LoL Patch 9.16 bringing better matchmaking system to Teamfight Tactics

Changes to Teamfight Tactics’ matchmaking system are in the works.

Riot Games is known for taking players’ feedback to heart and this instance is no different. Designer Geoff Marsi announced a welcome shakeup to the autobattler’s game coordinator which will arrive in the 9.16 patch.

“With the new system, it’ll be extremely unlikely to be matched against the same player (or the ghost army) multiple times in a row,” Marsi tweeted.

Since its release in late June, Riot Games's answer to Dota Auto Chess has been growing in popularity. That said, the game is far from perfect.

LoL Patch 9.16 should remove some TFT randomness

The current matchmaking system has suffered from an issue where players encounter each other in consecutive games on a relatively frequent basis. This can be particularly frustrating for new players who get repeatedly matched with high-level competitors, or skilled players who may have shown their best strategies to their opponents in a previous game.

Compounding this issue are the aforementioned “ghost armies.”

Ghost armies are utilized when an uneven number of players join a game. To ensure players are not left twiddling their fingers during rounds, cloned teams are created for players to compete against.

Ghost armies are easier to defeat than an actual opponent due to a bug that prevents trait benefits from being utilized, which allows players to gain an unfair advantage if they coincidentally get matched against one on multiple occasions. The drawback to this is that defeating a player’s ghost army does not deal damage to the loser, while the ghost army is still capable of dealing damage if they prevail. Marsi added in a later tweet that the team is “working to fix that,” but did not state when that issue would be remedied.

While randomness is a key component of Teamfight Tactics and other autobattlers, both of these issues have soured the experiences of many players.

League of Legends version 9.16 is set to be released on August 14.