to find key units to upgrade and leveling early in order to gain win streak gold.

Gameplan:

Reroll aggressively in the early levels to get the units that you want to rank up. This is usually an S-tier unit (check out our TFT champion tier list) you can build a composition around and have already received a few of.

Once you have gotten the units upgraded, you want to level up to put in other units you have ranked up so that you can keep your advantage. An example of this is placing two silver ranked units that you want to later combine onto the board.

The next thing you have to master is making sure that you know when your unit lead is strong enough to carry you for a while, and then to stop spending and start saving. This is something you can pick up with experience.

Examples:

It’s the first PvP round (2-1) and you have 3 pairs. You win the first round somehow and next round you upgrade 2 units and find a good 4th unit. You then decide to roll a bit to find upgrades and then level up to put in your 4th unit.

Slow rolling teams are a slightly different example. These builds slowly roll their gold above 50 to hit 3 star units as their main carries.

In these builds, the power spike comes during stage 3 if you are able to hit 3 star units. After 3-2, you will save up your money once again to either keep rolling or to slowly level to catch up to the rest of the lobby.

Strengths:

TFT has aspects that can make an aggressive start very potent:

• Due to rolling odds, low-cost units are easier to find at lower levels, allowing you to more easily find upgrades if you spend early. (check the chart for Set 3 below).

• Playing aggressively will allow you to build a win streak and regain the gold you spent while also maintaining a high health pool.
• You will punish greedy economy opponents with your strong team early on. If the speed of the meta is very slow, you can gain an advantage and place top 4 by playing aggressively to counter the meta.

Weaknesses:

With any strategy, there will be weaknesses involved that can punish an aggressive start:

• If you spend your money early and are unlucky and don’t find upgrades, you may be royally screwed. No money + no upgraded units = Top 8.
• If another player ruins your win streak, you may not gain enough gold to recover in the mid and late game.
• Your team will likely fall off late game, unless you are able to gain enough gold and naturally find strong late game units.
• Win streaking early will allow you to maintain high HP, but this will also mean you may not get the item components you want from carousel, leaving yourself at the hands of RNG.

When should I be aggressive?

Think of this as an all-in play. It’s high risk but can be high reward. If you don’t level up the units you were targeting, it can be disastrous.

• If you get a great roll on an early S- tier unit and want to build around it. (See team comps for slow roll builds).
• If you get great item components (refer to our TFT item tier list) and have a carry like Xin Zhao that you are close to upgrading.
• If you see a lot of people playing slow (this can be hard if you are inexperienced).
• If you feel comfortable knowing when to switch to saving.
• If you are a hot blooded person and want to crush your enemies swiftly.

2. Greedy Economy

This strategy relies on getting to the 50 gold threshold as fast as possible so you can start raking in that maximum interest. From one perspective, being greedy is actually quite reliable, since you can’t always control whether you win or not, but you can ALWAYS control how much you lose.

Gameplan:

You want to make sure that you are hitting your interest thresholds as soon as possible. That means you aren’t buying much at all outside of really strong core units that you think you will need.

You don’t want to level up before you reach 50 gold either and have accrued your first interest. Every gold you spend early will cost you time and interest before you hit the threshold.

Be careful though. You want to field a strong enough team to not lose too much HP and to not lose to creeps. Losing to creeps will make you miss out on valuable items. Feel free to equip strong finished items on units you know you are going to sell and use them as item holders before you find your carry.

Also, remember that you can buy units when you can’t reach an interest threshold and then sell them to reach the interest threshold next round. You should be doing this in case you can make a pair into a 2 star unit.

Example:

You have three units on the board at round 2-1, 8 gold in the bank, and 2 units on the bench. You quickly assess the upcoming fight and realize that you won’t win by a long shot. You decide to sell everything on the bench, go to 10 gold and continue to lose streak until 50 gold.

Once at 50, you level to 6, pick up Kayle and put your items on her. You start winning, level to 7, and keep rerolling to build around your Kayle all while staying above 50 gold.

Once it looks like you are close to dying, or around 30 HP, you spend all your gold either rerolling or hitting level 8 and then rerolling.

Strengths:

There are several advantages that work in your favor when you are being greedy.

• GOLD! You have more overall gold to work with by the end of the game
• It’s fairly easy to maintain a lose-streak into the mid game since your units will likely be weaker than teams that opted to look for early upgrades.
• If you find lots of natural upgrades, you can both win streak and greed your gold, putting you in great late game position.
• You have priority on the carousel and can pick units/items that fit your plans.
• You have the ability to see what your opponents are building before you commit to a composition.
  With more gold, you are more likely to find high cost units in the late game.

Weaknesses:

Just like Aggressive Economy, playing greedily brings its own problems.

• Even if you are able to stabilize your team in the late game, one bad loss can take what little HP you might have left over.
• Depending on how many players play aggressively, you might take too much damage to even make it to the late game.
• You might not be able to reroll your gold fast enough in the late game to ensure you can stay alive once your HP dips too low.

When should I be greedy?

You can almost always rely on this strategy to get you to a certain point. The difficulty is understanding how to balance your HP loss with your gold gain and when you should spend to go under the 50 gold threshold.

• You have a bad hand to start and can’t really make any 2 star units to contest your opponents.
• You are a bit more experienced and prefer having a lot of gold to make decisions from a late game position with intelligence on your opponents.
• You understand breakpoints with income and levels really well. You never want to level with 2 exp carry over, and you don’t want to miss your income threshold.
• You know how to dump gold fast and can see that moment before it’s too late by assessing your rounds.
• You only want to hard force 1 build every game, and thus play greedily to ensure you find the right units every game.

3. Balanced Economy

This is what most other games would consider a standard opening. You don’t want to limit your options early by committing to an econ strategy, and you want to be able to pick up important units while being able to hit interest thresholds and level at a steady rate.

Unfortunately, this is also the hardest strategy to play, since you have to know what to pick up, what to keep, when to sell, when to level, and when to cross interest thresholds. That’s why mastering one of the other economic strategies can lead to quicker results for you since you are playing a specific strategy really well.

Gameplan:

You want to make smart moves to steadily progress in level and economy. Buy strong units, keep pairs, and only level or reroll if you have a specific purpose in mind.

Don’t spend gold early unless you naturally hit units and want to win streak by leveling. Alternatively, if you low roll, you will likely want to lose streak the beginning of the game to get more gold. Don’t lose too hard, though, since you don’t want to lose too much HP early.

You want to recognize your win streaks and lose streaks and play accordingly. Leveling during a losing streak when you are below 50 gold makes no sense since you want to keep losing and are in no rush to make your board stronger.

Example:

In the early game you’ll often find yourself holding many pairs. In most scenarios, you will want to start making interest as early as possible. In this picture, my pairs indicate that I’m most likely to find Brawler upgrades. As such, I can sell Garen or one of the Cultist units in order to hit 10 gold.

As the game progresses, I can look to only pick up certain units that transition well into and out of Brawlers. This way, I can save gold by selling my other Cultist units.

Strengths:

Flexibility and ability to win most games.

• Being able to lean more towards a greedy or aggressive economy at any point based on your rolls and your opponents can be very powerful.
• Keeps your options open for different unit opportunities during the early to mid game.
• Can lose streak or win streak depending on the game state.
• You have the tools you need to stand up to aggressive opponents while still somewhat keeping up with passive opponents in the late game.
• Once mastered, you will quickly adapt to any meta or patch changes

Weaknesses:

While being an “ideal strategy,” the ideal decisions aren’t always made.

• While you have the best of both worlds in terms of aggressive and greedy playstyles, you also suffer both weaknesses.
• Making the wrong decision can ruin your economy making it extremely difficult to recover.
  • A semi-aggressive start that flops will make it extremely hard to recover.
  • A semi-greedy start can lose too much HP before you are able to recover.
• By not fully committing to a strategy, you may find yourself in awkward situations where full commitment would have resulted in a better result.
• Being able to adapt constantly to enemy boards, given units, items, etc will be a very steep learning curve.

When should I be balanced?

This strategy is like a swiss army knife. If you know how to weave between different options, you can easily be successful with this strategy in any situation.

• If you are experienced and understand the different conditions that you can take advantage of at different critical rounds.
• If you have a reasonable start, but not stellar and don’t want to commit to anything just yet.
• If you have a strong grasp of all the different compositions in the game and can switch between them based on the rolls you are getting.
• If you are good at scouting opponents and building appropriately.

Bonus Advanced Tips

Ideal strategies often are reactions to the meta.

If you’ve been playing TFT throughout set 2, or throughout any set really, you might have been in a situation where one patch you just can’t seem to win, whereas another patch you were dominating.

You understand what strong team comps are and try to build them, but have trouble adjusting. What you might not have realized is that economy playstyles often adjust with what meta comps are strong.

Example:

In set 2, patch 9.24B was a patch where late game units like Amumu and Nami were built into almost every comp. Units like Olaf, Kha’Zix, and Brand were all very strong.

Because of this, players often played semi-greedy and prioritized gold and leveling to hit these high level units. Players often leveled up to 7 and 8 earlier and didn’t roll much before then.

Contrast patch 9.24B with 10.1, where Azir and Sivir along with blademasters are some of the most potent carries in the game. Because of this, games have become a lot faster.

More players roll down at level 6 to look for strong 3-cost units. As a result, slower comps that revolve around 4 or 5 cost units may have trouble keeping up.

With this in mind, players should try to learn the ins and outs of playing both greedily and aggressively as they will adapt faster to meta changes in their playstyle.

Playing for Top 4

Some games you just won’t find the items you need and the champs that you need. Because of this, lots of players will often opt to ditch their basic leveling or rolling strategy and just decide to all in.

Example:

You just hit level 7 and roll down but fail to find upgrades on half of your team. You proceed to lose a round or two and fall down to 30-40 HP or lower. While you could continue to build your economy to eventually hit level 8, you can instead decide to continue rolling to ensure you are at least able to make top 4 or even 5th or 6th place.

Some games test your ability to practice loss mitigation. Rebuilding your economy and praying you high roll units can be a strategy that will net you a higher placement, but some games you have to learn when it’s time to cut your losses and try to mitigate the LP loss you are likely to receive.

Correct decision vs. Optimal decision

Sometimes, you may make a decision that will be the wrong one in hindsight. Maybe you are at 8 gold and decide to sell your Fiora pair when a Lucian and Fiora pop up in the shop immediately after..

In these situations, don’t tilt as the decision you made may have been the most optimal one at the time. Had Lucian not shown up in the shop, your decision would have been correct.

Hindsight will always make you question your decisions, but try to review your decisions as optimal rather than correct in hindsight.

Conclusion

These are the major ways to think about economy. I provided you with the basics but the beauty of a game like this is all the different opportunities that present themselves.

Autopiloting the same strategies and relying on memorization will get you nowhere, but mastering the fundamentals and understanding how to build on them with a style that works is a sure path to victory. Good luck out there!

We hope you enjoyed this economy guide! For team comps, tier lists, champion info, and more, be sure to check out our TFT site!

The post How to Manage your Teamfight Tactics Economy (Three Fundamental Strategies) appeared first on Mobalytics.

The third qualifier for Set 4.5 had just occurred last week, and GrandVice8 was able to secure the top spot for the qualifier.

The meta in patch 11.2 was very interesting as the patch evolved with many reroll comps becoming viable.

In this article, I’ll be going over each of GV8’s games and how he managed to secure that first place finish.

Keep in mind that the qualifier took place during patch 11.2, so many of the comps you see might be stronger or weaker depending on the current patch of the time you are reading this.

Even if the analysis is from an old patch, you can always stay up to date with the meta comps by using our overlay to give you guidance on all of the meta comps in-game.

Game 1: Kayle and Friends 1st Place

Note: GV8 had two Ornn artifacts on his units. Kayle: Infinity Force and Lee Sin: Randuin’s Sanctum 

GV8 started the game out very strong with a top 1 finish with a Kayle comp. Kayle is still one of the best 4 cost carries in the current patch, and it was largely the same in 11.2. While this comp doesn’t have anything out of the ordinary, there were a few major factors that allowed GV8 to secure first with this comp. Let’s go into a few key aspects.

Chosen: Kayle (Divine)

The first thing to note is that GV8 was able to find a Chosen Kayle at level 8. This was the best case scenario for him as hitting your main carry as Chosen is especially important for late game fights. He was able to do this largely because he set up a strong economy by win streaking through the early game.

Leveling Strategy: Default (Aggressive)

In the first match, GV8 followed a default leveling strategy by leveling up to 4 early and then leveling up to 5 after the carousel on 2-4. In this match, it was quite successful as it netted him a solid win streak that eventually broke after 4 wins.

Even though his streak broke in Stage 3, he was able to continually maintain a strong team that kept him above 80 health for a majority of the game. This allowed him to comfortably build a strong economy until he would eventually roll down at level 8.

GV8 hit level 8 at Stage 4-5 and waited until 5-1 before selling off his early game Chosen unit and rolling down for a late game carry. In this game, that led to him finding a Chosen Kayle which then led to his first place finish.

Itemization: Flexible

In the early game, GV8 built two items early on. Sunfire Cape and Chalice of Power. With this, we can see why he went for an aggressive win streak start. Sunfire Cape allowed him to be confident in his early game strength, while Chalice also provides more bonus stats while still being flexible in many comps.

The major downside of playing items too flexibly is that you often are not able to build champion specific items like Hextech Gunblade for Aurelion Sol or Rapid Firecannon for Kayle. In this game, that was not an issue as Kayle was still able to carry even with suboptimal items.

Game 2: 6 Elderwood 6th Place

Unfortunately, in Game 2, GV8 faltered a bit with a 6th place finish and a team comp that looks very incomplete. The idea for this game was similar to Game 1, except he was unable to maintain a strong win streak and lost quite a bit of health going into Stage 5.

Chosen: Xayah (Executioner)

In this game, GV8 was still able to find a solid Chosen carry in Xayah, but he simply did not have the gold to finish off the rest of the team. He was unable to finish the 6 Elderwood synergy and was also seemingly looking for Aurelion Sol to hold the items that Veigar has.

Leveling Strategy: Default (Aggressive)

Unfortunately, the qualifier vod did not show much of GV8’s early game, but we do know that he initially built Guinsoo’s Rageblade and attempted to start an early win streak with it. However, he dropped his streak right before Krugs, and for the rest of the game, he would win and lose rounds without building either streak.

This is a game the showcased the opposite of Game 1. You can be successful with your streak and put yourself in a great position to win, or you can fail your streak attempt and play the game fighting for any placement that’s not 8th.

Itemization: Somewhat Flexible

We weren’t able to see what items he built as what specific times, but we can tell a lot about his playstyle from his first item built. Building Rageblade early on is an alright choice for a win streak, but it’s nowhere near as strong and as flexible as Sunfire Cape.

He once again built buffing items like Chalice and Zeke’s, which are very flexible and likely were built either in the mid game or with extra items. The items he had on Xayah and Veigar were all good items, but he simply just did not have the gold to find the right units to hold his items.

Game 3: Spirit Assassins 3rd Place

This game wasn’t anything particularly special. GV8 was able to find an early Chosen Diana, which he then used to play the common reroll Diana comp. A 3rd place finish with this board is still quite respectable as the comp could have fallen off more considering he played a somewhat non-optimal variant.

Chosen: Diana (Spirit)

As previously mentioned, this comp is nothing new and by now is quite common in the meta. The biggest downfall of getting a Chosen Spirit Diana is that you will not be able to fit in 6 Assassin unless you have a Spatula. This was unfortunately the case in this game, and he ended up running two Yuumi’s and a Janna to fit in Mystic and Enlightened.

Leveling Strategy: Slow Roll at 5

As with most 1 cost carries, you will either choose to slow roll at level 5, or hyper roll at round 3-1. In this game, he had 5 copies of Diana at round 3-1, and opted to slow roll instead of hyper roll. This may be because he wanted to be more consistent or he felt that he didn’t have enough copies to hit Diana 3.

However, what was VERY interesting was that GV8 actually leveled up to 5 at round 3-1. I can only assume this is either a visual bug in the VOD or he accidentally miskicked a level. Either way, he was still able to find Diana 3 by round 3-6 which is what I would consider to be an average timing.

After hitting Diana 3, he leveled up to 6 and then committed all of his gold to hitting level 7 at round 4-2. In higher elo, it’s not uncommon for players to spend more gold hitting level 7 to catch up.

It also is less important for this comp to hit level 8, as he does not have a super important unit to put in. Even so, he was able to win streak through all of Stage 4 and put himself in a comfortable position during Stage 5.

Itemization: Comp Specific

As with all reroll comps, you want to commit your items onto your 1-cost carry early to apply pressure to enemy teams. While he wasn’t able to provide pressure in the early game, once he hit Diana 3, the items and pressure started to hit other players who were likely saving up gold for level 8.

He first built Hand of Justice, then Infinity Edge, and then went on to build the rest of his items. There isn’t much to analyze here as since he committed to his comp early, he could also commit items to his specific carries.

If there was one thing to note, it is that he didn’t build more items for any secondary carry like Talon or Akali. If he had tried to commit more items onto Talon or Akali, he could have had a stronger late game team and possibly finish 2nd or 1st.

However, that may not necessarily be true. He didn’t have the greatest early game, so building the best items he could at the time may also have been the optimal decision. A 3rd place finish is nothing to scoff at and he clearly was able to put enough pressure on enemies in Stage 4 that allowed him to finish 3rd.

Game 4: Ninja Assassins 1st Place

Up next we have a comp that is not extremely common in the meta. This comp revolves around hitting Akali 3 star, which GV8 did. However, most players would still opt to run the Diana Assassin comp and possibly hit Akali 3 in those games rather than hitting Akali 3 in a regular leveling game.

Chosen: Akali (Assassin)

GV8 very likely decided to play this comp when he found a Chosen Akali. He also was able to build Infinity Edge and Rapid Firecannon which are the core items for Akali. It’s very uncommon for players to play this sort of build as you rely on hitting Shen in order to run all of your Ninjas or else they become dead weight on your bench.

But as you can see, the risk paid off as GV8 was able to secure a 1st place finish with this comp.

Leveling Strategy: Default (Aggressive)

This game followed a similar pattern to Game 1 and 2 of the qualifier. He leveled up to 4 early and tried to build an early win streak. This time around, his first item built was Zeke’s Herald paired alongside a Chosen Wukong. This start was very close to landing him a perfect Stage 2 win streak, but he dropped it just before Krugs.

For Stage 3, he didn’t build up any strong streak, but he didn’t lose as much health as he did in Game 2. Once he hit level 7 in Stage 4, I assume that he sold off Wukong in order to find a better Chosen. It was at this point he found Akali and began rolling down more to find additional copies. By round 4-5, he had 8 copies of Akali and about 10 gold.

Instead of donkey rolling for Akali 3, GV8 then decided to play it safe and saved up gold to hit level 8 at round 5-3. This was quite risky as he not only leveled up later than most of the lobby, but there was still no guarantee he would hit Akali 3. Luckily, he was able to hit Akali 3 shortly after and was able to finish in 1st place.

Itemization: Unclear

Unfortunately the qualifier vod doesn’t show too much about what items he built throughout the game. We know that he built Zeke’s Herald first as a way to try and win streak. He also was then able to build Rapid Firecannon and IE onto Akali in Stage 4. The rest of the items were likely last minute slams or items picked up from carousel.

At this point, we can see that GV8 and other players in the lobby as well really like building Zeke’s and Chalice throughout the game. If the component isn’t necessary for their carry, they’ll go ahead and slam one of these onto a unit. In GV8’s case, he is ready to slam Zeke’s as his first item as he knows it will be useful in basically every team comp.

Game 5: 8 Brawlers 2nd

This last game was a nail biter. GV8 was poised to take the top spot, but the early and mid game was quite shaky for him. With some clutch rolls and carousel pickups, he was able to scrap is way to 2nd, barely losing out to a Kayle 3 in the final round.

Chosen: Shyvana (Brawler)

GV8 started out the game with a Chosen Tahm Kench and tried to build his win streak from that. Eventually, he was able to sell that off and trade that in for a Chosen Shyvana Brawler which is the perfect Chosen for what he was initially building. He also was able to get very strong items on Shyvana, making this comp a possible first if it wasn’t for the Kayle 3.

Leveling Strategy: Default (Aggressive)

Once again, we see GV8 level up to 4 early and try to start a win streak. He was very unsuccessful this time, much like in Game 2, but fortunately, he was able to turn it around by the end game.

Once the lobby hit level 7, we can deduce that GV8 rolled down quite a bit to look for a good Chosen, much like how he did with Akali 3 in Game 4. Only this time, he was able to find Shyvana Chosen and built around her instead. What was different about this game was that he did not opt to save up for level 8 and instead decided to keep rolling for Shyvana 3.

The main reason for this was that he was able to get a Sett off the carousel in Stage 4. This allowed him to hit 8 Brawler and did not force him to look for Sett at level 8. This turning point was huge as he was at the bottom of the lobby with 22 HP at this point in the game. Shortly after, he was able to find Vi 3 and Shyvana 3, which allowed him to save up for level 8 to add in another Sett.

Itemization: Somewhat Flexible

Once again we see that he prioritizes strong items like Sunfire Cape, Chalice of Harmony, Rapid Firecannon, and Hand of Justice. We don’t know the exact order of how he built these items, but we do know that all of these items are very flexible. Sunfire and Chalice fit into every team comp, Hand of Justice can go on any carry, and RFC goes onto a lot of carries as well.

We’ve seen him play Kayle, Akali, and Shyvana who all use this item very well. While RFC doesn’t fit into every comp, we can see that he plays comps that use the item very well.

Additional Comments:

If there was one thing I did not think was optimal on GV8’s play this match, it was the decision to not frontline Sett. His reasoning behind this is one, to use Chalice to buff up Shyvana, and two, that Sett was only 1 star so he might not be tanky enough to be in the front.

Even still, I believe that front lining Sett might have made a difference. Even if Sett is unable to cast his ability, the sooner he goes to do sit-ups, the sooner he comes back dealing true damage.

However, this is just a very minuscule detail that I would have done differently. But, considering he’s the one who won the qualifier, I am more likely to be in the wrong here.

Overall Playstyle

After watching these 5 games, we can see a clear strategy that GV8 and most of the players in the lobby used. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, but it’s interesting to note the patterns that repeated in each of his games.

Leveling

In 4 out of his 5 games, GV8 opted to level up early to try and start a win streak. He slammed almost any item he could, and for the most part, it worked out. If he was successful in building his win streak, he could comfortably hit level 8 and look for a carry like in Game 1.

If it didn’t work out, he would spend more resources rolling at level 7 for a 3 cost carry like Shyvana or Akali. It’s also possible that he could have hit a 4-cost carry at level 7, it just didn’t pan out that way in these games.

The only time GV8 didn’t level up early, was when he committed to Diana reroll. We don’t know what his priorities were regarding which reroll comps he would play, but we can deduce a few things. It’s very likely that Diana was his first Chosen and that’s what made him decide to commit. If he had hit any other decent Chosen, he likely would have bought it and tried to level aggressively to win streak, as he did in his other 4 games.

Itemization

For the most part, GV8 seems to slam a lot of early game items. He especially likes buffing items like Chalice of Power and Zeke’s Herald, but he also looked to build items like Hand of Justice and RFC. We can’t look too in depth at his item choices, but these seemed to be what he gravitated toward.

Even though these games were played in patch 11.2, a lot of these things still hold true in patch 11.3. Reroll comps are still very meta, and these item choices are still very strong on their respective carries and team comps.

Conclusion

To wrap things up, we can see that GV8 plays a very aggressive style of TFT. Playing the early game aggressively is very common and consistent, as you are less likely to go 8th than if you lose streak or open fort.

It’s important to note that playing this type of style really tests a player’s ability to play many comps. When lose streaking, you try to build an optimal team to make a comeback for a high finish. When playing aggressively, you are open to any and all champions and items that come your way.

Playing the latter requires a deep knowledge of the champions and how to transition between the stages of the game.

GV8 has shown early on in this Set how proficient he is with all of the changes and meta adaptations. It will be interesting to watch the next qualifier to see if he can continue to perform at this level.

Thanks for reading! To see all of the best TFT comps you can target while you play, download our free TFT overlay!

The post TFT Set 4.5 Cloud 9 Qualifier Tournament Player Analysis: GrandVice8 (Stage 3 Games 1-5) appeared first on Mobalytics.

Playing a game of TFT comes with many twists and turns. You may start out the game with the perfect units for a specific comp.

Then in the late game, you won’t hit any of your high-cost units that you need.

Conversely, you can start out the game with absolutely no direction. All of a sudden, the perfect carries and units start filling up the shop.

Picking the right comp to play in a game is crucial to having success. Unfortunately, or fortunately (depending on who you talk to), forcing the same comp every game is much more difficult than it was in previous sets.

With the Chosen mechanic in the game, players are encouraged to play around what they find to maximize their chances of success.

In this article, I’ll be going over how I personally pick what comp to play, how to use your Chosen unit effectively, and how to remain consistent over multiple games.

Items and Limiting Factors

Picking a comp can be very simple, but it can also be a tough decision. The first requirement I look to is items.

If I want to play a certain comp, I need to know if I can hit the required items for the comp.

Item Requirements

For example, if I want to play Spirit Slayers, I know that I need to build Rapid Firecannon. I can still try to go for the comp without RFC, but I may regret that decision if I am unable to build it by Stage 5.

It is also important to know which items are required for the comp, and which items can be replaced with others.

In order to play it safe, you should ensure that you have a few of your core item components by Stage 3. If I commit to this comp with no Recurve Bow, I am taking on too much risk.

It’s much easier to pivot into a different comp than to rely on hitting a specific item.

Flexible Items

If you struggle with deciding on a comp based on your items, you may find yourself saving your items for too long.

This will decrease your team’s strength and hurt you the longer you take to decide.

As such, there are always a few powerful items that you can build that fit into many comps.

Sunfire Cape is the best example of a flexible item. This item is very strong early on and can be used in any comp.

While we only have it as a core item in Elderwood comps, the reality is that you can build this on any team comp. This item is great on units like Pyke, Jarvan, Rakan, Assassins, or even Shen.

Sunfire Cape is the prime example of an early game item slam that doesn’t make you committed to any specific comp.

If you can use this item to build a win streak, you will have a much easier time transitioning into a comp with more health and gold.

Using Chosen Effectively

One of the biggest mistakes players make when it comes to the Chosen mechanic is not making the most out of it.

Chosen is a very strong mechanic that you can use to your advantage throughout the game. It’s not something you pick up early and forget about.

Here are some things to keep in mind to make the most of the Chosen mechanic.

Early Game Chosen Pickups

One of the best ways to use Chosen is to pick up an early unit to try and win streak. You instantly get a 2-star unit with a bonus trait.

The difference early game between a team with Chosen and a team without is glaring. You can high roll and find lots of upgrades, but players who pick up an early Chosen will be much stronger on average than players who hold out.

For instance, if I want to play a game with 6 Elderwood, I might pick up an early Chosen Lulu or Maokai with Chosen Elderwood.

This sets me up to be in a strong position to play this comp, but there are two mistakes players make in this situation.

1. By picking an early Chosen, you can tunnel vision into going for one specific comp. If you are unable to hit Xayah or Aurelion Sol, you will struggle even if you had a strong early game with a Chosen Elderwood.
2. You are able to secure the units you need for the team comp, but you hold onto your early game Chosen. Even if you have a Chosen Elderwood Lulu, you would gain so much more if you were able to get a Chosen Aurelion Sol or Xayah.

So how do you fix this problem?

Selling your Chosen

The simple answer is to not commit to a team comp based on what Chosen unit you find early on. The key here is the phrase “early on.”

It may sound counter-intuitive, but a lot of the strongest team comps this set don’t rely on any one specific Chosen trait or unit. Instead, they have many options or sometimes don’t require a Chosen unit at all.

Let’s take a look at this Warlord comp. Having a Chosen Warlord helps you out during the mid game when you transition into 6 Warlords.

However, the final team comp does not rely on having that Chosen Warlord. If I find a Chosen Warlord Garen early game, I can build around that to try and build a strong team and win streak.

However, I can still go for this comp without a Chosen Warlord. Maybe I find a Chosen Keeper Jarvan, or a Chosen Assassin Pyke, or a Chosen Vanguard Garen.

All of these options are solid units that you can use but don’t tie you down to a specific comp. It will be easier to transition into certain comps over others, but the idea is to remember that you have options.

Don’t Commit too Early

The main point of this section is to not commit to a comp simply because you found a Chosen unit early and want to settle. For some slow roll comps like Diana or Yasuo, this is a legitimate tactic, but what I’m saying applies to comps that level and roll normally.

You should try to pick up early game Chosen units and build the strongest team you can around them. Once you hit a major level like 7 or 8, sell off your Chosen in order to fish for a better one. You might find an ideal carry like Olaf or Kayle and decide to build around that.

The game rewards you for being able to make decisions on the fly and adapt to your shop. By committing to a comp based on the first Chosen you see, you are setting yourself up for inconsistency.

Remaining Consistent

When trying to be consistent with your games, you need to remember one very important fact. No matter how good you are, you cannot top 4 every single game you play.

There will be games where you complete your comp, but other players just high roll harder. There will be games where you do everything right, but the best you can manage is 6th. It’s a part of the game.

TFT as a game has a lot of RNG variables. The challenge as a player is to navigate those variables into the best possible result.

How do you do that? I believe that for Set 4 and 4.5, the biggest skill you can learn is how to play flexibly. This means learning how to decide which comp to play, how to efficiently use your Chosen unit, etc. All the things I covered above.

Final Thoughts

If you’re still newer to the game or still consider yourself a beginner, it can be challenging to navigate all these variables. It becomes even harder when you learn that you have so many different team comp options you can choose from. The best advice I can give is to take it one step at a time.

Try out one comp one game. Ask yourself what worked or what didn’t work. Try out another comp, repeat, repeat.

Over time, you will slowly gain knowledge about what units transition into what comps. What items you can build early that fit into multiple options, etc.

It’s not easy to play flexibly and know what comp to play, and it’s much easier to just pick a comp and try it out.

However, if you really want to improve at the game, you need to take the next step and optimize every decision you make during the game.

If you need help learning all of the different team compositions and variations, be sure to check out our TFT overlay for an in-game helper. This will make the process of learning multiple comps go by much faster.

Thanks for reading! To see all of the best TFT comps you can target while you play, download our free TFT overlay!

To learn about the latest TFT Set with newly released game mechanics hextech augments, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

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