With Teamfight Tactics’ mobile launch kicking off today, Riot wants to make sure the crossplay function is as fair as possible.
TFT product manager Dax Andrus told Dot Esports that it was important to put all players on a “level-playing field,” regardless if they’re on PC or mobile devices.
“Cross-play is very important, but we didn’t want players on one platform to have any significant advantage over the other group,” Andrus said. “There’s also a perception that games are harder to play on phones because of their smaller screen sizes, touch-screen, etc… [TFT] is a lot more forgiving in general since much of the gameplay is about the strategy and thought in every action, more than the actions per minute or fast reflexes.”
Playing Fortnite or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on a mobile device can put you at a disadvantage. There’s no way aiming and shooting on a cellphone is as quick and precise as a mouse and keyboard or controller. But since TFT is an autobattler, reflexes aren’t as important as strategic moves.
There are some UI changes, such as an item selector and the placement of units for purchase, but the “overall experience is almost identical,” according to Andrus. And players can seamlessly transition from playing ranked on their PC to their mobile device. Cosmetics won’t be purchasable on mobile devices at launch, but they will be at a later date.
Players can jump into Set Three: Galaxies on their mobile devices right now.
