The wildly successful Teamfight Tactics is adding four new champions to its roster in August, a celebration spurred on by the fact the popular game mode is now cemented as a permanent option in League of Legends. Teamfight Tactics began existence as a hastily-developed entry into the emerging auto chess genre, but for a title that was made quickly, the level of polish and performance from it has quickly established it as the top dog in a genre it wasn't even a part of mere months ago.
For those unfamiliar with the latest multiplayer craze, auto chess is a genre that sees players navigate a hybrid between a tactical roleplaying game and the MOBAs each title is based off of. In Teamfight Tactics, for instance, popular champions from the League of Legends Rift are assembled by players who then have them battle against other players' squads. The AI controls them completely once they've been positioned and geared up, though, so players without the amount of time required to really get good at the intense, micro-specific elements of League of Legends have finally been given an outlet with which to engage the property without feeling like it's too much.
Teamfight Tactics is now a permanent mode to complement League of Legends, although that fact isn't likely to surprise anyone who has watched it quickly become one of the most-viewed games on Twitch. Riot announced today that the mode wasn't going anywhere, and to celebrate, the developer is also adding four familiar faces to Teamfight Tactics: Camille, Jayce, Vi, and the ever-popular Jinx, all hailing from the brand-new Hextech origin being implemented into the game. These additions will be playable on the beta environment later today, and will come to live servers with patch 9.16, which is scheduled for August 14th.
Teamfight Tactics has the benefit of instant recognition from players when it comes to champion additions, something that helps generate excitement for updates that would already be enticing because they diversify gameplay. For many, Teamfight Tactics is the perfect solution to one of the biggest League of Legends problems that Riot could never control - the amount of time players have to sink into the property. League of Legends can be a demanding game, especially for those who want to be good at it. While Teamfight Tactics is equally as challenging, it operates on another axis, one that lets players participate in it while also doing something else. The ability to multitask while playing is also useful for streamers who want to entertain while participating in a multiplayer game, which is probably why Teamfight Tactics has rocketed up the Twitch viewership charts.
While there's competition out there for Teamfight Tactics in the form of Valve's Dota Underlords, the genre is still pretty small and Riot has done an excellent job at planting its flag as the premier offering right now. Given how well that worked out for League of Legends during the early years of the MOBA craze, it wouldn't be surprising to see Teamfight Tactics become the glue that holds the genre together as Riot continues to focus more on the genre now that it's proven to be popular among fans.