Riot Games has made a system change within Teamfight Tactics that prevents players Master tier or above from playing with friends in Ranked.
Due to an increasing number of individuals exploiting the system, Master-tier ranked players and above can only solo queue in Ranked. Lead designer Stephen “Mortdog” Mortimer says he isn’t thrilled about having to make this system change but feels it was necessary “for competitive integrity at the top of the ladder.”
“I really hate this change,” Mort said. “But we had to do it and it’s the right call to do it.”
The system change is a result of individuals exploiting the previous system as a means to climb to higher ranks on the ladder. This not only was affecting competitive integrity attached to those higher ranks but was also causing problems for other players in those lobbies, in which these occurrences were taking place.
“We were seeing too many people queue up with two friends and grief everyone in the lobby to make sure one person was more likely to win,” Mort said.
The system change will go into effect immediately with the TFT 10.13 update. Mort recognizes that many players who played with friends at Master tier and above in Ranked were innocent of exploiting the system. But due to the increasing number of individuals who were, the change was a necessary one.
