(1) Happy 5th birthday TFT!
Taking y’all down memory lane again as I add more & new things to reminisce about since my thread last year🧵
(2) Edge of Night used to be Guardian Angel
GA was similar to EoN but had a revive mechanic that was wonky with certain Champions. EoN works more consistently & predictably.
(3) Zephyr & Shroud used to be craftable items!
Zephyr recipe became Evenshroud, and Shroud recipe turned into Steadfast Heart.
They’d be on every late stage carousel and players would make a beeline for these rat items.
Fortunately they’re support items now!
(4) Zephyr & Shroud were almost changed so that they would NOT be equippable after combat started. Sadly, this wasn’t implemented.
(5) Blitzcrank Pull — A version of Blitzcrank used to pull the furthest unit into melee range & stun it. Farewell 3-item ranged carry!
As if that wasn’t tilting enough, there was an Ornn item called Rocket-Propelled Fist that did the same thing.
(6) Max level used to be 9.
There was something called “The Soju Special” where after leveling to 9, the player would only have enough gold to roll twice and inevitably die.
The max level is now 10.
(7) It used to be possible to get +1 LP for a 4th and -1 LP for 5th.
In some unlucky cases you could even lose LP for a Top 4.
Now a Top 4 is minimum +10 LP, and a 5th is minimum -10 LP.
I love it when I think I’m going 5th but eek out a 4th.
(8) Cloak used to be the red haired stepchild of TFTcomponents. @guubums even had a 1st carousel Twitch !item command that was “ABC — Anything But Cloak”
The item overhaul in Set 9.5 made Cloaks more palatable, bows ok for AP players, and tears not catastrophic for AD players.
(9) 19 July 2023 was a dark day when Riot banned Augment stats from 3rd party websites.
Not to be deterred, at least 1 of the 1mm+ computer science TFT players scraped post game info from sites like lolchess to create “Black Market Stats”.
Riot reinstated Augment stats in Set 9.5
TFT players may not read but they can program!
(10) What is a .5/midset, you ask?
Sets used to last ~6mo. About halfway, a bunch of champions & traits would be swapped out to refresh the game.
Midsets were stressful to develop & didn’t provide enough reinvigoration so we now have full sets every ~4mo instead.
(11) Before opponent trackers were added to the game, you’d have to manually track players in your pool using pen/paper, spreadsheet, or an app.
I used TFTHub (that was really what it was called!)
The name TFTHub has since been repurposed — please visit TFTHub.com for TFT game info!
(12) Sometimes in Stage 1-4, the last creep killed would drop a loot orb and you’d have less than 1 second to figure out whether to buy your shop, sell to make econ, whatever.
They fixed this stressful pain point!
(13) Early Game Loot
Originally more early game items were considered OP and unfair
Then players complained that gold openers were OP and unfair
Loot is now normalized. Since Patch 14.5 “All players now get the same tier (quality) of loot at the same time even if those contents differ.”
(14) Auto Gold Collection
If you were lucky enough to get mucho gold from Tahm Kench, Gold Collector, Creeps etc. you used to have to desperately Super Mario Kart your way all over the map to catch it all to make econ breakpoints.
The auto gold collection since Set 7 has been such a blessing!
(15) Pay to Win Maps!!
Before tiebreaker rules existed, if more than 1 player died in a round, the one who was killed by the boom first placed lower.
Players would pilot their Little Legends to the leftmost bottom corner of the map to delay the boom hit.
There were certain “pay to win” maps that had an extra 5 pixels of runway in the bottom left corner so some players purchased those maps to try and eek out an extra placement.
I don’t know if this supposed extra space bottom left was real, but the money players spent was!
(16) Before if you parked your Little Legend bottom center you could prevent opponents from quickly scouting your level.
In Set 8.5 this was circumvented; devs added the ability to minimize the stage bar.
Graphic by @mindful_one_ @t witter.com: they have an entire thread on TFT QoL changes!
(17) Item Recipes
I didn’t play Set 1 only because items were too intimidating. Much regret.
In Set 2, I had a grid on a 2nd monitor to remind myself of item recipes.
Starting in Patch 10.16 you could right click on a component to see which items you could make with it..
(18) Previously you’d need at least Honor 3 to get access to PBE. People would beg, borrow, or steal qualifying accounts. You could even buy one on eBay (against ToS)!
The requirement no longer exists and they’re even testing mobile PBE.
(19) Remember the summer intern meme? Summer engineering intern Kallen Tu created Blocked & Healing/Shielding Meters that deployed 10.20.
I hope they’re uber successful and living their best life wherever they are.
(20) Did you know before Iniko worked at Riot he was a pro player? He was half of the dynamic duo Squink in the Sink — he and Dishsoap won TFT Summit!
Iniko hit Rank 1 even after joining Riot… because he could.
(21) Sparring Glove used to have 10%+ Dodge Chance.
Your opponent’s tank with a (then craftable) Shroud of Stillness could hit the Dodge lottery and render your Aphelios’s entire ult useless. Oof.
Dodge was removed from Glove in Set 8.
(22) The Level Bar was added in Patch 9.24 to display current level, XP progress, & drop rates for different tears based on level.
In doing so, the Buy XP & Refresh buttons were swapped which caused mass panic.
It was a long term move that worked out splendidly.
(23) The dev team considered removing the mini map bottom right and reversed course after players complained.
Mini map is the most OP thing you’re probably not using!
It’s a navigation tool and unlike the player icons on the right, specific opponent location never changes.
(24) Ode to Team Planner!
It launched as a 9-unit grid.
In Patch 13.20 you could turn on in-game reminders to see your selected champions marked in the Shop.
Need to check traits that change from game to game but don’t yet own a relevant unit? Use Team Planner!
Examples
- Janna Weather
- Inkshadow Tattoos
- Exalted Units (Venerable Piggy Bank Augment)
(25) Riot considered replacing the existing item bench with an item grid.
It wasn’t implemented partly because you couldn’t scout which components/items other players had to guess which comps they were pursuing.
Thanks @meeix_@twitter.com and @BlazT24@twitter.com for the screenshot
(25) ICYMI Here’s last year’s 4th anniversary thread on things that used to be in TFT but no longer exist
Link to 4th year anniversary thread https://x.com/Lauren_Wu/status/1673733861107445760/photo/1
Thanks again to Mortdog and the entire TFT team for making my favorite video game ever.
You’re the best ❤️
Link to original thread on Twitter
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