TFT Ranks & How to Climb

There are a lot of ranks in Teamfight Tactics. The standard ranked ladder and double-up start at iron and go all the way up to challenger. From the start, the ranks go iron, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, emerald, diamond, masters, grandmasters, and challenger.  In this article, we will discuss how to rank up, as well as the differences in skills between each of the ranks in the standard ranked format. The differences in skills are based on my own experience in watching and coaching players of these ranks, and although each person’s skill set is different, I will be pointing out and writing about the most common mistakes at each level and how they can improve.

How to Rank Up

Most of these ranks have 4 divisions, and you move on to the next division when you reach 100 lp. This system goes until masters, where the only way to reach grandmaster and challenger is to be one of the top players in the server. This is different for each server depending on the amount of players, so for North America, grandmaster would be the top 750 players, and challenger is currently the top 250 players. If you want to see the LP thresholds for each server, you can check them out here. You can also see the amount of challengers and grandmaster players for each server.

Each game, you will earn LP as long as you are in the top 4. Fourth place will give you at least 10 lp and the LP increases as your placement improves. 

Ranked Queue Restrictions

Most ranks can queue with divisions one below and one above their rank. So, a platinum player can queue with a gold or emerald player. In masters and above, players can queue with others who are within the range of 400 lp from them. This does not include diamond players.

Hyper Roll

Hyper Roll has its own ranked system, using points. The system goes as follows - Grey (0 points), Green (1400 points), Blue (2600 points), Purple (3400 points), and Hyper (4200+ points). This mode is a popular way to learn a new set. This guide will not go into detail on the differences in hyper roll ranks,

Iron - Platinum

If you are in these ranks then you are starting your TFT journey. In these ranks you want to focus on building up your fundamentals, such as economy, making as many useful items as possible without keeping them on your bench, and proper leveling timings. There are many resources to learn fundamentals and some creators I suggest are Mismatched Socks and Frodan.  This playlist in particular from mismatched socks is great and has many high elo players vouching for it. While the videos are a bit dated from prior sets, many of the concepts from them still apply today, and are fundamentals for nearly every TFT set. Frodan also makes great content educational videos. You can check Frodan out here. Another great way to get started is to read the TFT economy guide here.

Another issue many players in these ranks face is playing too flexibly. There are many cool team compositions to try out, and each comp has a different set of units, items, and augments that make a composition good when certain conditions are met. Learning too many compositions can slow down learning, especially if a player is trying to focus on all the other aspects of TFT at the same time. 

To make it easier, it is suggested that if you are in these ranks, you focus on learning a single composition and play it for as many games as needed until you get comfortable with it. Then, once you understand a comp, you can try out another one and do the same process. Eventually, you will get to the point where you can see the conditions and resources needed for a comp to succeed, and when you start to recognize these spots in game, you can finally start playing more flexibly.

That being said, the more comps you add to your arsenal, the harder it will be to invest time into each one. To maximize your time effectiveness, you should learn at least one composition that uses AD items, such as infinity edge and last whisper, and one composition that uses AP items, such as blue buff and morellonomicon. Currently, a useful AD comp is faerie Kalista, and a good AP comp is Ryze flex with portal, preservers, or arcana. If you want to see some useful comps for the current patch, click here.

Emerald - Diamond

At this rank, most players can generally understand best in slot items for the carries they play the most, and the comps surrounding them. However, many players are blindly following comps and stick to the same board and committing to a comp at 2-1. This prevents them from recognizing opportunities to run different units or pivot.

 For example, a player who is forcing Ryze preservers might desperately roll down looking for a Rakan, but not realize they are rolling past multipleTahm Kench’s, which can be used to play the arcana Ryze comp, as Tahm Kench can work fantastic as an alternative frontline with Galio providing vanguard and portal. Also, tank items are oftentimes extremely flexible and can be moved on to nearly any 2 starred tank.

Players in this rank also often just blindly look at stats for augments and pick the one with the best average placement, instead of picking the best augment for their current spot. While stats can be good to refer to, it is also important to understand your situation. For example, if you are win streaking into stage 3-2, oftentimes you want an augment that helps you continue the win streak, such as sleight of hand or capricious forge. Even if they do not appear highly in the stats, keeping your streak in that situation is more important than taking an economy augment.

Surprisingly another mistake many players in diamond make is being greedy with their items. Proper item economy can give you a huge edge over other players in the lobby. For example, if you have a sword cloak and are playing an AP comp, instead of being greedy with your items, slamming bloodthirster can be a fine tank item, while allowing you to save more health in the midgame. If you have an opportunity to make subpar items, but they save health over the course of 3+ rounds, then it can oftentimes be very worth it, especially in this example because it is hard to use the sword a lot of times.

Also, I am sure most people know about trying not to play contested by now, but they often still end up getting contested or “pivoted into.” In reality, I see a lot of people complain that a player pivoted into them, but if they properly scout they would be able to see the angles taken the entire time. While scouting, you can determine a player’s direction by their augments, items, and early game board. A really obvious example is if you scout and see a portal emblem, they are likely hard forcing Ryze with vertical portal. If you see a player make a guinsoo’s rageblade, they can be leaning towards kalista, but also play a comp like jinx. It is important that when you have freetime during rounds, you constantly scout and evaluate the direction of other players. Playing uncontested as often as possible will help you climb for sure.

Masters+ 

Climbing to grandmaster and beyond can be a challenge. Once you start to approach grandmaster, every mistake you make can be costly. Stage one, two, and three matter a lot. Picking the wrong augment, not scouting, losing your stage 2 loss streak right before krugs, etc. All of these mistakes can be detrimental. The important thing is to make sure you are playing your best board at all times, and have a really solid early, and midgame. Positioning also becomes more important in these ranks, so be sure to stay up to date on the best ways to position in your favorite compositions.

If you get stuck, watching challenger streamers and other players play, as well as reviewing yourself can be solid ways of improving. Coaching is also amazing if you want to improve quickly or find yourself stuck for too long. While reviewing replays, you should pick replays where you thought a game was going well, but it ended up going poorly, or vice versa and analyze why it went the opposite of what was expected. This is because you can often catch more mistakes, as if you review a game you went 8th, but have an idea of why you went 8th, you might learn less because you are catching mistakes you already knew about the game. This doesn’t mean never review these games at all, but it is ideal if you review replays under the conditions above.

Have Fun

As you’re climbing the ladder. You will eventually hit a wall and get stuck. Just remember that Teamfight Tactics is a game, and you should try to have fun while playing it. When you are on a loss streak, it is important to take a break and clear your mind. Maybe try doing another hobby or playing different games, but just make sure when you queue up again to climb, you have a clear mind and are ready to play your best! Thanks for reading and good luck on the climb!