Riot Mortdog calls TFT Set 9 ‘beginning of a new era’

Riot Games has been slowly growing the Teamfight Tactics team since Set Five in April 2021. And now, the upcoming Set Nine is slated to bring about a “shift in development,” according to game designer Stephen “Mortdog” Mortimer.

Set Eight/8.5 Monsters’ Attack is wrapping up, with the NA Regional Finals taking place over the weekend and the EMEA Regional Finals ending on May 15. Since the Mid-Set update, the meta balance has hit peak form with Patch 13.10 potentially containing a small number of minor tweaks heading into the World Championship from May 26 to 28. 

A majority of Set Eight/8.5’s success can get attributed to the growing TFT team. And according to Mortdog, Monsters’ Attack will mark an “end of an era” for the autobattler.  

“Monsters’ Attack is kind of the last set in our minds before our team got really big, the team has been growing a lot—we’ve been able to accomplish a lot more,” Mortdog said. “And so I think you’re going to see a shift in Set development where Monsters’ Attack was kind of an end of an era and the next Set is the beginning of a new era where it’s amazing what we can do with a lot more people.” 

Little is known about Set Nine at time of writing. But one change has already shown off what a big TFT team can accomplish over previous sets. Patch 13.9 brought about Portals in Normals, a shift in the “for fun” updates that wrap up a set while featuring Portal drops that may tie into the main Set Nine mechanic. 

Riot is also planning to remove Mid-Set updates after Set Nine’s completion, marking a new era for the autobattler that will feature quarterly sets. The change will bring about double the amount of content players are used to in a year, with Riot investing in longer production times to improve the quality of each TFT Set release. 

No release date for TFT Set Nine has been dropped at time of writing, although it’s likely that the official launch will take place on June 14.