Teamfight Tactics could eventually break away from the League of Legends client

Teamfight Tactics Set 5 — (Image credit: Riot)

Since launch, Teamfight Tactics has lived inside the League of Legends client as a nice little extra. But Riot has suggested that home may not be permanent, as the game grows beyond its MOBA spin-off roots.

At least, that's where product owner Winston Baker sees the game going in future. Speaking to PC Gamer on how TFT plans to build its own identity beyond LoL, Baker reckons the autobattler could eventually outgrow its MOBA roots.

"A lot of it depends on, essentially, how we best serve players," says Baker. "That's generally how we think about it. When we wanted to launch TFT, the best way to do that was to use our existing client for LoL, because it afforded us a lot of advantages. I think as the game grows, and as it develops its own identity, yeah, we're absolutely looking at potentially moving out, or do we find our own place? We just need to find a home for it. It really depends on how much we invest in it, and that's all driven on how much players love the game."

The benefit of having TFT included in the League client, supposedly, was to make it easier for players who play both to hop between the two. But Baker explains that there aren't really that many people who play both League and TFT.

"What I found actually is that we have a lot more endemic TFT players than we originally anticipated. Certainly there are people who go back and forth, but it's not quite like [League of Legends modes] Summoner's Rift and All Random All Mid. TFT is a whole different game. And so I think it sort of tracks in the way that you would expect where it is an entirely different genre."

Baker doesn't make any concrete plans, of course. But TFT is already far more than a mere spin-off from League of Legends—it's a massively popular auto-battler, one that can occasionally hit upwards of 10 million active players a day. Don't be surprised if you find yourself playing it out of a brand new client sooner or later.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.