It sure has been a long time since I've posted a dynasty here. I have no idea if anyone will read this but in the past writing things down helps me either way. My hyperfocus kicked in hard on a game I've been playing for awhile with pretty good success, and I'm trying to dedicate myself big time to the next set of the Riot Games Auto-Battler Teamfight Tactics (most of the time to be referred to as TFT). I'm ranked highly (Master for those that know the riot system) and participate in a small $$ league most sets. I don't know if I have it in me to take the leap needed to get up into the top level esports scene for the game, but I'm hoping to take Set 9 very seriously and see what happens.
The Jordan of TFT???
There's a meme in the TFT community asking who is the Lebron of TFT, basically asking who's the GOAT. To paraphrase The Wire - "They mean Jordan, they just don't know it". Right now my level of TFT would be that of someone who was great in high school but never had a chance in College in any division. Maybe we'll track that as we go.
To be clear, I'm good at this game. I document it more down the road, but I peaked in the current season at rank #1485 out of about 700,000 players. I'd like to keep pushing higher than that.
What is Teamfight Tactics?
TFT is a deck-building game with a fair amount of RNG and Variance. Lots of poker comparisons can be made. You try to make the optimal decisions with the cards you're given against 7 other individual players.
Your cards are represented as units on something akin to a chessboard that you position every round. The "auto-battler" part of the game is that your control ends there, you fight an opponent and your board fights their board completely controlled based on AI/the instructions native to each unit.
Units have traits that create synergies with other units to increase their power. There are items that you obtain to place on your units as well, and other ways to power up your team. There is no carryover from game to game, you start each game with an empty board and go through the opening rounds to get your first cards to start building your team.
Most rounds you fight against another player, chosen in a (mostly) random way. Everyone starts with 100 health, and if you lose a round you lose health. When you hit 0 health you're out of the game and that determines your placement in the match. Think single table poker tournament. Last man standing wins. The top 4 players in the game gain points, the bottom 4 lose points. "Points" means two different things in this case, a hidden MMR (Matchmaking Rating) and a public ranking. There are mechanics that cause these to not always be identical, but we'll worry about details later.