Riot Games Confirms Teamfight Tactics is Here To Stay

In the ongoing war for the autobattler genre, Riot Games is showing some commitment. In a press release today, Riot confirmed that Teamfight Tactics will be a permanent addition to League of Legends.

This isn't too surprising, given Teamfight Tactics' success in bringing in Twitch viewers and getting more people playing autobattlers in general. But it also shows that Riot's going to support this beyond the initial "auto chess" hype. As stated by Riot prior, Teamfight Tactics will be getting regular patches, ranked seasons akin to League's, and new champions, of which it announced four today.

The Hextech family will be coming to Teamfight Tactics as a new origin, whose synergy allows them to disable enemy units' items. Camille, Jayce, Vi, and the capstone carry Jinx round out a new set of champions coming to the PBE today, and hitting live servers with patch 9.16, currently set for August 14.

When we interviewed the developers of Teamfight Tactics ahead of its launch, they said as much about the game's future prospects. Unlike limited-time modes like URF, Teamfight Tactics was given a home to live inside the League of Legends client. Even from the outset, the TFT team was looking at the long-term plan, already envisioning a ranked queue and other features.

Riot has brought some decent competition to the autobattler genre, jostling for a growing market against Valve's Dota Underlords and the Auto Chess developed by the original mod creators. Though the initial gold rush has subsided a bit, now the spotlight is squarely on the few pillars left standing. Whether there's still a fervor 12 months down the line or not, it's at least shown now that Riot has no immediate intention of tossing in the towel.