Lessons learned from the TFT Reckoning EU Qualifiers

As the TFT Reckoning World Championship inches closer, regions from around the world are determining who will represent them in China later this year. Over this past weekend, it was Europe’s turn with the TFT Reckoning EU Qualifiers.

Four players from Europe emerged victorious after two weekends of competition, featuring 64 of EU’s best players. “Shircane,” “Ackk,” “Skipaeus” and “Gluteus Maximus” all earned the right to play at the TFT Reckoning World Championship. With these four players having major breakout performances and putting their countries on the TFT map, here are the lessons we learned from the TFT Reckoning EU Qualifiers.

France loses grip on best country in EU

For the past few seasons, France has stood at the top of the EU pile as the best performing region in Teamfight Tactics. At the Galaxies Championship, two of the three EU representatives were from France. The Galaxies World Champion, KC “Double61,” brought the first-ever TFT World Championship to France. At the following season’s Fates World Championship, four of the six Europe representatives were from France, including the World Champion runner-up, “Zyk0o.” High expectations were on France heading into the Reckoning EU Qualifiers. However, they did not meet them or even get close.

No French players even managed to make it into the top 8 of the EU Qualifiers which meant that for the first time, France would not be represented at the TFT World Championships. Instead, European diversity reigned supreme. Four different nations will be waving their flags in China later this year. Germany, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Poland will be sending their best to the World Championship. All four nations are making their Worlds debut.

EU Talent Runs Deep as relative unknowns takeover

When it comes to notable players who competed in this season’s TFT Reckoning EU Qualifiers, there were a lot of familiar faces. Numerous former World Championship representatives, popular figureheads like Salvyy and AceofSpades along with many others attempted to punch a ticket to China. But the four that ended up making it to Worlds didn’t have big followings at all.

Shircane might be rank one on the EU West ladder and because of that, it makes sense that they are going to Worlds but before this season, Shircane wasn’t the top player he is now. Shircane didn’t qualify for last season’s EU Fates Qualifiers, which makes his glow-up this season even more impressive.

Ackk did play in last season’s EU Qualifiers and even managed to make it to the top 16. However, his run came up short. This season, Ackk has maintained their consistent top-10 placing on the ladder and was rewarded with third place overall and a chance to truly breakout at the TFT Reckoning World Championship.

Skipaeus is one of the bigger success stories coming out of the TFT Reckoning EU Qualifiers. Up until Set 4, Skipaues never made it into the Challenger rank. But in Set 5 they have been dominant. Something clicked as Skipaues has gone from a Diamond level player to a World Championship contender in under a year.

Finally, there is Gluteus Maximus, the EU TFT Reckoning Champion. Gluteus Maximus has been a lower-end Challenger player for the majority of TFT’s lifespan, with the occasional peek into the top 50. But at times, like in set 4.5, they struggled to even get into Challengers. But like the rest of the players here, something clicked for Gluteus Maximus in set 5. After ending the first half of TFT Reckoning ranked fifth on the ladder, Gluteus Maximus has bounced around from Grandmaster and Challenger in set 5.5. But despite being ranked 86th, some very clutch and consistent tournament plays have crowned them the EU champion.

TFT meta is in a healthy spot

Even though Lucian dominated the top 64 portion of the EU Qualifiers, there was still a decent amount of diversity among the best performers. The top-16 portion of the event increased the diversity further.

TFT lead designer, Stephen “Mortdog” Mortimer, outlined the lobbies from the top 16. In the top 16, there were 10 different lobbies overall. Among the most popular was the infamous Heimerdinger/Ivern/Volibear composition, as well as “Fortnite Jax,” which essentially runs Jax as the main carry with an Ironclad and Knight frontline.

In top 8, the diversity was even higher. Four of the five games in the top 8 were won with different comps. Joining the Heimer and Jax comps was a Hellion Reroll comp, with Kennen and Tristana as the main carries. The last one was a Sentinel Ranger composition that put all the eggs in Akshan’s basket.

The Revenant and Abomination packages are still very prevalent in the metagame, perhaps too prevalent. But with the sheer number of different playable comps, it seems that the rest of the season is one good patch away from being near-perfect.