You know that horrible moment when you hop onto Discord just as your friends are in the opening stages of a game? Those times when you’re forced to wait for them to finish so you can join in too? Well, Riot’s working on a solution, as the League of Legends developer says it’s putting together a spectator mode for Teamfight Tactics.
Last night, Riot researcher Nathan ‘Blaustoise’ Blau hosted a Q&A with TFT design lead Stephen ‘Mortdog’ Mortimer. During the livestream (which you can watch the relevant clip from further down this article, via Dot Esports), a viewer asked whether Riot had any plans to implement a spectator mode for the game.
Mortimer’s response left viewers in little doubt: “Absolutely. Absolutely, we are working on that. It takes time, but absolutely. Especially because spectator will enable things like tournaments.” That’s great news, of course, but even better is the fact that Mortimer closed by saying that not only was a spectator mode in the works, but it was a “very high priority” for Riot.
League of Legends has had a spectator mode for years, allowing players to watch their friends in action, but with a three-minute delay to ensure no unfair advantages. I’d be surprised if that were matched exactly for TFT, as almost all of its information is on display at all times.
Teamfight Tactics does have some spectator functionality built into the game already. If you’re knocked out, you’re given the opportunity to either quit the game or carry on watching to see how the game ends. It’s in need of a few tweaks, but should mean that Riot has a solid base to work on when implementing the full system,
That said, Mortimer didn’t offer a timeframe for the introduction of spectator mode. League of Legends patch 9.17 is just around the corner, but full implementation isn’t likely to arrive until League of Legends patch 9.18, or potentially even later, so keep an eye out.