Team Fight Tactics from a Beta Tester's Mind

So I have officially logged just over 75 games, got to Gold just for the hell of the grind experience (mostly played normals) and from someone who has played actual chess, quite a many TCG's, and beta tested a fair number of games for varying companies I have insight on the games heavily RNG based system. I enjoy strategy games, my primary play style being CIV and C&C type games I thought that TFT would be a great change of pace and to be able to support a company I had high hopes for, I was mostly wrong. The Pros, because there is never a reason to start complaints off wihtout first addressing the good points of the game;

1. The artwork is nice, as expected from the creators of League of Legends
2. The gameplay is mostly smooth, very few bugs and hiccups
3. The item customization allows for varying game tactics, which in return allows for you to build a variety of teams
4. The flow of the game (i.e. battles, carousel, battles, monsters) gives a nice strategy for upping your economy and allowing you to plan ahead.

Now the Cons;

1. The randomized number generator (RNG) truly needs to be reworked. No game should have you feeling as though your loss could not be prevented or that you did the best you could for what you decided on and still lose. (a loss for me is not getting top 3)
2. The fact that some players get a vaulted start from the first 4 waves of minions while others get nearly nothing in comparison is a very big oversight. Evening the playing field really needs to be addressed.
3. The spatula system needs to be altered, it is a great idea but should be less of a "I got the spatula item I wanted and can now break the game" and more of a strategy.
4. There is no tutorial with preset rules (i.e. I did not realize there was a limited champion pool for the first 15 games until a friend told me, because unless you research the game outside the game client you cannot learn all the ins and outs. This should be an easily accessible window or tutorial before you play)
5. When a character dies, any abilities they had started are cancelled (Brand's ult stops, naut's ult stops) so why do summons keep going? I can see malz summons, and Yorick's are a special type, but they should (just like in summoner's rift) start losing HP per second if their summoner dies, and zyra's plants should immediately fall off or have hp.
6. The gold win streak and loss streak is a great addition to auto chess as it grants a strategy, but it also mostly benefits those who have a win streak. A loss streak should not get more gold per loss streak but definitely needs to be achieved sooner.
7. HUD (Heads up Display) needs to have more readily accessible information. This was partially addressed with the hot button during carousel, which was great, but needs to be expanded on.
8. The auto targeting of some champs needs to be addressed.

Addressing the Cons;

1. This is the biggest issue with the game. There needs to be less RNG, and for this I have thought of MANY resolutions. Allowing one item to be purchased with gold per full round, this lets you solidify team comps and not be hoping or racing during the carousel. The first minion waves and monsters should be granting the same or similar gold values to each player (i.e. each player gets a common drop from each krug, maybe one rare orb, chickens should grant two common, two rare, and one gold orb) And the orbs should have a more balanced drop rate rather than a totally random "Oh I just got a spatula from a blue orb and you got a single 3 gold champ from your gold orb. But finally the biggest, champ rerolls, going entire games without getting a single champ even though you are the only one running it does not make you feel like you were outplayed. It just rages me, makes me feel like the game decided my loss rather than me choosing a bad team comp. A way to alleviate (and most players will hate the idea because it pushes strategy over luck) is to add a "owned" champ slot. Obviously just a concept but to have the last champ every reroll be a champ that is still in the champion pool that you currently have on board or on your bench. This lets you reroll to maximize your team, meaning that team comp, streaks, and items now determine your end game, not some luck of the dice.
2. Addressing this also includes the above statement, but to give players similar if not the same items from the first 4 minions would fix this.
3. This is something that truly upsets me, going an entire game where someone rushes spatula or having no spatulas in carousel yet on players get two or three from rare drops and gets to break the "glacial team comp". If each player got a spatula at a guaranteed time, and a second at another guaranteed time this would again result in more of a skill based item than a randomized team vault to victory.
4. I basically said this above, there just needs to be a tutorial with every rule in the game, every important code out there so people can actually learn the game rather than playing blindly for the first 50 games.
5. Both my resolutions are above, having zyra's plants have health, and having summons lose HP/Time alive each second after a summoner dies.
6. The easiest fix to this would be to shrink the loss streak amounts down, so that while 7 wins gets you +3 gold, 4-5 losses does the same. Losing then does become a strategy but if you are losing someone else is winning, and to have to lose the same number, especially later game, results in a snowball effect to those getting lucky (if RNG was removed then this would not be needed)
7. A quick drop menu for item combinations for players who do not have the exact item customization memorized (in league there is a store that shows you what to build towards, why not a similar concept?). A quick button that drop displays your team, as well as opponents so as your scroll through you aren't trying to look through a 3 star braum to see if there is a 1 star or 2 star veigar behind him to play around and taking the entire round to do so when there is already so little time between turns. And lastly, the biggest HUD addition I can think of; a damage per round counter, something so that players understand how much or little damage they can take. Just a quick drop down menu really would solve this, something you can click that grants a handful of in game information that you otherwise have to download an app or go online and try to dual screen play the game (really annoying for new players, even more annoying for those who really try to tactics it up)
8. And lastly, the targeting system. Adding a system for your team to "target" a specific type (i.e. maybe just a row based system) also grants an extra layer of tactics, as you can build a team comp and focus a specific line to allow you to counter other team comps. There needs to be a way to strategize, especially now where there are essentially only 3 top tier teams and all others its a race to getting your team all 3 stars or you lose (Defnitely another entire post to talk about but that comes with time, and I hope it gets addressed on its own, this post is more about things that could and should be looked into now) But when my Warwick leaps across the map after almost killing someone and leaving them to keep doing damage, and when he leaps the target dies before he gets there so he does no damage and doesn't heal. In real team fights (summoner's rift) a player is smart enough to do certain things, why does the AI in this game allow "dumb plays" to be made? The targeting AI needs to be changed but the using abilities once they are up is fine, so long as the AI can determine optimal uses, or to at least fight like a team WOULD rather than to just sprint into the middle of the ring (outer edges for assassins) and beat each other with pool noodles and hope that your opponents Ezrael targets the enemy olaf instead of letting him cleave through an entire team because Ezrael decided that the Maokai with warmogs was a better selection. At least adding a "Target mages, target bruisers, target tanks type system would be nice, or to alter how the target system works a little. Assassins are supposed to sprint into the back lines to take out the ADC BUT an ADC should be smart enough to turn on him after 2 attacks. Taking damage from a source should alter how damage is dealt. Maybe adding a "target low health" option for certain characters would change this but there will never truly be an optimal target system, that is one reason the game works the way it does, because certain team comps are busted due to how well they target and keeps enemy damage carries busy. In a game where RNG defines it there is a very hard way to change your team last minute as well to counter other play styles. There is a lot to unpack on this one but it does need to be looked at (a decent idea is when an ally champ dies your team focuses the killer)

All in all the game is enjoyable, I hope it improves because I can see it becoming a good game, but currently its new, not a great game, and fun. I just feel for a game called team fight tactics, it needs more tactics or to change the name to team fight randomness.

Yours truly, Godammit Nappa