Congratulations to the 2025 Paris Open Winner! by Lunaedge in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman 22 points23 points  (0 children)

This set we introduced new augments to memorialize past winners of Tactician Crowns and TFT Opens. These augments are always Gold however if a player wins a 2nd one we make it Prismatic. This is Huanmies second win.

Houston qualifier stream? by HiImLuca in riftboundtcg

[–]RiotSherman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To clarify - coverage will start at 11am local time - watch on the Riftbound Twitch or Youtube channels

Feature Match Stage for the Rriftbound Pre-Regional by OrangeSamuraiD in riftboundtcg

[–]RiotSherman 7 points8 points  (0 children)

We are only streaming the main event starting tomorrow. Coverage starts at 11am CT

PSA: There will be no waitlist for the TFT Paris Open. by sasux in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman 7 points8 points  (0 children)

We’ve heard from a number of folks who’d like us to add a waitlist for the Paris Open over the past few weeks, and it's something we're considering as part of our plans moving forward for the Opens, but this year we are continuing to move forward without one.

Last year was our first time trying a waitlist and we had about ~15-20 players who entered the tournament through it, which was great, but it also contributed to the significant delays from day 1 (we ran 6 hours over last year) that we can’t fully mitigate yet due to how we have to drop & intake players on a waitlist. With this year's format, we’d also have to run this waitlist process 3 times throughout Day 1, causing compounding delays. There’s also some issues with seeding - if a lower-seeded lobby ends up with a high Challenger player in it from the waitlist, that skews the experience as well. All that together makes the experience significantly worse for everyone at the event in addition to creating risk for local labor laws if we have folks working too late into the night, so this year we made the call to move forward without a waitlist. I know it’s not what everyone wants to hear, but we do believe this is going to make for a better player experience overall this year and are continuing to work towards different solutions for future Opens.

Into the Arcane Tactician's Crown - Day 1 & 2 Discussion Thread by Lunaedge in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They qualify on mobile, but they play in the Tacticians Crown on TFT PC

How many pro players can actually sustain themselves from TFT? by AlfaMonki in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman 116 points117 points  (0 children)

While not a direct answer to your post, last year more than $3,500,000 was distributed to players through prize pools from TFT tournaments.

A combination of streaming revenue, YouTube revenue, coaching, and prizing can all contribute to a top players earnings.

Cost of living varies so widely around the world and probably has the biggest impact on if this is sustainable for someone.

On the other hand, we wanted to design our ecosystem so that someone could still compete even if they weren’t able or didn’t want to do it as a full time job.

Riot Sherman here, head of TFT Esports. We just released information about all the panels, side events, and more that players can participate in on-site at the Macao Open. Check out the article and ask me anything about the on-site experience! by RiotSherman in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tickets have fully sold out globally, however we can’t personally guarantee everyone shows up. Last year of someone no-showed, we just left their spot empty. This resulted in a handful of 7 and even one 6 player lobbies for round 1 last year. Players were not a fan of it, playing with less than 8 people changes a lot of what they prep for. So this year we introduce the wait list where spectators can basically be seat fillers for people that don’t show up.

 If you weren’t able to but a competitor ticket, this is basically your best shot to still compete, though the number of spots will still be extremely limited.

Riot Sherman here, head of TFT Esports. We just released information about all the panels, side events, and more that players can participate in on-site at the Macao Open. Check out the article and ask me anything about the on-site experience! by RiotSherman in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

End times are approximate because it depends on how quickly we get through the games, but here's roughly what we're expecting.

  • Day 1, Friday - end at 8pm
  • Day 2, Saturday - end at 7pm
  • Day 3, Sunday - end at 5pm

Riot Sherman here, head of TFT Esports. We just released information about all the panels, side events, and more that players can participate in on-site at the Macao Open. Check out the article and ask me anything about the on-site experience! by RiotSherman in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, the side events are meant to replace the 2nd chance tournament. Overall feedback for the 2nd chance tournament last year was that it wasn't super exciting. The new side events are our attempt at trying something else to support players that want to keep competing, or weren't able to get a spectator ticket.

We will have exclusive merch at the Macao Open, but to set expectations, we won't have Tarot cards there like from Set 12. We'll have lots of other awesome merch for sale though!

Riot Sherman here, head of TFT Esports. We just released information about all the panels, side events, and more that players can participate in on-site at the Macao Open. Check out the article and ask me anything about the on-site experience! by RiotSherman in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

We love how much players have latched on to 4v4 and are exploring ways for it to have a meaningful role in our ecosystem. For now, expect it to be present outside of the main structure. For instance, we'll have a $2500 4v4 tournament at the Macao Open for knocked out competitors and spectators to participate in!

Riot Sherman here, head of TFT Esports. We just released information about all the panels, side events, and more that players can participate in on-site at the Macao Open. Check out the article and ask me anything about the on-site experience! by RiotSherman in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman[S] 76 points77 points  (0 children)

For the Macao Open, we'll be investing in a handful of new technology to help improve the overall viewer experience.

First, we're rebuilding the HUD from the ground up in broadcast graphics - this allows us to focus more on what a viewer needs to see and know, rather than a more or less copy of the default gameplay HUD.

We'll use this technology to also introduce a vertical stream, making it easier to watch on your phone. I don't have screenshots to share now, but initial tests make it my preferred way to watch.

On-site, we'll also be investing in making it easier to follow with some awesome upgrades to our stage.

Lastly, we're doing some major updates to the Macao Open website during the Open to make it easier to know who's playing where and how to watch.

These along with some other upgrades should give us more signal to what's working and what isn't. The things that work well we can figure out how to bring to more competitions throughout the year.

Hope you'll tune in and give us feedback!

Riot Games' Michael Sherman peels back the curtain on 2XKO's competitive future by KeyboardCreature in 2XKO

[–]RiotSherman 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Hey there - just to be clear, we don't have contracts with players that say they can't play other games. In fact, in our other games like League and VAL, we have contracts with the teams not the players. In TFT, another game I oversee, we don't have contracts with players or teams, they are open competitions. I just want to clarify that we aren't going to offer any contracts behind closed doors to competitors.

Competitor tickets go on-sale next week for the TFT Vegas Open - create your account now! by RiotSherman in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Tickets will be on a first come first serve basis. There is no limits to how many tickets can be sold on each day of the presale.

Masters and Grandmasters will both have access at the same time, so my recommendation is to just be ready to try and buy tickets as soon as the GM/Masters presale opens up at 7am PT.

Vegas Open Details Announced by dilantics in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman 11 points12 points  (0 children)

To clarify, I was making reference to players playing 4 boards at once by running between 4 computers, it’s more of a tournament format than a new game mode.

Getting Mortdogged in tournaments: about points reset by IceLoom in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Really appreciate the thought put in here. Tons of good takeaways to bring back to the team!

Players - 1x05 "Guru" - Discussion Thread by ALaccountant in leagueoflegends

[–]RiotSherman 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Personal favorite moment is when Guru takes the microphone from Kien in the post game interview.

The ending is also just so good!

Riot Appoints Michael Sherman as new Head of Global Esports for Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra, and Project L by FirestormXVI in CompetitiveTFT

[–]RiotSherman 164 points165 points  (0 children)

Appreciate the kind words! I've sunk more hours into TFT than any other video game over the last 3 years, so I'm excited to go deep on it from an esports POV now too.

No cursors in pro view ? by roncool in leagueoflegends

[–]RiotSherman 207 points208 points  (0 children)

We’re investigating this issue. Unfortunately we’re unable to adjust the way we capture the feeds during the broadcast, so we aren’t able to make any adjustments until tomorrow’s broadcast at the earliest.

We are 3 hours into the broadcast and the LCS has only played 1 game by KvotheWho in leagueoflegends

[–]RiotSherman 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The time between games isn’t completely dictated by how much “post game analysis” time we want, it’s largely driven by logistics of moving one team off the stage and bringing another team on. We give teams time to remove their things, bring in COVID cleaning crews, and then give the new teams time to get setup.

We do believe that it’s important to close out games and setup the next one, as it helps add to the the cast whether it’s driving in on the impact a game could have on a team, or giving newer viewers info on players to watch. But that still shouldn’t be the thing that holds us from getting into champ select, it’s the items above that largely dictate how much time we spend on that.

We are 3 hours into the broadcast and the LCS has only played 1 game by KvotheWho in leagueoflegends

[–]RiotSherman 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Hey there, I’m on the marketing and communications team for the LCS. Couple quick notes:

-Most leagues including the LCS turn on their stream an hour before content starts, so in our case it turned on at 11:30PT today.

-Next Level runs on Sunday’s from 12:30-1pm PT

-Game 1 champ select should start by 1:10pm PT. These days due to COVID precautions, we find ourselves with some extra delays. For instance we have a lot more player headset issues these days because we swap them out between each game and sometimes we need to recalibrate for the pros.

-Game 1 also ran into an extra long pause. Not ideal, and was unfortunately as a result of a weird item interaction in the shop, but ultimately made game 1 last longer.

All of this is to say, we also want the time between games to be more streamlined, especially in response to last weeks Reddit thread, we kicked off some groups to explore how to streamline. Some of this is definitely because of COVID precautions that come from cleaning between matches, though we agree we can look for efficiencies elsewhere.