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2024 has been a banner year for great new strategy games. Manor Lords, Solium Infernum, and that Civilization 7 trailer at Summer Game Fest to name just a few. One of the biggest strategy games in the world is Teamfight Tactics, which outwardly appears to live in the shadow of its big brother, League of Legends. That said, TFT is actually carving its own path, adding exclusive characters like Arcane’s beloved Silco, and harkening back to the glory days of LoL with Remix Rumble. With Magic n’ Mayhem just around the corner, I ask game director Peter Whalen how TFT will continue to distinguish itself from Riot’s flagship MOBA, and how he feels about the current state of the strategy ecosystem.
“I think the strategy space in general is doing great,” he tells me with a huge smile. “When you look broadly at the industry, there are lots of great strategy games out there!” We go on to chatter enthusiastically about Atlus’ Unicorn Overlord, as well as indie puzzler Baba is You, which Whalen’s dad was “playing on his phone” during their time together for the Fourth of July.
In terms of Teamfight Tactics, Whalen notes that it’s “the biggest PC strategy game in the world. We’ve got lots and lots of players; lots and lots of people that are engaging on PC and mobile across the world, and that’s extremely gratifying. It’s really nice working on a project that has so many players that are really, really passionate about it.”
And yet it feels like TFT’s connection to League of Legends is both a blessing and a curse. While its spinoff status immediately exposes it to LoL’s extensive playerbase, given the MOBA’s complexity for new players, the idea of another League of Legends game with its own rules and regulations may scare some off. But TFT isn’t just the ‘League of Legends strategy game,’ even if that’s an easy assumption to make.
TFT has grown into its own over the past couple of years. For me, Remix Rumble was the turning point between TFT being a LoL-adjacent game and its own unique entity. My TFT Set 12 preview echoes that, with Magic n’ Mayhem introducing playable Legends of Runeterra characters, and shaking up the feel of the original cast. With that in mind, I ask Whalen how the team plans to forge its own path while simultaneously paying homage to the world that inspires it.
“TFT gives us an opportunity to play with the League of Legends IP that we’re all just enormous fans of, but in a different way. We have this really tongue-in-cheek, whimsical, fun approach that’s a little bit different to how the more serious, really lore-centric games go about it.”
“We think about it as being a little bit like a fanfiction-style experience,” he continues, eliciting a laugh from myself and game producer Dan Townsend. “We really celebrate players’ creativity, and the devs’ creativity; we want you to take all of these pieces – like a toy box – and put them together to tell your own stories.”
League of Legends lore hasn’t always been particularly coherent – something Riot’s now focusing on in the wake of Arcane – but it’s always been there. Whalen tells me that, following some research, “there’s this group of TFT players that’s surprisingly large [who say] that the most important thing in a TFT game is to tell their League of Legends story. They’re going to build their comp solely around the fanfiction experience they want to have. Maybe they’re going to put Garen and Katarina on the board together because shipping those two characters is really important to them. They’re going to do that every game; it doesn’t matter if they win or lose.
“TFT is an opportunity for us to tell new stories in the League of Legends universe that are a little bit memey, a little bit fanfiction, a little bit what if.”
As a longtime League of Legends player, I’ve never really considered telling my own stories in TFT. I have my own personal favorite duos (Senna and Lucien, Xayah and Rakan), but in LoL the meta rules, and if you’re not playing it, you’re going to struggle. Not only is TFT a completely different approach to the LoL universe, but it lets you have fun.
With Magic n’ Mayhem just around the corner, it’s worth diving in and telling your own League of Legends story, too – mine is Eldritch-themed. If you’re looking to see what TFT comps Whalen and Townsend are running, we asked them ahead of launch, and I reckon taking their advice is a good idea. Alternatively, if you’re a seasoned pro who’s looking for something rare to chase, there’s one TFT Set 12 charm that’s so elusive you’ll probably never get it.
