After a profitable outing in Las Vegas, Riot Video games has introduced plans to host its second TFT Open in Macau this December 13-15.
The TFT Macau Open is a celebration of the Teamfight Ways neighborhood centered on an enormous 512-player open bracket event. Skilled gamers will compete alongside high ranked amateurs for his or her lower of the $300,000 prize pool, the Tactician’s Belt and the Macao Open title.
Not like different tournaments within the Teamfight Ways esports calendar, the TFT Open prioritizes storytelling and accessibility over pure aggressive rigor. The place the Tactician’s Trials (regional) and Tactician’s Crown (worldwide) function capstones to a aggressive season, the TFT Open kicks off Riot’s esports occasions for the subsequent season. Consequently, gamers are nonetheless experimenting with the brand new items, gadgets and mechanics, creating extra alternatives for underdog upsets.
“Everything from when we timed the event to how we brought people in and qualified people and how we did things like costreaming are all part of how we build this event experience that feels like it can help broaden out the interest of esports to the TFT audience as a whole,” stated Michael Sherman, world head of esports for Teamfight Ways and 2XKO, in an interview with GamesBeat.
Lil Snack & GamesBeat
GamesBeat is worked up to companion with Lil Snack to have personalized video games only for our viewers! We all know as avid gamers ourselves, that is an thrilling option to interact via play with the GamesBeat content material you’ve got already come to like. Begin taking part in video games now!
Returning to convention-style esports
TFT Open format goals to create a broader convention-style occasion with the 512-player predominant event the anchor the occasion. Opponents and attendees ought to count on developer panels, meet and greets, cosplay and extra in Macau.
The corporate first experimented with the TFT Open in Las Vegas in December 2023. Whereas Riot has invested in its spectator experiences for each League of Legends’ and Valorant’s Fan Fests, the TFT Vegas Open was its first open bracket event in over a decade.
The occasion was a significant success. The 512 Competitor’s Bundles bought out in seven seconds and a further 1,000-plus spectators attended the occasion.
“The reception from the community proved that you didn’t need to have this hyper-competitive tournament format — like a lot of the feedback we’ve been getting — to still have an event that everybody said was their most fun event of all time,” stated Sherman. “A lot of our company leadership was at the Vegas Open and it was good to see esports in a new light in one of Riot’s games… I think it’s a great platform for challenging conventions.”
Whereas he doesn’t see the esports business turning to those occasions usually, Sherman believes esports is “finding new fruit” in these convention-style occasions. “I think the reason is because put publishers especially are investing in what players love about the game as a whole, not just the esports component.”
For its subsequent outing, Riot chosen Macau — the world’s largest playing hub — as the subsequent vacation spot for the format it piloted in Las Vegas. Like its American counterpart, Macau is a perfect tourism and journey hub for a global occasion.
“Macau is such a great way for us to bring this experience to Asia without alienating players from all over the world,” stated Sherman.
Learnings from Vegas
Sherman sees TFT itself and its followers as a significant motive why this convention-style format labored. Teamfight Ways is probably the most performed PC technique recreation on the earth, however is never acknowledged as such. Along with its broad enchantment inside the League of Legends neighborhood, high gamers from different aggressive titles like Tremendous Smash Bros. and Pokémon attended the TFT Open.
“Building on the event experience is incredibly important. It’s a little different for TFT because it’s such a broader player pool and we don’t have the same relationship we do with them like in League or Valorant,” stated Sherman.
The TFT Vegas Open additionally helped Riot perceive and overcome the hurdles of working such an enormous occasion. These included bodily challenges like assembling 512 setups (quite than its customary 10 plus follow rooms) or taking photos of each competitor for the published and all kinds of technical points.
“I’m going to pull back the curtain a little bit, but at the Vegas open, we were still trying to get every PC in the game midnight before event started. We uncovered so many layers of DDoS protection we don’t usually need to worry about with [LoL] Worlds or [Valorant] Champs” stated Sherman.
“TFT uniquely gets a ton of benefits because it’s built into the League client as well. So there’s a whole host of services that were built for League of Legends that just happened to also work for TFT… we were able to repurpose some of the technology from champions queue to get everyone in the game as fast as possible.”
In the end, these Champions Queue instruments helped the group clear up technical challenges that vary from including customized lobbies to TFT and permitting spectators to hitch mid-match to a good friend’s checklist cap round 315 for a 512-player occasion.
Iterating and experimenting
Since internet hosting the TFT Vegas Open, Riot has mirrored on why the occasion labored and the way it plans to construct on that success.
For the TFT Macau Open, Riot is placing extra emphasis on the at-home expertise. Particularly, the developer plans to create extra content material to assist these in-person experiences transcend on-line. Sherman particularly cited how cosplay content material from the TFT Vegas Open drove engagement.
Moreover, Riot plans to place extra emphasis on tying the TFT Macau Open to the launch of Set 13. New units already encourage gamers to return to TFT and Macau offers Riot extra instruments to increase the patch’s freshness.
Past the open bracket occasions, Riot is taking the chance to experiment in esports via Teamfight Ways in different methods.
Whereas followers must be excited for Macau, TFT’s subsequent main event is on the world stage on the Esports World Cup. In a primary for the sport’s aggressive historical past, gamers will compete as groups of 4. This fits the EWC’s team-focused construction and has the benefit of feeling distinct from TFT’s customary solo occasions like this weekend’s Set 11 championship.
“A major reason why players love TFT is novelty — there’s always something new in the game. And so we also want our esports structure to satisfy that by having mixes of novelty all throughout the year, whether it’s 4v4 or Macau or new formats throughout the regional season,” stated Sherman.
Riot’s partnership with the EWC is one other evolution of the writer’s esports method. Earlier than the EWC and DreamHack Dallas, Riot sometimes operated its esports applications as a walled backyard for greater than a decade.
Wanting ahead, Riot is utilizing the expertise of experimenting with TFT to tell its 2XKO esports technique. “2XKO will need its own very unique strategy but it is very useful as Riot starts to think more about these participation and community-focused events,” stated Sherman.
TFT Open Macau Occasion Data
The upcoming TFT Macau Open will happen from December 13 – 15.
Tickets
Ticket pre gross sales begin September 3, 2024 at at 5 AM PT / 8 AM ET / 2 PM CEST / 8PM GMT+8. Every participant’s aggressive efficiency in Season 12 — beginning July 31 and ending September 2 at 12:12am Server time — will decide after they can purchase the Competitor’s Bundle and its value.
| Rank | Sale Date | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Tactician’s Crown Members (Units 9/11) | September 3 | $199* |
| Challengers | September 4 | $199* |
| Grandmasters + Masters | September 5 | $299* |
| Common Competitor Passes | September 6 | $399 |
| Spectator Passes | September 6 | $150 |
Riot may have extra data on the place and tips on how to purchase tickets nearer to the gross sales date. Along with securing a spot within the event, the Competitor Bundle’s additionally contains:
- Occasion themed bodily merch together with a participation medal and competitor jacket
- In-game pores and skin Chibi from Set 13
- Unique in-game emote based mostly on event placement
On the TFT Macau Open, Riot will host a wide range of facet occasions for opponents and spectators together with meet and greets, panels, cosplay and extra.
Seeding and Schedule
Riot will initially seed gamers into teams of eight based mostly on their Set 12, Magic n’ Mayhem rating. After the primary spherical, gamers can be re-seeded by way of snake draft based mostly upon the factors they earn all through the event. Gamers will accumulate factors based mostly on their placement in every match, the place the primary place finisher will earn eight factors, and many others.
Primarily based on suggestions from followers, Riot has up to date its TFT Open format with two further rounds. This modification permits the highest 4 finishers in every foyer to advance, quite than the earlier high two.
| Date | Spherical | Gamers Remaining | Video games per Spherical |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 13 | Spherical 1 | 512 | 3 |
| December 13 | Spherical 2 | 256 | 3 |
| December 13 | Spherical 3 | 128 | 3 |
| December 14 | Spherical 4 | 64 | 3 |
| December 14 | Spherical 5 | 32 | 3 |
| December 14 | Spherical 6 | 16 | 4 |
| December 15 | Finals | 8 | – |
For the Finals, the highest 8 gamers will compete in a checkmate format. The primary participant to earn 20 factors and win a spherical will topped the TFT Macao Open Champion.
Event Prize Pool
Riot Video games is awarding a complete prize pool of $300,000 on the occasion. The highest 128 gamers will stroll away with their lower, with the champion pocketing $100,000.