On June 22nd and 23rd, Twitch Rivals ran Twitch Rivals: Teamfight Tactics Tag Teams. The first Teamfight Tactics tournament in a year featured TFT Set 7: the Dragonlands. The Dragonlands’ central feature are the incredibly potent dragon units which cost extra gold and count as two units on your board. Unlike previous TFT tournaments, which had a clearly defined meta, Twitch Rivals: Teamfight Tactics Tag Teams pushed the players’ limits since they played after a sizable patch that shook the previously-established meta to its core. Having little to no knowledge about the current meta and the strongest picks, the players, forced to improvise, teemed with the ambition to prove their extensive knowledge and understanding of TFT.
Image Credit: Riot Games
Twitch Rivals: Teamfight Tactics Tag Teams welcomed twelve talent-stacked teams competing in six TFT matches each day over two days for a total prize pool of $10,000. Although all twelve teams displayed an unmatched understanding of TFT, only the eight most resilient teams advanced to day two and collected the best tournament prizes. The most skilled TFT team walked out of the tournament with $2,500, with each subsequently-placed team picking up $500 less than the team above them in the standings.
The teams that matched both their TFT knowledge and resourcefulness were led by Michael “k3soju” Zheng, Rebecca “Becca” Cho, Albert “boxbox” Zheng, Aleksey “Grandvice8” Tvorogov, Emily “emilyywang” Wang, Andrew “guubums” Cheung, Ki Yoon “Kiyoon” Yoo, Alex “Kurumx” Tompkins, Rayditz, Robin “robinsongz” Sung, Denis “Escha” Yoon, and Setsuko.
Day 1
Day 1, hosted by Caleb “WavePunk” Simmons, Bryce “esportslaw” Blum, and Riley “Jirachy” Matties, consisted of six games with three separate lobbies. Winning these meta-shaping matches awarded the players with eight points, all the way down to one point for the eighth-place team.
Still nervous to experiment and clinging to the old builds, players Kurumux, Joven “Broccóli” Thandi, and SpicyAppies won the game one with well-rounded teamcomps centered around carries such as Yasuo or dragons.
The teams followed a similar pattern in game two, with players Duy “Souless” Nguyen, Kiyoon, and robinsongz sweeping their competition with traditional carries such as Corki and Xayah.
In game three, Jeffrey “Milk” Pan, Prestivent and guubums, with Dragonmancer and Jade-oriented builds won the round.
For game four, Milk, Broccóli, and Prestivent predominately opted for the Cavalier trait, gaining not only additional mobility but also extra resistances to survive the overwhelming amounts of crowd control.
The winners of game five, due to their extensive TFT knowledge and adaptability, were SpicyAppies, k3soju, and Rayditz.
The final game of the day was concluded with tactful and patient wins from Grandvice8, William “Scarra” Li, and boxbox.
The teams advancing to the second day of competition were Team Kiyoon, Team k3soju, Team boxbox, Team Grandvice8, Team Escha, Team guubums, Team Becca and Team Kurumx.
Day 2
The second day of Twitch Rivals: Teamfight Tactics Tag Teams was cast by Gabriella “LeTigress” Devia-Allen, esportslaw and Jirachy. Since the stakes on the final day were higher than simply qualifying and contestants had more time to study the meta, it was packed with creative builds and volatile close matches that awarded double points for each placement.
During the first game of the day, both lobbies fought over hypercarries Xayah and Corki. However, the round was over as soon as Don “Aesah” Ding and Becca got their hands on the carries.
Match two was dominated by SpicyAppies, with his Mystic and Shimmerscale build, and Kurmax’s Mirage-oriented build.
In game three, Becca and k3soju got extremely lucky early with hypercarries and didn’t allow the others near the victory.
While k3soju continued his reign of terror in game four by playing around the level and unit advantage, boxbox’s TFT knowledge was only coming to the surface.
Game five was a convincing and one-sided win in favor of boxbox and Kiyoon.
During the final game of Twitch Rivals: Teamfight Tactics Tag Teams, Team k3soju established complete dominance as Milk and k3soju battled each other for the first place. In the final showdown, Milk took the win.
The winners of Twitch Rivals: Teamfight Tactics Tag Teams were Milk and k3soju with convincing 200 points. Team Kiyoon, which spared no effort, was just behind with 193 points.
