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WHO ME?

High rank TFT player and coach, I usually peak top 20 each set, stop playing and decay to Masters 0 in the last few weeks of each set. My peak lp is rank 2 1700+ LP in Set 12…?.

More importantly I’ve coached hundreds of players of all skill levels so I often see repeating mistakes

I play off intuition and fundamentals rather than stats because I’m lazy, but you can climb without stats as well. I only use stats to see what comps are good at beginning of patch.

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WHY MAKE DIS?

I've noticed that a lot of you guys want to learn about TFT fundamentals and that there is minimal engagement between top players and the general playerbase on Reddit, so I'm here to give y'all a lil somethin somethin. I like the theory behind TFT and the mechanisms that work/don't work that stats don't show.

To preface this since I'm going to be yapping a lot, these are not SET IN STONE but rather pretty strong guidelines, as nothing in TFT can not be interpreted in terms of black and white.

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THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE GAME EVEN STARTS

First and foremost, you have to have a solid understanding of the meta. To learn TFT the fastest, you need to learn to flex around the top 5-6 performing comps and then branch out from there once your fundamentals are solid

I like to use Tactics.tools to get a baseline idea of what comps are performing well and then get in a decent amount of volume to find the consistent comps. https://tactics.tools/team-compositions/gm is the top statistical comps filtered by GM+

As a TFT player you can't just spam only 4 costs in a heavy reroll meta, even if you heavily prefer a 4 cost centric playstyle. If the top performing comps are like TF, Vayne, Shaco, Veigar reroll then it's pretty safe to say it's a reroll meta. You refusing to adapt to these metas will leave you underperforming on certain patches when the objective is to make you a more complete player. This also applies in reverse to reroll players.

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How to Read Tactics.Tools for Meta Analysis

The play rate is the expected number of players per game I believe, so .18 is not that high. However, the placement is the best in GM+ right now, because that means people who play this comp average almost 4th place across the board!

Marksman Vanguard, however, has a much higher play rate at almost 1.4 per game and also places well. This means that this comp is pretty reliable for top 4ing. Look for comps that have around .5 Play Rate or higher & under 4.6 avg placement to be your default comps. These are the comps you should look to when you have general augments. Learning to flex between these comps will accelerate TFT growth!

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THINGS TO CONSIDER CTD

For casual players who want to climb I recommend a 70/30 rule: 70% of your games should be the rigid A/S tier meta comps and 30% can be whatever restaurant burning comps you cook up.

For people trying to break into or are Masters+ you have to play more meta comps to build a strong foundation of consistency, so at least 85/15 tbh.

Personal anecdote: whenever I’m trying to climb really high, like top 15, I play 99% meta and will take significantly less risks in augment selection (which I find less fun)

A lot of Diamond/Masters players that I coach have a problem of playing too flexibly and then end up with either paralysis analysis or just some crazy never before seen comp. A lot of times niche/fringe comps (like Veigar reroll) are enabled by very specific things (Augments/Ornn artifacts) and your average player will not be able to recognize these because they don't play/watch tft 9 hours a day, so it's better to have a strong foundation of meta-play to rely on if you want to climb!

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FINDING DIRECTION

Like I said before, if you're aiming to become a more competitive player, TFT isn't a game where you can just flex whatever you want and hope to perform well. For example, most of the time you can't just load up and play something like Brand + 6 Bastions even if Brand is supposedly OP, because his strength is tied into hitting 7 Street Demon rather than the unit himself, so you going out of your way to build a random backline + frontline combo will hurt you more often than help.

If you don't have a solid understanding of the meta then you won't understand the spots in which you have good direction for a good comp, which will ultimately make you miss opportunities for a solid gameplan. You’ll miss out on great early game openers because you’re too used to forcing a suboptimal comp so you subconsciously are biased to holding a small set of early game units.

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FINDING DIRECTION: ITEMS

There are certain key items that are fundamental to a specific comp and are suboptimal in others. For example, Guinsoo's Rageblade is key in several comps like Twisted Fate, Vayne, Marksmen, Zeri etc. but you can't just put a Guinsoo's Rageblade on Brand and play Street Demon because he doesn't scale well off attack speed and the item just sucks on him.

Once you have that Guinsoo's Rageblade on TF, though, you can flex the other items as long as they're useful. You don't always need Guinsoo's, Archangel Staff and Hextech Gunblade, even if you see that on some meta tier list site.

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FINDING DIRECTION: ITEMS CTD

Think of your components as potential items rather than immediate items you can make. For example, if you have a Tear, Rod, Bow, that's:

1) Half a Spear of Shojin + Jeweled Gauntlet for Brand

2) An immediate Guinsoo's Rageblade + half an Archangel's Staff/Stattik Shiv/Spear of Shojin/Tank item for TF comp

3) Half a Blue Buff + Hextech Gunblade for Vex

4) An immediate Guinsoo's Rageblade + half a Spear of Shojin/Tank item for Marksman Vanguard

Certain comps are a bit more inflexible item wise like Vex, but other comps are a bit more flexible like Marksman Vanguard, where you have a plethora of AD and tank items you can slam.

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ITEM FLOWCHART FOR INFANTS

Here’s a very basic diagram to show the thought process on how you interpret components and how they lead you to certain comps:

This is for Tear start, but there are obviously different versions for different offensive components like Bow, Sword, etc.

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FINDING DIRECTION: AUGMENTS

You can also take an augment to force a direction, whether it be a trait specific augment like a +1 Emblem or a combat one like Dummy with a Gun, an RNG trait augment like Branching Out, Hard Commit or Flexible, or use an Ornn artifact to force a great combo like Manazane brand, Blighting Jewel Fiddle, Lich Bane Yuumi etc.

Keep in mind, you really want to scout to see if anyone has taken a specific augment that contests your potential line, especially if it’s reroll because if you guys are contesting each other it increases your chances of going bot 4 by a lot!

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STAGE 1: UNITS

You need to immediately consider what meta comps you can play with your Stage 1 components

Most players that I've coached play solely off of what units they get to determine a comp, regardless of items and potential contesters in the lobby. Units are very important, yes, but items heavily influence your direction so oftentimes you hold units based on your items.

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STAGE 1: UNITS CTD

You should hold units that synergize with the components that you have and build around those units rather than just force Vex with Sword, Glove and Bow drop.

For example, If I get dropped a tear, I want to really hold Morganas/Zyras/Seraphines to find a direction into either Vex, Street Demon or Anima Squad. Likewise, if I get dropped a Bow, I really want to hold stuff like Kindred and Kog'Maw to find direction based on components.

If you get pure tank items, just hold whatever pairs you get and let your units guide you into a direction. For example, if you get 2* Vanguards + Marksman you can just look for an augment that makes playing Marksman Vanguard easy. Alternatively you can lose streak to force a direction by taking a key offensive component like Tear or wait until after Krugs to pick a concrete direction.

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STAGE 1: BUILDING AN EARLY GAME BOARD

It’s very important to hold units compliment each other. It’s not just backline that matters, you need to build a synergistic board in total.

For example, If you have a Kog’Maw pair with AD items, you need to hold Vanguards/Bastions (whatever frontline tbh) to build a board that leads into either Marksman Vanguard or Zeri/MF.

For this reason, I rarely make 10g at 1-3 because I value building a potentially strong early game board.

Too many people hold units in Stage 1 that don’t mesh with each other at all and wonder why they never winstreak/always resort to lose streaking. A lot of newer players don’t buy out their early game shops if it doesn’t cost you econ. If you don’t hold things that work together your chances of building a solid early game board are really slim.

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Here I don’t really have direction with my items, but I have a free level 4 Anima Squard board laid out for me. Since Anima Squad is solid A tier meta comp, I’m 80% going to make my life easy and just play 7 Anima Squad late game. I divide my bench by units I’m keeping vs units I’m selling. If I don’t get money from an orb here I’m selling my right side to buy Illaoi so I can run her + Shyvana at 4. It’s very important to plan your next level at all stages of the game, not just Stage 1! This is only possible because I held Seraphines and Sylas’s to build towards a synergistic board early.

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STAGE 2: NARROWING DOWN POTENTIAL COMPS

Since most recent sets have promoted a more linear, less pivot heavy playstyle, it’s ok to limit your options by 2-1 based on your early augment and items.

For this reason, after 2-1 augments, I want you to limit your endgame comp options to 3 immediately. This makes it so that you're immediately playing off your components + initial augment and have set goals to work towards.

Some games you can commit to a comp immediately, but the purpose of limiting your options to 3 right off the bat is to discipline yourself mentally and build a plan so you're not in lala land until 4-1/4-2 where you have to rolldown and you don't know specifically what you're looking for. In my Stage 3 guide we’ll talk about limiting your choices even more!

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STAGE 2: NARROWING DOWN COMPS CTD

Like we said previously, items and units hold a lot of weight to finding a path throughout the game. Since it’s hard to pivot from one comp to another in Stage 4 due to a lot of value being put in vertical traits, it’s oftentimes better to play in a linear fashion and plan early than be a pivot god.

What this means is if you have relevant Vex items and no Street Demons, it’s important to hold the Morganas, Jhins and Jaxes to start building into Vex immediately because you don’t want to look for the 1 or 2 cost units on your level 8 rolldown.

On the other hand, holding Kindred + Kog’maw + Vanguards when you have AD items makes going into Marksman Vanguard a lot easier because your transition is a lot simpler. This is why we put so much emphasis on holding units early that synergize, as you have immediate direction and will put less stress on yourself in Stage 4.

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WHAT IF I’M DIRECTIONLESS, BROKE AND WEAK (IN GAME)?

If your opener sucks, you have no upgrades and your items can't be made into anything decent for good performing comps, you probably want to lose streak. We'll talk about deciding when to lose streak in a bit, but having a bad start is a heavy incentive to lose streak.

You can force direction through taking a key offensive component off carousel e.g. Tear for Vex since she needs two tears.

Notice again that your items are extremely influential in deciding what path you're trying to go down!

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LOSE STREAKING

Lose streaking is when you concede early game and prioritize making econ/holding Cypher units instead.

Oftentimes, when you level to 4 at 2-1 you are declaring that you're playing to save HP/winstreak because delay making 10g to start econ snowball and you may win against people who have awful boards.

Having a WLWLW streak crushes your economy and will make hitting harder because you have less gold to roll/level.

Thus, when you don't have a good early game, you should not manually press levels Stage 2 and play for a loss streak instead.

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CHECKLIST FOR WHEN TO LEVEL TO 4

As a general rule of thumb, you should follow a checklist before leveling to 4 at 2-1:

1) Have a good early game augment that gives you some power like Portable Forge, Silver Spoon, Replication, Going Long etc

2) Have at least 1 2* unit that is crucial to your early game board (the unit has to synergize with your early game board/items and not just a traitless random 2* unit. For example, a 2* Morgana with dynamo exotech start. If you have like a Kindred 2 with AP items and Street Demon units this doesn't count as an "upgraded unit")

3) Have a good item you can slam that leads you to a good comp or is strong early like Sunfire, Infinity Edge, Rageblade, Shojin etc

Ideally meet 2 of these requirements before you decide to push level 4 and play for winstreak. Also note that these are recommended guidelines, there will be instances where you don’t follow this to a T.

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Stage 2 Loss Streak Gameplan: SCOUTING

Scouting is the most important thing in Stage 2 to make sure you lose. Scouting just means looking at other people’s boards You want to look primarily at people who are also losing as they are the biggest threats in breaking your streak.

In case you didn’t know, people with the crossing swords underneath are potential

matchups!

If even one person looks weaker than you, think about what you can sell/replace to make your board weaker than theirs. If they sell everything there’s not much you can do and I’d rather hold units to prepare for Stage 3.

Since you’re barely playing the early game anyways, you can use this time to see what direction other players are trying to pursue depending on what boards they’re putting out and what items they have.

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WHAT UNITS TO HOLD WHILE LOSE STREAKING

Ideally, you want to hold key units that synergize with the endgame board you’re trying to build towards. In the following game in the next few slides I’m 90% playing Marksman Vanguard so I want to hold Vanguards, Marksmen and potentially a Kog’Maw 2* to save HP early/midgame.

I can make a reasonable transition to Zeri MF because I have a Guinsoo’s Rageblade and the Exotech items are pretty good for her, so I have a plan B in case my plan A doesn’t work out

You REALLY want to hold/play Cypher units because a 200-400 Cypher Cashout can give you a big boost in late game strength since you’re lose streaking anyways.

A lot of people hear that they should lose Stage 2 if their opener sucks but neglect planning for Stage 3 and 4. Holding useful units with a game plan in mind is crucial for saving HP starting Stage 3.

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MINIMIZING LOSSES IN STAGE 2

Even though you’re looking to 5 loss in Stage 2, there are little things you can do to make the blows hurt a little less!

If you scout and see no one’s open forting you can adjust your positioning to focus fire a side that is weaker. What that means is that if you scout 4 potential matchups and 2 or 3 of those matchups have a 1* frontliner on one side, maybe you can move your entire board to focus that side to save some hp.

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PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

In the following slide I’ll go over a game of my own where I apply these concepts in real time!

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In the above spot I have no upgrades, and even though I have a Kindred pair and a potential Guinsoo’s Rageblade, I don’t see myself winstreaking with a Kindred 2 as opposed to something like a Vi 2 because Kindred is kinda useless.

This then influences my augment decision because now I’d probably want to take an econ or scaling augment since I’m most likely sacking Stage 2 anyways.

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I choose Pumping Up to better synergize with my gameplan of just putting Marksman Vanguard in the bag. I could have gamba’ed with Item Grab Bag but it’s a lot riskier imo. I would’ve also taken an econ aug, Eye For an Eye, basically anything that sets me up for later in the game.

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This is my spot at 2-1. A lot of people would just level up and put in 2 Vanguard with the Kindred + Kog’Maw but you’re going to Win Loss Win Loss all of Stage 2 and be broke the entire game. Since I don’t have an econ augment and Marksman Vanguard really likes combat augs, I really want the 5 loss streak to have decent econ. Also, if I manage my econ well enough and I’m not omega contested, I can take more combat augs.

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This is a good example of positioning to minimize loss. My board sucks but I can potentially kill a unit if I all in on a weaker side. If I spread my units out, I most likely would not have killed this Mundo and would have lost more HP.

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Another way to preserve HP is to slam items to save HP. Since my opener leans heavily into Marksman Vanguard, I’m fine with making the Rageblade and leaving it on bench. In this instance, since I’m pretty sure I’ll win if I slam the Rageblade immediately, I wait until like 10 seconds into the fight to put it on Kog’Maw. I end up losing by only 1 unit because of this. This is risky because sometimes you’ll accidentally win the fight!

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Because of how I’ve prepared my Stage 2, I have decent econ with minimal losses (78 HP 5 loss is phenomenal) AND I’ve prepared for Stage 3 with a Jhin 2 on my bench with potential upgraded frontliners. I end up just selling Kog and moving items over to Jhin 2.

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WIN STREAKING IN STAGE 2

Win streaking is more achievable the lower elo you are because people’s understanding of holding units that synergize to make a complete board early game gets stronger the higher elo you go.

If you snowball a good opener and save HP early game, you can potentially top 4 off HP alone even if you miss your rolldown.

It’s less stressful to maintain high hp than to play with your back against the wall.

Win streaking improves your ability to play strongest board which may be the single most important skill to reaching Masters besides econ management

An example of an instance in which I looked to play for winstreak even though my board is pretty average will be shown in the next slide

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WHY DID I LEVEL AND PLAY AGGRO?

Following the checklist I mentioned previously, I level up to 4 even though my board is not that impressive. Why? Keep in mind this is an Artifact Portal and a 2 component lobby. I got Bow and Tear start. I chose Rod for Replication.

I have a decent early game augment provided I win the first round. If I win this round, I have a full item over everyone else in the lobby (Potential Rabadon’s deathcap + Statikk Shiv). I put the items on Morg because Morg 1 is better than Zyra 1 without Street Demon
A lot of people might greed the Tear for Spear of Shojin because some website said Shojin is BiS. You have to realize sometimes that when you’re playing to win early, it’s worth slamming a useful item that is needed throughout all points of the game to ensure a higher likelihood of winstreaking. I’m always going to need MR penetration if I’m looking to play Street Demon from my spot. I have to trust I’ll find mana generation sometime later down the line.
I have an important upgrade in Mundo because he can carry my Artifact and Hullbreaker is very good early due to the flat HP.
I have a good potential 2 item combo for early game in Shiv and Rabadon’s.

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MORE COPE REASONS

If I level I also have higher odds to find a 3rd Street Demon which will spike me even more because my Mundo is gonna be a giga early game monster. I can then move the AP items over to Zyra.

I farm more Aura if I winstreak rather than losestreak (this is to appeal to kids to reach a larger audience, Marketing 101)

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I end up 5 streaking with a Zyra 1 because of my decisions. Obviously this won’t happen in a lot of cases but because most of my checklist was met, I was able to either play for a 5 win or for HP.

I end up getting a 3rd in what I would say is an average roll game. I didn’t really highroll nor lowroll in all aspects but I increased my chances of top 4ing a lot by getting a winstreak early.

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CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Important takeaways are:

- Find out the state of the meta through whatever avenue you choose, I use Tactics.Tools for comp stats only

Let items dictate direction and what units to hold
If unsure (usually because of tank item start) you can:

Prioritize early board synergy and strength so you can narrow down end game comps after Krugs/3-2 augment.
Prioritize econ to force a direction by taking a key offensive component off carousel (e.g. Tear for Vex)

- Follow the checklist I mentioned as a reliable guideline on whether to push levels early (winstreak) or make econ (lose streak).

- Scout stage 2 to preserve a win or lose streak and to see if a line you’re thinking of is very contested

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CONCLUDING THOUGHTS PT 2

Though applicable in most cases, sometimes there are outlier cases in regards to following these suggestions. For example, for the checklist on leveling to 4 on 2-1, sometimes you can level while meeting only 1 requirement. This means that sometimes you may have something like a lot of units upgraded and can just try to force a winstreak anyways and slam a suboptimal early game item like Steadfast Heart to try to 5-win.
The intention of this guide was to organize the way you approach TFT and build structure. If you’re constantly thinking about how to optimize your early game boards, what to hold and what type of streak to play into you’ll naturally build better habits that will persist through your TFT career!
Remember at the end of the day if you’re not a pro player you should also have some fun so if you want to cook something crazy every once in a while you can.

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