The real issue with TFT

After playing over 200 games it finally struck me the actual problem; It is a draft based game, with a pool of champions, but compared to every other draft based game format I know this is the only one where you are not guaranteed a high rarity card.

Lets see who actually enjoys the game enough to read an in depth article. SKip to bottom paragraph for just resolutions.

In MTG (magic the gathering for those who have yet to play the game) when you play draft every player starts with three booster packs. You choose one card and pass the pack around the table, receiving other players packs. TFT uses almost this exact same mantra, allowing players to choose from this generalized pool. But the issue is when you look at your pack, and receive others, you can see the cards in the pool, you know a number in your head to work with. TFT does not allow you this knowledge, it keeps this hidden algorithm that many players think they know, or have an idea of, but it has yet to be confirmed. There is no reason to hide this information either, unless the game wishes to remove a skill curve that players can work with and hinge on the RNG style gameplay it currently sits at.

The second point that draft games allow that TFT does not is the guaranteed pull rate. In MTG (again using this as it is the most refined draft format card game) you get a guaranteed minimum number of cards, a handful of commons, 3 uncommons and a single rare/mythic legendary. Now in this game format there are some mythics that can carry decks, but also some rares that are better than others, and while getting these specific cards are in fact a random chance, the fact that you are set to get a specific powerful card to work with, to start building a deck idea around, is good. TFT grants an uncommon, but in a game format where you have to level to get more uncommon and rare choices this fashion does not work.

In magic you have the same pool of cards to choose from as all the other players, you get to choose from the list of commons, uncommons, and rares that get passed around the table. TFT uses a leveling system where you can alter your comp midway through as you level because the game starts to grant different options later in the drafting process. MTG does a similar thing, as the second and third packs are opened you are able to realize other players team comps and change yours, similar to TFT scouting, but the difference is that at the end of the drafting process, before games are played, you get to edit your deck. The reason this does not work for TFT is because you play as you build, but there are three MAJOR resolutions to the problem.

1. Grant a rare champion at the first carousel; this will let players start an early comp and have a "carry" until the mid game, allowing the first carousel to have a larger impact than just rushing spatula or a basic item that they think they will need, but instead weigh every option in front of them. Adding to this it also would allow Riot to include a "tier" list where-as certain items can only appear on certain tier champions to grant a bell curve of power to choose from.
2. Grant a "rarity" spot every round in your market. This would be most useful in granting a single high rarity card every round to select from, whether it be the second highest spot as to never allow legends or to be a special slot that shows a card of specific rarity based off your level, but this would grant a "growth" and power curve selection. Personally I would like to see this slot show a champion on the field or on your bench (randomly selected) as to push players being able to achieve 2 and 3 star characters faster.
3. And this is the big one, an anti hyper roll system. Something as simple as "You may have the characters for a 3 star BUT you arent level 5 or 6 yet." And many many players will complain because people like winning and rofl-stomping others. But you have not really won if the game handed you such a lead, you received a handicap. And should you lose then your skills werent good enough to use that handicap to your advantage. This would truly help limit hyper rolling (which is the REAL RNG problem. Remove this and the game DRASTICALLY balances itself)

That is all. I may post more and more because the game has quite a few problems and I hope to see it improve, but my problem is I am used to beta testing and mass game testing, so articles like this are small to me, but too much of a read for many devs and players. Sad truth, players want simple things fixed, often times not delving deeper into why a game problem exists, they just want it gone.

Godammit Nappa OUT!