How Riot can Turn Team Fight Tactics into a Billion Dollar Game
Riot’s Team Fight Tactics (TFT) was launched quickly to catch the emerging auto-chess genre that was gaining popularity as a mod on Twitch. Riot for sure succeeded in shipping fast, but they clearly didn’t pay much attention on the business case for the game. After four months TFT has $.43 Revenue per Download. If this wasn’t a Riot’s game, we’d deem it as a commercial failure by now, because very few companies can turn the boat around at this point.
Till date Team Fight Tactics has reached bit over 11M installs. Over 20% of installs is from Korea, which represents the biggest country for the game. US is the second biggest country with 15% of all installs.
source: Sensor Tower
The game has grossed only around $4M in net revenue since launch. Over half of the revenue is coming from Korea. Keep in mind that the game is cross-play, not optimal for small screens, offer only limited cosmetics and till last update had no other purchase option apart from a lackluster battle pass.
source: Sensor Tower
The revenue per download is low. Apart from Korea the RPD shows no meaningful growth.
source: Sensor Tower
It would be relatively straightforward to monetize an auto-chess game like TFT with traditional free-to-play monetization methods. A clear power progression and a focus on slowing down players speed of progress are the two vectors to follow. Then it’s largely up to game’s economy whether it can have a meaningful deep gatcha or a steady pipeline of content offered through a must-have battle pass mechanic.
Yet in case of Riot the challenge to monetize is not so simple. Riot has succeeded in building a brand that players trust. A brand that is known to avoid excessive monetization mechanics steering always away from pay-to-win systems. Yet their dedication to a ultra-light and mainly cosmetics based monetization is also somewhat of a limiting factor to new games that require heavy investment to grow.
The challenge here is to design features that won’t alienate Riot fans - a sizable and very vocal group. These players love Riot because of Riot’s monetization philosophy: players should feel good when spending and when deciding not to spend.
Before I suggest a few designs, let’s establish a few principles that will ensure the suggested monetization fits the Riot’s monetization philosophy:
Engagement > Stats:
benefits occurring from monetization should be tied to engagement and skill more so than just the addition of higher stats. For example, a battle pass mechanic rewards those who are already engaged and encourages them to increase their engagement even more.Focus on Skill: Embrace the Skill-Based nature of the Game. For example, deep metagame, like the one in TFT, rewards players who study it and interacts with the community to find the best combos for current patch.
Don’t Sacrifice Game Play: Monetization won’t matter if the Player just isn’t good at the Game. For example, you can buy all the characters in League of Legends. Yet if you don’t know how to play with them, you won’t be winning any matches.
With these guidelines in mind, let us explore system that could help with the monetization of TFT - a game we very much enjoy to play.
Strong Foundation for a Deep Metagame
TFT has a wide array of Classes and Origins, with all champions in the game having a combination of the two. For example, a champion is a “Blademaster”, which is her class. Having multiple Blademasters in a team increases Blademaster specific bonus, which is triggering an extra attack. In addition to a class the Blademaster champion will also have an Origin, which in this example is “Chrono”. And the more characters with Chrono origin a player has in his team, the more attack speed bonus the whole team will receive.
All the champions in TFT have an Origin in addition to a Class. The addition of secondary identification multiplies the various team composure strategies leading to a much deeper meta game - which in turn leads to increased engagement and a booming community. Or player simply quits deeming the game too complex.
Example of a class bonus. The more of champions of the same class player has in his team, the more effective the bonus will become.
Example of an Origin bonus. The more of champions of the same origin player has in his team, the more effective the bonus will become.
In RPGs, classifications are a good way to organize content for the purposes of bonuses, event restrictions, sales, and other things one can monetize off of. Indeed, TFT already utilizes their champion classification with their set bonuses as described in the example above.
The core strategy of TFT is how to balance Class and Origin set bonuses in a match while managing coin balance, star levels of individual champions (who to level up) and items (the real metagame is around items, just like in League of Legends). This balance opens the game up to several strategies as to how to play the game.
At the same time the randomness of each match, which results from player drawing five new champions they can purchase in the beginning of a turn, makes this game infinitely replayable. Because it’s not only about having the right strategy. It’s about executing the right strategy given the cards and the items you’re facing and the team strategies your opponents are taking - all while the time is ticking.
To summarize the complexity of the game for those who haven’t played it:
Team Fight Tactics is like Texas Hold’Em and Speed Chess had a baby.
Randomness and Skill Undermine Stats
It is a universal truth in F2P games randomness and skill generally undermine the value of stats - especially in RPG and Strategy games. The less valuable stats are, the harder it is to monetize off of stats. And TFT sets up a lot of things to ensure that individual champion stats don’t dictate who wins:
Set Bonuses:
If you look at the set bonuses posted above for the Blademaster Class and Chrono Origin, the top set bonuses dwarf the lower set bonuses, and can completely change how a group of champions perform in battle.
Simply put, the massive set bonuses in TFT are bound to undermine the individual stats of champions making the player focus on synergy of the team rather one single star.Randomness that leads to risk and reward scenarios:
Even if a player goes into a match with a solid game plan, their strategy may be disrupted by unlucky store rolls.Each turn in TFT is a battle. And a beginning of a turn player is presented with 5 Champions they can purchase from the store. Player can re-roll the store offering, but that costs Coins. Coins are earned at the beginning of a turn with bonus given for the Coins player already has. Coins are also used to level up players level, which unlocks higher tier Champions and ability to place more Champions on the map. In other words, choosing to re-roll is a risk that player takes.
The fact that players cannot rely on getting the Champions they want from the Store undermines a statistical advantage a player may have. Add to that the balance between paying to re-roll and the need to spend the same coins on leveling up, and it would be near-impossible for a Player to rely on stats alone to muscle their way through to a top rank in a match.
Randomness of the store offering and the choice to re-roll the store at the beginning of a turn lead to risk and reward choice in the beginning of especially later game turns.
3. Systems that undermine stats:
TFT has so many factors that can affect a player’s performance in a match. The strategic spending of coins and the player’s skill in choosing a good combination of champions based on their Class and Origin is only one level of complexity. Then comes the items, item crafting (combining two items into one) and understanding which item combination to equip on which champion. In addition, player is also expected to keep an eye on other players’ strategy as they build out their teams. All of this happens in real time. And all of this is influenced by the randomness of the store. And because of these layers of complexity, TFT in infinitely replayable and also very challenging to monetize. Break one vector and the whole game comes crushing down.
Monetization Option 1: Champion Mastery
All the factors explained above lend them selves to a moderate stat-based systems to be in the game without making the game even remotely pay-to-win and keeping sure that skills win the matches.
The idea of Champion Mastery is pretty simple: the more a Champion is used, the stronger it gets. Champions would have mastery levels that exist outside of matches. A Mastery Level determines the Champion’s base stats when in a match.
Players can increase a Champion’s Mastery Level by using it in Matches. At the end of the match, Players would earn Mastery Points for the Champions they used. The amount of points each used Champion earns is dependent on where the Player places in the Match. Another option to rack up Mastery Points would be through leveling up the Champion (combining three same Champions makes a two-star champion. Combining three two-star Champions makes a three-star Champion).
Look at Blitzcrank, for example.
Blitzcrank is a Brawler (Class) Chrono (Origin)
As Blitzcrank’s Mastery Level increased, some of it’s base stats would grow
A few things to note:
Not all stats need to be increased. Stats that have less inflationary potential like attack speed, critical hit rate and range would stay static. But other stats that are more open to be inflated would increase.
The stat increases need not be huge. One of the paradoxes of strategy games is that as little as stats might matter, the more competitive players will go to great lengths to achieve those small stat gains. We can have Champion give a modest stat boost to only some stats, and have that be effective. Supercell’s Brawl Stars is a good example of a very mild power progression.
The goal of a system like this is pretty simple:
The more a player plays with a chosen Champion, the stronger their Champions will get over time.
The more player plays with a chosen Champion, the more skill they will build up over time in how to most effectively use the Champion with various team set ups and item builds.
Building a strong engagement loop is crucial for sustainable monetization. And I believe the point has been made that Champion Mastery does create the desired engagement. So lets proceed in discussing how to monetize this increased engagement.
To Monetize off of Champion Mastery, we’d recommend selling options for players to increase the amount of Mastery Points earned through matches. These would come in the following forms:
Subscription IAPs that accelerate Mastery Points earned.
Low cost subscriptions would be sold to accelerate the amount of Mastery Points earned by Champions of specific Origins and Classes. For example, there would be a $1.99 Blademaster Subscription, and a $2.99 Chrono subscription.
Auto-Chess Players tend to favor specific Origins and Classes. Selling subscriptions based on Origins and Classes allows different levels of spenders to choose how much to spend based on how many Origins and Classes they want to try and optimize.
Having multiple low-cost subscriptions allows also for greater conversion and more focused grind for specific mastery. It also enables Riot to grant these short-term focused subscriptions via its Battle Pass, which in turn makes the Battle Pass rewards more meaningful.
While the Subscription is active, Mastery Points earned per match would increase. Note that the mastery multiplier favors skill. The subscriptions ensures that the player makes meaningful mastery progress even if they don’t do well in a given match.. This approach is not optimal for monetization but it is likely more fitting to Riot’s audience.
Note that a lot of the point increases would occur at the lower place finishes. This allows for very skillful players who don’t want to pay to earn nearly the same amount of Mastery Points per Match as a spender. At the same time, less skillful players ca n use the subscriptions to Mastery their Champions faster and try to become more competitive. The subscriptions would ensure that the player makes meaningful mastery progress even if they don’t do well in a given match.
Daily Mastery Point Minigame
Given the use of mini-games across several genres, it seems like a mini-game would fit pretty well in TFT and help to charge up the Champion Mastery.
When the Player first logs in during the day, they will see a circle randomly filled with Champions.
Think about the Wheel mini-game in 8-Ball Pool. Now employ this same mechanic in TFT.
Player taps a button and the Champions will being moving around the circle until one stops in from of the Player.
The Player will earn 10–100 Mastery Points for the Hero that stops.
The first “Spin” of the Wheel would be free, but subsequent spins would cost a $0.99 — $2.99 offering potentially a chance to mastery point multiplier.
While this is technically paying for immediate progress, the random aspect of it would deter spenders from heavily relying on this as a method of increasing their Champion Mastery levels versus playing actual matches.
There’s always an option to offer temporary boosts to Mastery Points earned for players who choose to watch ads. But unless the sky comes crushing down, we won’t see any ad monetization being implemented withing Riot’s games. The negative perception that ads carry makes it unlikely that Riot or other game developers with a strong player-first brands will be adopting ads anytime soon.
Monetization Option 2: Tournaments
With Champion Mastery giving something for players to work towards over time, the other area where TFT can boost it’s monetization comes from Events. Riot has already dabbled in event gameplay with League of Legends’ Clash Tournament Events. TFT has the opportunity to take what has already been done in LoL and push it further with more monetization opportunities that don’t undermine the skill-based nature of TFT gameplay.
Riot has already dabbled in event gameplay with League of Legends’ Clash Tournament Events.
TFT already has a ranked system (which frankly put could be much better promoted on mobile to the players) that keeps competitive players in the game and potentially boosts long-term retention. But the rank system does little for monetization. Since the ranked season lasts months, there is no immediate need for players to spend to advance in the rank system - even if there were things to spend on.
Effective Events in TFT would need the following qualities in order to successfully monetize:
Urgency: Players must have a limited amount of time to complete the event
Artificial Limitations: Players must not be able to attempt the event without any limitations
Currency tied to the Limiting Factor: sell Players something that gets around the Limiting Factor.
Below are a couple Event designs that could do well with TFT:
Tournaments
Tournaments challenge players to place very high in a set number of matches in order to advance. The emphasis is on high placement, which in turn mainly emphasizes skills - though Mastery stats described previously would play a minor role as well.
In a tournament there would be four types of rounds: qualifiers, quarterfinals, semifinals and the finals.
Players entering the tournament are placed in groups that form tournament leaderboards. During a short amount of time, say 3 days, players would collect tournament points, which are based on placing in a match. The tournament points would determine the players who advance through the rounds at the end of the set time interval.
The set time to complete each stage of the tournament creates sense of urgency. The artificial limitation is achieved by limiting the amount of matches player can play during each stage of the tournament. With these two steps in place, the monetization would rely on selling Tournament Tokens that would allow players to play more matches. To avoid the dreaded pay-to-win scenario the new score achieved by extra games will simply replace the lowest score resulting in the player having a higher new score.
Since Tournament Tokens represent a new form of currency with no meaningful inflation implication, they can be liberally given to players via the existing battle pass in addition to selling them directly.
Quite frankly paying to enter a competitive event is nothing new to the genre like this.
Image: Hearthstone
Purchasing additional attempts with Tournament Tokens is not pay-to-win and thus will be accepted by Riot’s core audience. More skillful players will advance without needing to purchase Tournament Tokens. And there will always be few tokens they’ve earned through the free track of the battle pass that will get them over a hump. For those who are less skilled, or more unlucky, the tokens represent a way to keep up with the competition causing them to engage in the more competitive mode.
With Tournaments regularly, players can feel free to skip some tournaments and attempt others. Riot should also feel free to differentiate Tournaments along Origins and Classes, or through different arenas. It’s important to make events feel new or different by fiddling with various base variances. As long as enough players are encouraged to engage in the tournaments, there should be sizable monetization from Tournament Tokens.
Naturally the reward for participating into tournaments needs to be there.
Monetization Option 3: Events
Given how critical Origins and Classes are to the strategies used in matches, it makes sense to have events that stress those elements. Events should last for a very short time. One day is enough. And they should vary by limiting the Origins and Classes that can be picked by the player. For example:
A new combination of Origins and Classes for the event each day will offer something
The benefits of this format are:
Players who already excel with the use of Origins/Classes in this event can do even better.
Players who aren’t as familiar with the combos will have an easier time learning tactics with fewer possible options to pick from.
Should the Mastery System be adopted, players who want to increase the mastery level of specific Origins and Classes will have more success doing it during this event than in general gameplay.
The community is boosted as they attempt to come up with the best builds for current limitation with the latest patch.
The events would also be monetized via a tokens. The Event Tokens would allow to take multiple attempts with the goal of placing better in the daily event leaderboard. The pull to place better can be created with various prizes - be it XP for Battle Pass or shards for unique cosmetics.
There are more events that can fit with TFT. It all depends on how much Riot feels comfortable pushing players to engage with gameplay that is gated by inputs that are sold for money.
Three Ways to Monetize without Monetizing
Riot is extremely cautious when it comes to monetization. They have succeeded in building a brand that players trust. A brand that is known to avoid excessive monetization mechanics steering always away from pay-to-win systems. Yet their dedication to a ultra-light and mainly cosmetics based monetization is also somewhat of a limiting factor to new games that require heavy investment to grow.
The challenge with TFT is to design features that won’t alienate Riot fans - a sizable and very vocal group. These players love Riot because of Riot’s monetization philosophy: players should feel good when spending and when deciding not to spend.
As big fans of both Riot and TFT we offer three ways to generate revenue while maintaining the core monetization philosophy.
1. Champion Mastery
Champion Mastery that opens up the door to the subscriptions and a minigame are all aimed to increase core monetization by offering a minor stat progress. As players join TFT on different days and decide to purchase subscriptions on different days, we should see some monetization from the Subscriptions each day. Similarly, Players who enjoy the minigame and are apt to spend a few dollars will contribute to daily monetization.
2. Tournaments
Tournaments create revenue spikes. When Tournaments first start, there wouldn’t probably be a lot of spend as the more competitive players, who tend to be also the more skilled ones, would blast through qualifying rounds. Yet as the competition stiffens, so would the spend of Tournament Tokens as players would try their luck to improve their standing. This revenue spike behavior should intensify towards the finals with the most engaged players driving the spend through increased engagement..
3. Events
Like Champion Mastery, Events should raise core monetization through Event Tokens each day. Most importantly, Events will make the game feel fresh. There’s something new when player comes back. A new way to engage. A new puzzle for the active community to solve.
We expect Riot to make strides on monetization by focusing first and foremost on engagement. Unlike most of the companies out there, Riot has the resources to be methodical. To play the infinite game - if you will. So don’t be discouraged by the puny revenues. In years, we expect Team Fight Tactics to grow into a Billion Dollar game.
This post was written by Jeff Witt and edited by Michail Katkoff. Two giant fans of Team Fight Tactics.
For additional content like this, please read:
Why Auto-Chess Games can't Monetize - and How to Fix That
Riot's Runeterra Declares War Against Blizzard's Hearthstone
