I have been confused about how TFT works, at the end of the game when there only three players left, for a while now. I just played a match where I was in 2nd of 3 players towards the end.

Here's how it shook out...

1st place = 100 health 2nd place (me) = 9 health 3rd place = 8 health

At this point, I play 3rd place twice in a row. I win both matches and neither of us lose/gains any health points. I play 1st place (with a LvL3 Lucian [Bloddthirster, Static Shiv, Runaans Hurricane]) get a lucky win; neither I or 1st place player gain or lose any health.

We go to the character select circle.

After the circle, I play 2nd place player and lose. I now have 0 health and I'm awarded 3rd place.

This type of thing has happened several times. I feel like once I hit the final 3 players there is absolutely no rhyme or reason as to how players lose health and move on. I assume there are some background things happening during the prolonged wait times where players are doing extra matches for some algorithm to figure all of it out.

I would like to know what is going on so I can have a little more confidence once I reach the final three.