TFT starts before you even click find a match. While you cant plan exactly what you intend to do, you can familiarize yourself with a few synergies you want to use, and make a general plan of attack with a few backups.

ex: my plan of attack is-
A. Get Lucian (cybernetic, blaster) and item him up because he has a lot of synergies and you can get him early.

B. Backup plans in case I don't have enough Lucian or Lucian items are, gear up another of the strong champs that I do happen to get more of in the same build.

C. Get Ashe and build around her for similar reasons to the Lucian

D. I'm already on plan d its likely that i wont be winning so, build to not lose as hard

In all these plans I know ahead of time which champs I want and what items I want on them ideally

You've got a plan and some backups, you know what you want so how do you get it?

In the first champ selects you'll want to prioritize items over champs, try to get an item that you'll need many of and/or one that can be used by a few different champs in your different contingency plans, so you know it wont go to waste.

There are two different routes in the early game with their pros and cons.

Route 1: Int, Losing streaks earn almost as much as winning streaks and when the champ selects come around you get earlier picks. It's also cheaper and easier to lose so you can save more money this way.

Route 2: Fight hard, You may or may not win by this route and you'll spend more money. You'll get a later pick in champ select as well... BUT the buffer you can have in health is invaluable in the late game.

In both routes you want to save as much money as you can to get 50 gold and keep interest coming in. buying more XP can get you access to more champs and higher ranked ones, but its expensive and you're still not likely to get what you're hunting. Similarly, re-rolling the champ shop is very expensive and i recommend only doing it when you're over 50 or you are going to lose or be unable to kill terrabusters.

If you intend to play for early wins (recommended) then you'll want to pick strong early champs and champs that have synergies with your main build plan so you can sub them in for a while and sell them later.

eg: I tend to grab malphites, caitlyns and xayahs early because malphite is ridiculous early, Cait fits into my chrono portion of my build and xayah gives me access to blade-master which I wouldn't normally get until late in the mid game. Whenever you get a champ that fits your build better you can sub out and sell the filler champ. Whenever you get items for your main build you can put them on filler champs that you intend to sell to get more power early while still being able to use the item later after you sell the champion.

By the end of the early game you'll want to have decided on the plan/build you'll be going with, based on the champs and items you've got in the fist 10 or so rounds.

Now you've got some/most of your build and maybe even some items for the build. By this point the group as separated a bit and the lowest health remaining is probably around high 30s to mid 40s, now what?

You've chosen your plan from the pre-game phase, so now you want to focus on making it happen.

Normally you will have 1-3 hard carries on your team and the rest are just for synergy and meat walls. You'll want to hold onto your items until you have seen which champs you have the best shot of getting to their power point (usually lvl 3, but for some of the top 2 rarities lvl 2 if just fine)

At this point you've been saving and you are likely around high level 4 to low level 6. if your hard carries are low rarity rank, it is best to keep your level low until you need to raise it for synergies. This way you have a higher chance of getting these low level champs in the shop.

If your chosen carries are higher rank, you'll want to maximize the time you get rolling for them with a decent chance. I find a good point to roll for the purple rarity champs is level 6, if you spend too much leveling up you run the risk of having too weak of a team while you hunt for your carry.

Both choices can work, but I recommend picking at least 1 or 2 hard carries of low rank, that way you get the most time possible re rolling to get them and only buying xp to fill out the team to make the synergies when those champs appear.

Don't be afraid to put multiples of the same champ on a team when you don't need all the slots. Some champs work very well with copies of itself.

Its good to be aware of all the skills and nuances of your team members in order to be able to place them as efficiently as possible, as well as being aware of what enemy champs and items can do in order to make sure your hard carry doesn't get hooked by blitz or ambushed by infiltrators. I tend to put the champs i am using mainly for synergy to either side of my main carry in order to eat hooks and be a meat wall against assassins.

By the end of the mid-game and going into the late game you want to have your main carry at least to the rank necessary, and most if not all of the items you want on them.

Now its the late game, its down to the top 4-5 and you've got your sights on winning not just avoiding a loss, so how?

Its important to keep up your interest income as long as possible to make sure you have an edge over the competition.

Secondly is good to keep your thoughts on a secondary carry or two, in the case that the main carry is in a bad spot and gets stopped early, you don't want to just lose, so its good to have a backup.

Third and most important, is now you should be watching your enemies with so few opponents you should be able to tell who you are most likely to get in the next round based on who you fought longest ago. With this knowledge you can reposition your zephyr blades, trap claws, blitz cranks and hard carries, to specifically target and avoid certain enemies.

It's important to be aware that your opponents will also be doing this so you should save the most important changes for last second, watching the opponents team as long as you can before changing your positions. It does tend to only happen at 2-3 people usually, however I start watching and repositioning at around 4-5 people remaining.

The last thing I want to leave you with is how very powerful zephyr blades in the right position can be, obviously opponents will be using 1-3 powerful champs to lead their team and if you shut them down you can quickly clean up the trash/meat walls so the squishy dmg dealers are all alone when they come back from cc