In the second Hextech Havoc qualifier event, team Italy took down a field of the best duos across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region to earn their spot at the Teamfight Tactics Double-Up World Championship. The TFT Double Trouble event was a blast as it was the first official Riot Games TFT event on LAN. The event took place at Gamergy in Madrid and showcased a look at how TFT looks in person as well as how the new Patch 11.24 metagame looks like as well. Here are the lessons we learned from the event.
Italy wins a tournament
In the classic battle of which EU country is the best, Italy showed up in a big way. Historically in TFT, the EU region has been dominated by France. The first world champion of the game was from France and the biggest TFT community in the region also resides in France. They even sent four of the six players from EU to the TFT Fates Championship. In comparison, Italy has never attended the TFT World Championships. But in TFT Set 6, Italy is off to the right start.
We won the #TFTDoubleTrouble tournament!
I am super happy because i love the game mode so much and I play it all the time!
It was an insane experience, so nice meeting everyone and playing in such a well organized event!
Looking forward to the Hextech Havoc tournament now! pic.twitter.com/eLYaF8U3eO— Luque (@luquezlol) December 20, 2021
At TFT Double Trouble, the team of “Luque” and “JollyFaker777” finally brought a title back home to Italy as the duo demolished their competition. In the semifinals, team Italy easily made it out of their group but really turned it on in the final. Their group in finals consisted of France, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern Europe. Italy went 1, 2, 1 in the three-game finals to give them the tournament win. Although the win didn’t net Italy a TFT World Championship berth, it does qualify them for Hextech Havoc, which is the world championship for the Double-Up game mode.
LAN TFT is awesome
TFT Double Trouble technically isn’t the first TFT LAN event, but it definitely was the biggest one in the west. Held live at Gamergy, the event was broadcast live, not only online, but to a stadium of fans while the competitors competed in-person on stage. The production team had live commentary and post-game interviews which enhanced the viewing experience. Seeing the raw emotion of the competitors on stage after each game gave spectators watching in person and at home a glimpse of what TFT esports can be.
TFT has been hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic just like many other esports, but all three world championships for TFT have been held online. With the pandemic permitting, TFT Double Trouble could give fans a sneak peek at what the TFT Gizmos and Gadgets World Championships can look like next year.
The meta has stabilized
TFT Patch 11.24 is the biggest and longest of TFT Set 6, so it’s great to see a diverse and stable metagame. With that said, some of the lower regarded compositions in the metagame took over TFT Double Trouble. In the finals, players got to see Arcanists come roaring back into the metagame. In the three-game finals, the Lux Arcanist comp placed in the top two teams in every game, including two game wins as it won both Game 1 and Game 3. The partner of the Lux player in Game 1 also piloted a comp that is still strong in the meta but less talked about. Perhaps due to hitting both the carry units at three-star, Challenger Yone and Fiora showed up big in Game 1 in the finals as well.
But of course, the best composition in TFT right now showed up just as big. Chemtech Urgot took wins in Games 2 and 3. This created somewhat of a trifecta of meta comps coming away from the TFT Double Trouble event. One comp that is highly regarded that didn’t show up in the finals was the Jhin Snipers composition. But that could be just the small sample size.
