This 2024, Teamfight Tactics esports evolved, just like our favorite characters in Arcane.
The League of Legends animated series concluded with season two, closing the chapter of Zaun and Piltover. To celebrate, Riot Games ran campaigns across all their games, trying them to the series in more ways than one.
League of Legends’ ARAM (all random all mid) mode, for example, was taken over by the Bridge of Progress entirely, featuring new map mechanics and champion buffs. TFT, however, took Arcane a step further than all other titles, incorporating its theme entirely into Set 13.
The majority of units and traits in “Into the Arcane” are anchored in the animated series. The “Arcane” itself is manifested in Set 13’s unique mechanic: the Anomaly at stage 4-6 lets you evolve a unit, giving them a major upgrade, parallel to how Viktor evolved in the course of the series.
At Macao Open, the biggest TFT esports tournament of the year, Riot Games pushed the limits of the Arcane even more, delivering a truly integrated Arcane experience to competitors and fans from show floor down to the Tactician’s Belt trophy.
ONE Esports got the chance to experience the event first-hand and speak to Rioters who made this unforgettable experience happen.
Why Teamfight Tactics esports is so different compared to Riot Games’ other titles
Teamfight Tactics is a game with its own community culture
League of Legends esports and Valorant esports have paved the way for Teamfight Tactics esports which is only in its second year. Fans still feel it’s a distinctly Riot tournament, yet the nature of TFT, a single-player auto-chess strategy game which anyone can easily pick up and play, sets it apart from its predecessors.
Teamfight Tactics has been played by 300 million players globally and it is one of Riot’s fastest growing titles. At Macao Open, 512 players competed for a $300,000 prize pool and a shot at winning the stunning Tactician’s Belt. More than 450 were Challenger ranked TFT players, about 250 were from China, some were streamers and content creators, and the minority, full-time TFT pro players.
“Everybody here has self-selected to participate. They’ve flown their way out, they’ve paid for their own accommodations,” Michael Sherman, Global Head of TFT and 2XKO esports told ONE Esports. Riot also distributed signups based on rank, which rewards players for their placement in past championships and their ranked performance in the previous Set.
Challenges of broadcasting multiple lobbies at the same time
Operationally, it’s a whole different ballgame. Instead of having just two teams up on stage competing, there were more than 30 stations of eight set up in the big convention hall at The Venetian Macao running multiple games at the same time.
“In three days, we’ve played more than 380 games in the tournament, and 330 of those are on day one,” said Michael. “The broadcast team is trying to figure out how do they tell the story when you have so many games.”
“You’re used to an esports event being driven by when broadcast says — when they’re ready, you can go into game. But the opposite is true here where it’s very much driven by what’s happening in tournament and broadcast is trying to catch up with it,” he explained.
To give viewers more choices and broader coverage, nine co-streamers were invited on site, stationed within the wall alongside competitors. They could choose which lobby to follow and use Riot’s setup to stream throughout the tournament.
Viewers would have noticed on broadcast that there are also two “field reporter teams” running around with wireless cameras and hosts picking up stories as they happen during the Open. In between games, broadcast would cut to feature those developing narratives.
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Compared to Vegas Open that was held in a ballroom (where we learned Riot had to “fight the chandeliers”) that had fringe activities in separate rooms, Macao Open was intentionally held in one large convention hall where competitor stations, co-streamer booths, the main stage, side activities, and dev panels functioned together.
The future of TFT esports — looking towards Paris Open 2025
“I like to use the word convention a lot. How do we make this feel like you’re a TFT con, almost,” said Michael. “We want to continue to scale the event. Could we ever do things like an artist alley? That’s something that we at Riot think about: we know the esports event part and how can we get better at that convention part?”
Other improvements include the debut of a vertical feed livestream so that fans can watch fights more closely and a rebuilt spectator HUD that’s more viewer-focused — it does away with reroll and level up button, for example, and takes data from TFT live stats, a separate system that pulls data from the game that makes it easier to power spectator UI, Michael shared.
They’re one year to Paris Open 2025 and the TFT esports team is already discussing if Return to Runeterra could be the featured set and in what ways can the event accommodate even more participants.
The Teamfight Tactics esports trophy at Macao Open 2024 is a one-of-a-kind Tactician’s Belt
The Teamfight Tactics esports trophy made its debut at Vegas Open 2024. Unlike a conventional upright trophy, Riot made the decision to go with a belt instead.
“We wanted to do things differently for TFT, as a game, as an esport. The way we show up is very unique. So the brief to Creative Director Ernesto Campabadal was — what is the unexpected trophy for TFT?” Dylan Fraley, TFT Esports Competitive Operations Manager told ONE Esports.
“The open format with 512 players, it’s almost like stepping into a ring and the last one standing is the champion. There is a nice parallel to wrestling, there’s a chaotic nature to it,” Dylan added. “It felt very appropriate to do it starting with Las Vegas.”
The first-ever Tactician’s Belt reflected its location with the Vegas Open medallion on one side and Remix Rumble set theme on the other. This year’s belt also incorporates the Set’s theme — and takes it up a notch.
Weighing 2kg (about 4.5lbs), Volpin Props utilized cast urethane rubber for the Anomaly goop, with a liquid fluorescent UV colorant to get a UV effect. Each casting had an embedded neoprene backer to allow for it to be adhered to the leather belt, which is a milled vegetable tanned leather that’s custom dyed.
Unlike the Vegas Open Tactician’s Belt which had a leather base anchor, Macao Open’s Anomaly belt is entirely covered by another material that “might not look premium on camera or feel good,” said Dylan, which was another important consideration during the making-of.
The whole process from design to finish took six months. “We have 3D renders, 3D models, casts are created, molds for it, then they start to experiment with the material and try to get it right,” said Ernesto.
Before deciding on the Anomaly, the team considered other Arcane options such as a belt that looks like it was made by Jinx or one that was touched by Viktor with gold accents, but eventually decided to stay true to what makes it a “Teamfight Tactics belt” by featuring the core mechanic of Set 13.
The creative team also considered changing the trophy altogether and surprise the audience every year, but after the belt’s positive reception in Vegas and the possibility of multi-time winners who could someday hold up two or three belts, they decided to establish a consistent tradition.
“Our players must be able to lift it over their head. We talked about how much decoration to put on it, but it has to be light enough that it can be lifted up,” Ernesto elaborated. “It was really difficult working with the leather base and creating this material on top that represents the Anomaly to get the right mixing of colors.”
Besides the Tactician’s Belt, a larger than life Anomaly was the centerpiece of Macao Open where players and fans could literally walk into Set 13. Everything on stage floor was intentionally designed to meld player experience and competition together, which includes side activities that lets fans share their love of the game, said Dylan.
Learning from Vegas Open, Riot deliberately doubled their efforts for the TFT community at Macao Open., “We made sure that every decision we made along the way came back to that. It became a guiding light, thinking about the player experience and whether our decisions reflect this authentically,” added Jen Tarvin, Brand Manager for TFT Macao Open.
Making sure TFT esports is the most accessible esports for players globally is top priority for Riot where all TFT players have the potential to also be esports competitiors. “If we ever start to feel like a traditional sport or esport, we might be doing it wrong,” said Dylan, who describes it as “a serious strategy game that doesn’t take itself too seriously”.
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