Three major quality of life changes are coming to Team Fight Tactics alongside the newest TFT set. Read on and get ready for Into The Arcane - launching on the 20th of November!
Goodbye Portals, Hello Opening Encounters
Opening Portals have been a part of Teamfight Tactics for about a year and a half now since being introduced during the ninth TFT set, Reforged. Instead of an opening Carousel round, players could vote for their favourite opening Portal at the start of the game and everyone in the lobby would gain their benefits. It was a popular addition at the time, and one that was made "evergreen" and added to every set since. However, Riot has decided it's time to retire the mechanic; or, more accurately, to change it.
Set 9’s Region Portals
Riot identified two major problems with Portals since: one, there is a large gap in the desirability between different portals. Some were obvious winners, and some were obvious losers. This means that all the same Portals would always be chosen by the lobby, removing the intended random aspect of the mechanic. Secondly, Portals are something of a heavy barrier for new players, who simply don't have enough time to read up on what all three Portals do, and make their decision to vote on one during the opening segment of the game.
So, what's replacing Portals? Riot is taking a little bit of inspiration from Inkborn Fables, the set prior to Magic n' Mayhem, and introducing "Opening Encounters". These will work similarly to Portals, introducing a random effect that applies to each player in the lobby, but without the voting aspect that's been in the game since Set 9. In the upcoming set, Into The Arcane, there will be about 10 possible Opening Encounters, all based on the current most popular Portal options.
We'll have the full scoop closer to November 20 when the new set comes out, but just to ease any fears, one of the Opening Encounters will indeed be "Crab Rave", and it has a 5% chance to pop up in each game! “Prismatic Opener”, “Prismatic Finisher”, and “All Prismatic” are three more Encounters we know about that are familiar and well loved Portal options.
Upcoming Set 13 Opening Encounter
Item Bench Is Moving
If you've ever played Teamfight Tactics on your phone or tablet, you might have noticed how convenient the Item Benches are on those devices. Well, lament no more, because the Item Bench is finally moving away from that one clogged up corner of your arena with Set 13!
Your new Item Bench can be found on the leftmost side of the screen in a new tab. The newly improved sidebar can hold 10 more items/consumables, increasing the number of items you can have to a total of 20. Consumables like Removers and Reforged will also stack! You'll be able to combine items in the sidebar and rearrange them with ease as well. Finally, the Item Bench will now be visible during Carousel rounds, making it much easier to figure out what component you need most!
The new Item Bench (left)!
Team Planner Gets Codes
Team Planner has been quite a boon for new and veteran players alike, and it's getting a couple of fantastic quality of life changes as well! You'll now have access to Team Planner Codes - copy-and-paste codes you can plop into the Team Builder to assemble the Team Comp you want instead of manually assembling your team each time. This will also make sharing team comps much easier! A smaller, but also welcome, change is that the Team Builder will now also include Champion names below their portraits, for ease of clarity.
