Mentioned in this article
- Teamfight Tactics is a new “auto-battler” strategy game mode that will be added to League of Legends.
- It is inspired by Dota Auto Chess, a popular Dota 2 third-party modification that has since spread to standalone mobile releases. Valve is creating its own standalone version for PC.
- An Auto Chess esports league is being created in partnership between Drodo Studio, ImbaTV, and Long Mobile, with a reported prize pool of $1.45M USD (¥10M).
Riot Games 
announced that it will release a brand new mode for League of Legends called Teamfight Tactics, which is openly inspired by the popular Dota 2 mod, Dota Auto Chess .
Teamfight Tactics is a strategy game mode that takes place on a hex grid and challenges each player to build the most powerful team possible. Your combatants will automatically attack on your behalf each turn, but all while your opponent is trying to outmatch you with his or her own squad.
In a post announcing the incoming mode, Riot Games employees admitted to being inspired by the Dota 2 mod. “We’ve always loved strategy games, and recently we’ve gotten into the new auto-battler genre—folks around the office have been playing an insane amount of Dota Auto Chess in particular,” reads the post. “We love it, and it actually got us inspired to create something new as a mode in League.”
Dota Auto Chess, a strategy game more akin to mahjong than chess, was created by the five-person Drodo Studio as a modification for Valve’s hit PC MOBA. It has seen a surge of interest since releasing in January. Within 30 days of release, it had a peak concurrent player count of more than 300K, with a total of 4.13M subscribers to the mod. As of May, the total number of subscribers had surpassed 8M.
Related Article: Valve Developing Its Own Standalone Version of Dota Auto Chess
Valve and Drodo Studio were in discussions to create a standalone PC version of Dota Auto Chess, but couldn’t come to terms. As a result, Valve will create its own standalone PC take on the genre, while Drodo Studio has thus far released Android and iOS versions of the game. At the E3 gaming convention this week, the studio announced a standalone Auto Chess for PC, which will be exclusively available via the Epic Games Store.
Auto Chess has started making waves as an esport. In March, Drodo Studio partnered with Chinese production company ImbaTV and Long Mobile to develop the mobile version of the game, as well as create an esports league around both the mobile and PC iterations. The prize pool has been reported to be ¥10M ($1.45M), although that number has not yet been confirmed by the companies involved.
Additionally, Dota Auto Chess is part of the 2019 OGN Super League (OSL), with a seven-week competition kicking off in late May.
