How I Got Good at TFT

Hey Guys, I want to talk about how I got better at TFT. Of course the easiest way to get better at TFT is to subscribe to my Youtube Channel, but when I started the game, there was no quality educational content around. Even today, most TFT videos are either Highlights or Full Game Edits–some of which are entertaining, but neither drastically improve people’s play. I’m not a pro player, but I finished Set 1 with two accounts in Challenger. In Set 2, I hit Masters in a little over 100 games and eventually finished the set in Grandmasters despite not playing the first two months of the Set AND only playing for 12 hours a week. While 12 hours may seem like a lot, many high ranked players play around 12 hours a day, and had a 2 month head start on this patch for improving at the game. This article will show you how to improve in less than an hour each day.

Even minor changes can make a huge difference in your play. A playstyle adjustment from one of my twitch viewers helped me climb 300LP on the last day of Set 2.


Follow at twitch.tv/bunnymuffinslol and youtube.com/bunnymuffins


The How to Get Good at TFT Methodology

Learning the Basics BEFORE Learning to Break the Rules

The fastest way to learn anything is to learn the basics. I take this to an extreme level because I will blindly follow and copy basic principles in any game. The reason you want to do this is because there are people who have spent countless hours perfecting this craft. You can learn 50% of what they learned in less than a day if you are focused. Only after you have mastered the basics should you try to break the rules. For example, players in Platinum and below should watch and COPY my Set 2 Leveling Guide at first. Then, after getting used to these leveling patterns, these same players should experiment with making minor alterations. Once these players have mastered WHEN to deviate from the guide, they can start forming their own leveling patterns and see what works best for their personal tastes.

Check out this comment below, where one viewer went from Silver II to Master in less than 1 month. He has employed this methodology very quickly. He first found a high level player (me) and copied a guide, which was the leveling guide. Then he learned how to play each of the meta compositions by forcing them. By doing this, he was able to figure out the optimal situations to go every composition and optimal situations to use different leveling strategies. While not everyone can be as fast as Gergely, everyone can employ the same methodology to improve at the game.

How I Got Good at TFT

One way that I employed this methodology was on the last 2 days of Set 2 after a person in my twitch chat offered his advice and introduced me to what felt like a new way to play the game. After blindly following his instruction for 2 games, I climbed 300 LP in the next 20 games after I integrated it into my own play.

Stick to One Playstyle Before Adapting to Everything

In a similar vein, I always advocate for learning concepts one at a time. It is common knowledge that adapting every game is the best way to play. However, we are only human, we can’t memorize every playstyle, transitions, variations, itemizations, power spikes, and other nuances for every composition. Also, many Challenger players have forced compositions in the past, so it’s not like you can’t get Challenger if you don’t adapt.

Therefore, while forcing is theoretically suboptimal, most players should focus on one playstyle before mixing and matching. For example, you can focus on playing conservatively and try to go for top 4 every game by building early game items, going for mid game team comps, and using your economy to maximize your mid game power spike. Once you have this playstyle mastered, I would move on to learning how to win games, which involves saving your items for perfect late game items, going for high variance compositions that win lobbies if you hit the correct legendaries, and being greedy with your economy. Only after having mastered both playstyles, I would start to combine them and see which games cater to each style.

Watching VoDS

Next tip we have is watching pro or high ranked player VoDs, also known as Videos on Demand or replays. This is contrary to watching streams, which is what everyone recommends. Everyone recommends watching streams because each of these players conveniently stream themselves and are mainly trying to get more viewers. Nothing wrong with that, I do the same exact thing, but streaming is for entertainment. If you are liking this video so far, follow my stream at twitch.tv/bunnymuffinslol for a good time. If you want to get better at Teamfight Tactics, you need to be watching VoDs. The main reason why VoDs are better than streams is the fact that you can pause them.

What I do is watch a stream of a top 10 challenger player and pause at the beginning of every stage. I ask myself what I would do for the shop, items, champions played on board, and positioning before resuming the video. If there was a refresh of the shop or a set of rolls, I would pause at every roll and choose which units I would buy and sell. If the player’s move was different than the one I had thought out, I would pause again and try to figure out why his line of play is better, or find out if he made a mistake by having him admit it after making the play (the only advantage of a live stream is being able to ask questions, which is not available in a VoD).

We live in a time where there are no more secrets due to the accessibility of the internet, so if you are watching this video, you too have access to the same exact resources as I do. Each VoD is only 40 minutes, so there are no excuses.

Find a few streamers, open up their VoDs, and go crazy. One note–you don’t have to necessarily watch a top 10 player. The reason why I watch them is because I am already a Challenger caliber player, so the number of players considerably better than me is very few. If you are not at least Masters, I actually recommend not watching Top 10 players because many do not explain their plays at all and simply just think in their head.

Someone being the best at a game doesn’t mean they are the best teachers–you wouldn’t hire Michael Jordan to become a better basketball [insert magnus carlsen quote “I know but I don’t know how I know”] player, you’d hire a world class coach instead. That’s why if you aren’t already Challenger, I’d recommend simply watching anyone at least 2 tiers above you, while making sure that the player explains their rationale for every play. For example, a Gold player should try to watch someone in Diamond or higher. If you like the way I explain things, head on over to https://twitch.tv/bunnymuffinslol to catch my streams at 3pm everyday on the weekends!

Now for a bonus tip on watching VoDs: only watch at most 3 different players. This is critical because we want to apply the same principles from the 2nd tip which was to master one playstyle before learning all of them. For reference, I generally only study 1 player every week.

Summary

To conclude, I didn’t do anything special to get better at TFT. I will say that I often get to high levels in many activities quite quickly. The secret is that I respect players who are better than me and have a long term plan to improve. Here are the primary ways I got better at TFT:

  • Learn the basics first and then learn to break the rules
  • Master one playstyle before learning all of them
  • Watch VoDs, not streams and pause before each play
How I Got GOOD at Teamfight Tactics | TFT