Riot’s Plans for Teamfight Tactics Rewards Don’t Currently Include Blue Essence or XP

With the newness of Teamfight Tactics starting to wear off a bit now that it’s been playable for what’s coming up on two weeks, players are starting to ask what they’ll be getting for playing the game mode. The question was there before and was partially addressed with the release of the Teamfight Tactics Beta Pass, though there was still the question of whether or not Blue Essence and XP specifically would one day be awarded. Riot Games said it’s not ruling out the possibility, but for now, there are no plans to distribute those rewards through the mode.

The topic of Teamfight Tactics rewards was brought up in a developer update on the mode. The focus of the relevant section was the Beta Pass, a battle pass-like system that gives players points for playing games, completing challenges, and returning for daily rewards. Due to the quite noticeable differences between the new autochess mode and the traditional League of Legends experience, Riot said the rewards will differ as well.

“Teamfight Tactics is very different from traditional modes like Summoner’s Rift, and we aren’t currently planning on giving out XP or Blue Essence for TFT games,” Riot Games said. “We want to be thoughtful about whether and how we integrate TFT with systems like leveling and Blue Essence, and we want our solution to serve both players who play traditional modes and TFT as well as those who main one mode or the other. We may consider XP and Blue Essence rewards in the future, once the mode has had some time to settle in.”

This answer still leaves the door open for XP and Blue Essence rewards at some point in the future, but the Beta Pass is your avenue for rewards for now. The League community has already weighed the pros and cons itself of giving out these rewards in the game mode, and there are arguments to be made for both sides. Every other game mode awards XP which in turn leads to Blue Essence, so even if Teamfight Tactics is a drastically different experience, it can feel a bit bad to some to have the mode detached from the typical rewards. However, if you frequent League’s ranked modes, you’d probably be frustrated to have a fresh, level 30 player on your team who’s never played a game of normal League in their life and just hit the threshold for ranked by playing solely Teamfight Tactics.

Teamfight Tactics is also getting a ranked mode soon, so look for that and likely more balance adjustments in the game’s next patch.