A TFT Pro League is Coming - Here's What We Know
Ahead of the release of the 14th Teamfight Tactics expansion, TFT Cyber City, Riot Games announced a new TFT Esports initiative. The company announced this week that a brand new esports league will be created in the AMER, EMEA and APAC regions featuring the worlds best players that will feature high-stakes tournaments with cash prizes and direct spots into the Tacticians Crown.
While this league will not form until the start of TFT Set 15, Riot did release details on how this new league will work. Here is a breakdown of how TFT Tier 1 will work.
Why TFT Tier 1?
While some of the world's best players are well-known in the TFT esports ecosystem, there isn't very much exposure to major esports events. TFT pros are only on display during the Regional Finals and the World Championships. This is because the path to Worlds is heavily based on Ladder play, with just a couple of tournaments throughout the set to help push them along the qualification pathway.
Another rough thing is that for players qualifying for Worlds unless they win, they essentially have to start the next set at ground zero because, at the beginning of each set, every player rank completely resets. Since qualification is mostly ladder-based, so even the world's best have to start with everyone else. While that sounds unique compared to other esports, the same players just climb to the top of the ladder anyway in each set. So Riot came up with a solution to solve the two issues of the first being a way to showcase talent and two giving players at the top of the game a better way to qualify for worlds. That’s where Tier 1 comes into play.
How does TFT Tier 1 work?
At the end of TFT Set 14, The top 28 players from each major region’s Golden Spatula (Regional Finals) will qualify for the first-ever TFT Tier 1 circuit. Riot will hand-select the remaining four players based on a number of factors, including contributions to the scene, among others. These 32 players will make up the Initial League.
As for how the league works, these 32 players will compete against each other in three high-stakes tournaments throughout the set, with big cash prizes on the line and a direct spot to the World Championship for the victor. On top of that, players will be competing for qualifier points, which will directly dictate their fate come regional championship season. After the three Tier 1 tournaments, the 32 players will be split into three groups based on their total point placements, dictating which stage of Regional FInal they will start.
Because of this Tier 1 League, Regional Finals themselves are also expanding. Regional Golden Spatula events have been one weekend, three-day events in which the top 32 players competed to see who would represent the region at that sets Tactician Crown. Well, starting in TFT Set 15, Golden Spatula events will last two weekends, with six days of tournament action and an increased number of players, 68 compared to the 32 in previous events.
The first day of Golden Spatula will consist of a 16 play “play-in” event where the top 8 players will move onto the main event.
The main event starts on Day 2 in which 48 players will compete over two days with the top 20 players advancing to Week 2.
Week 2 begins a brand new tournament with the top 32 best players in the region fighting for spots at the world championship.
As for how the Tier 1 circuit plays a part in this, this is how the qualifier points breakdown affects players.
Place in the top 12 and qualify directly into Top 32 of Regional Finals in Week 2 and with it, a guaranteed spot in Set 16 Tier 1.
Place in 13th through 24th and qualify for Top 48 in Week 1
But for the players placing in the bottom eight, they will start at the bottom and have to participate in Regional Final Play-ins.
You can read more on Riot's official announcement here.
Impact on TFT esports
This is the new age of TFT Esports in which the games best players will be playing in a sanctioned league that has everything important on the line including cash prizes and direct spots to worlds.
This shows that Riot Games is doubling down on TFT Esports and they even announced that even more changes are coming to TFT Esports in the years to come. Essentially, if you ever wanted to jump into TFT Esports, the time is now as we are now entering the golden age.
