Why TFT feels so bad to play (competitively)

I don't really know who my target audience for this post is. It uses quite specific examples that people who aren't familiar with the game won't understand, yet I posted screenshots giving context anyways for some reason. Honestly, those screenshots don't even give any sense of understanding so I don't really know what the point of them are. Anyways, here is my rant. I hope you feel thoroughly confused throughout this post.

Throughout my TFT Challenger climb, there are very many things I can pinpoint to be the reasons why I felt so annoyed and on edge while playing.

Let's begin with the reasons I fell in love with TFT in the first place.

First, I really enjoyed that my success depended solely on myself, rather than teammates. Because of this, I felt like I could pinpoint my mistakes more easily and as such improve more rapidly. On top of this, I loved the ability to be creative, being rewarded for playing flexibly. Throughout set 7.5, I feel like both of these were reduced, there were factors outside of my control negatively impacting my gameplay, and the game just didn't feel very flexible.

Part 1: Sense of autonomy

I fell in love with TFT because I felt that my destiny was in the fate of my own hands. But a lot of things make it feel like it actually isn't.

The early game

I think most players would agree that stage 2 is the most important part of the game, and the decisions here dictate a lot. The thing with this set is that there are just so many factors that ruin your stage 2, and in turn your entire game, with nothing you can do about it.

Augments

I think at the core augments are a very good game mechanic, but a lot of the time they feel really bad to play. I feel more often than not, augments negatively impact my game more than they positively impact it. A lot of the time, you're just hoping that your augment choices don't instantly give you -2 placements on the spot instead of an augment that helps you win the game. I do concede that sometimes my analysis of augments is wrong, but sometimes it feels straight up criminal.

Here is a very egregious, but possible, example of 2-1 augment selections. I received something similar to this in one of my games and it tilted me off the face of the earth.

Let's say that this is my 2-1 board and my items are rod, glove, vest.

And my first 2-1 augment selection is as follows: Hot Shot, Cutthroat and Future Sight I

So obviously, I have to reroll my augments because I can't take Hot Shot since I don't have cannoneers, nor do I have components for Zeke's to make hot shot even a viable option, I can't take Cutthroat for the same reason (I don't have assassins, and that augment is useless). So my only real option is Future Sight I, which feels really bad to take, especially at 2-1. You can argue I should've taken this, and maybe I would agree but I think most high Elo players would reroll these augments. If my best play is to take a 4.85 average augment as my first augment, I'm basically already playing not to win, but to not lose.

So I reroll. I'm offered Ricochet, Penitence, and Three's Company.

With the same reasoning as above, I can't take Hot Shot as I can't commit to cannoneers from my spot, and I can't take Penitence because 1. It sucks ass and 2. I have no Jade units. So in essence, I'm forced to take Three's Company, probably the most useless augment in the entire game because it literally does nothing. This augment has absolutely zero value past stage two, and there are only very rare cases where it could even benefit me. Maybe if I roll a Rakan, Lee Sin, Varus or Nunu the extra gold I get from selling my Three's company units will allow me to level to 5 at 2-2 and play a stronger board and have a chance at streaking until Krugs. Even then, the spike is very negligible, and if board strength is the argument, Three's Company is just a much worse version of True Twos. If we're arguing that I can sell all the Three's Company units and gain stronger economy, Three's Company is just a much worse version of Rich Get Richer. If we're talking Poker terms, I was essentially dealt an offsuit 2-7. I'm taking a 4.91 average augment at stage 2-1. At this moment, three minutes into the game, I'm already in a much, much worse position than the seven other players in the game. Feeling like your losing for something that isn't your fault is just so bad. And the most egregious part of all of this was that I was offered two cannoneer augments. I just don't think it should be allowed that if I reroll a cannoneer augment that I can receive another one

While we're on the topic of 2-1 augments, I think High Tide is a complete design failure.

This augment has a 4.35 average placement when taken at 2-1, but a 4.91 average placement when taken at 4-2.

As 4-2 is later in the game, you would think that this augment gets stronger since having more Lagoon units, and stronger Lagoon units, would make this augment more beneficial. Unfortunately, this is not the case because it is literally the most worthless augment ever. When you conceptualize it, the augment in itself does nothing for most of the Lagoon units. Taliyah has 60 base mana, Kai'sa has 45, Zac has 60, Malphite has 90 but starts at max mana, Zeri has 80, Nilah has 60, and Sohm has 40. Zac and Malphite also have the added factor that they are frontline units, so they would gain even more mana, thereby rendering High Tide absolutely useless on them. The only unit that High Tide is debatably useful on is Seraphine, but even then Seraphine is not even a core unit in the Lagoon comp. For the rest of the units, the increased cast time is negligible because of how non-impactful the units getting their first two casts off slightly faster is.

In fact, High Tide has the best placement not when it's played with the traditional Lagoon comp, but when played with the Seraphine Graves comp. I think a trait specific augment is a failure when it's best use is not playing for that trait.

Another case where High Tide could be useful is if you get a Lagoon spat, but the chance of you going 9 and playing Lagoon Ao Shin with a dead augment is quite low. Even then, if you're going 9 for Ao Shin you probably already won the game and the Lagoon spat didn't matter. So the only realistic use of High Tide is a Lagoon spat Zyra but even then it's not that good because Zyra will naturally gain mana from evoker.

So why does High Tide have such a good placement average when taken early game if it's a god awful augment? Because it gives a Kai'sa. This is the only reason. The Kai'sa offered with the augment gives tempo as Kai'sa is the best unit to farm Lagoon stacks with. Along with the fact that your units are naturally getting their first two casts off faster because of High Tide, you are able to stack the Seastone faster than other Lagoon players can, ultimately making you stronger later into the game. Essentially, High Tide is a scaling economy augment disguised as a combat augment. So it is criminal that it can be offered as an option late game.

Prismatic Augments:

These augments have so much control over the game, and receiving bad rolls on them feels so bad. First off, I want to give props to the dev team as some of the new prismatic augments this set have been very fun to play, such as Cruel Pact and Cursed Crown.

The issue with prismatics having so much control over the game is that the impact of getting worse options than your opponents is amplified. On top of this, this tier of augments is just so unbalanced. Let's take an example: Celestial Blessing vs. Best Friends.

I think it's pretty clear where the issue is here. From tier 2 to tier 3, Celestial Blessing gains an increase of 15% healing, and 150 shielding, where as Best Friends gains 5% attack speed (while being a useless stat for frontline units), and 15 armor (while being a useless stat for backline units). And the data backs me up. Where Best Friends and Celestial Blessing are similarly effective at tier 2, their difference at tier 3 is extremely drastic.

There is also one extremely unbalanced stage 2-1 augment: Think Fast, casually rocking a 3.43 average placement.

The reason behind this one is that if you don't have Parkinson's disease or something you're pretty much guaranteed to three star at least two of the three following units: Skarner, Nidalee and Vladimir. The issue with this, on top of these units already being extremely strong early game at three star, is the nature of the Astral trait.

This trait is essentially balanced around the fact that it takes an investment to achieve a high number of Astral stars. Since you usually have to reroll for these, you're sacrificing HP by playing a weaker board of 2 star Nidalee, Skarner, Vladimir and Lux. You have to three star these units early enough where the Astral Orb rewards are enough to compensate for getting outscaled by the other players in the lobby (since you're playing Nidalee, Skarner and Vladimir and the other players are playing real units).

Last set, Think Fast was already a strong augment. Being able to 3-star Sett and Senna along with a Shen 2 at 2-1 pretty much guaranteed a 10 win streak into a fast 8 or fast 9, but eventually the augment would fall off since the Sett and Senna aren't useful late game, and other players will have a useful prismatic augment. This set, the lack of scaling has been completely removed from the augment, because the Astral Orbs allow you to gain so much tempo on the lobby, as well as allowing you to have more items than the other players.

Basically, you're able to maintain very high HP, very strong economy, and have more items than the other players all for free just because you got offered this augment at 2-1 and you can click the Astral units when you reroll for them. Already at stage 2-1, you don't even have to play the game because you're pretty much guaranteed a top placement. By the end of the game, you've probably already made up the lack of prismatic augment because you'll have farmed the equivalent of Item Grab Bag II and Windfall combined, and probably much more.

Before we move on to another extremely oppressive prismatic augment, let's first talk about the prismatics which are straight up coinflips, namely Birthday Present and High Roller.

With these two augments, if you get unlucky you pretty much just lose the game. This is the case for a lot of the "greedier" prismatic augments like March of Progress, Golden Ticket, High End Shopping and Windfall, but especially the case for these two because there is literally absolutely nothing you can do to cushion your fall with these ones.

At least with these four, there is something you can do when you get unlucky. Yes, it does feel bad when other people have the exact same augment and roll better than you, but there is at least some play with these four.

Birthday Present at it's core is a win streak, fast 9 augment because once you reach level 9 you get a 2 star 5 cost for free. The issue is with bad Birthday Present drops, you lose all your tempo, the only purpose of this augment, and instantly lose the game because you can't win anymore, thereby disallowing you from aggressively levelling up. I think the more important break points for this augment are level 7 and 8, which are where you get a 2 star 3 cost and 4 cost respectively. These units that you receive from the augment have to overpower the strength that the augments the other players received, otherwise you just lose because if you have to roll more than 10 gold to keep streak, you lose all tempo. On top of this, you're usually looking to level down to 0 or 10 or 20 gold to keep streak anyways, so you won't have gold to roll to cushion receiving a bad unit.

The thing is, there are only select 3 and 4 costs that allow you to keep streak, depending on game state. If you're playing a front to back Swiftshot early-mid game to streak, and you receive a 2-star Olaf or Seraphine, as opposed to Varus or Rakan, it already becomes extremely hard to play. The next break is levelling to 8, probably at stage 4-1, because other players will also be rolling on 7 at 4-1. Essentially, the 2 star 4 cost you get dropped at 4-1 has to be a harder spike than the other players' rolls at 4-1. The thing with this is that you literally just have to get Jayce. Unless you're playing for Xayah or Graves, those two units are completely useless without items. Pantheon 2, if you're not playing around it, doesn't do very much and neither does Nilah 2 or Hecarim 2. Which means for the most part, there's either a 1/3 or 1/6 chance that you get the unit that helps you continue your streak and get to level 9. And even if you do, you're likely to bleed a bit of HP while going 9, which is the sacrifice you make for the "spike" you'll receive with the 2 star 5 cost unit at level 9.

The thing is you actually just get nothing useful at 9. All of the 2 star 5 costs are support units, and most of the time won't win you a fight. Unless you're playing mages and get 2 star Zoe, or Daeja and get 2 star Yasuo, the 2 star 5 cost you receive isn't all that relevant, essentially making this augment very bad. 2 star Soraka and Bard aren't going to win fights by themselves, and honestly in most cases there is very little difference between Soraka 1, Bard 1 and Soraka 2, Bard 2

On to High Roller. I was actually very surprised to see that High Roller wasn't the prismatic augment with the worst average placement, although it is very close to the bottom. This augment is essentially a 10-second make or break your game, where you Loaded Dice your unit 3 times, and if you hit what you want you're pretty much guaranteed top 4 and if you miss you're pretty much guaranteed 8th. It's just not fun.

Now back to the second prismatic augment which I feel is extremely unbalanced: Mage Crown.

Not only does it grant a Mage Emblem, which is the strongest emblem in the game, but it also gives a Spear of Shojin, the premier mage item, and on top of that a Sylas, the bread and butter of mages as it provides the frontline for mages. The augment is just so overloaded. Compare this to the absolute monstrosity that is Tempest Crown.

This grants a Tempest Emblem, arguably the worst one in the game, as well as a Hand of Justice and Lee Sin. Theoretically this is strong. Hand of Justice Lee Sin should be strong early game in theory, but in practice it just isn't. Compared to Mage Crown's Shojin and Sylas, and Swiftshot Crown's Rageblade and Varus, Tempest Crown stands no chance. If you take Tempest Crown, just like Three's Company, you're not playing to win. You're playing not to lose.

Unfun comps:

What makes Mage Crown even more obnoxious is Mage Nomsy. Of Nomsy's three variants, one is almost always not worth it, one is very situational, and one is insanely oppressive. Evoker Nomsy is almost never played, Cannoneer Nomsy is basically only useful to hit 6 Cannoneer in the Darkflight Aphelios comp. But when Nomsy is mage, it is not uncommon to see four players contesting the same comp. And since Nomsy is a tier 3 unit, all four players usually hit, and the other four players in the game suffer endless pain as their entire board gets one shot over and over again until they die. When a game has a 2-1 prismatic augment, while also having Mage Nomsy, Mage Crown becomes pretty much an automatic top 4. And it is so unfun to lose to.

On the topic of unfun to lose to is the Seraphine Graves comp. This comp is quite literally the spawn of Satan, you either have enough damage to burst through the Seraphine and Protector's Vow shields, or you don't, which results in killing zero units and taking infinite damage.

Similar to this is 6 Whisper Zyra. You either have enough damage to kill the Pantheon Sy'fen frontline, or you don't and Zyra kills your entire board. This wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that Xayah 2, a four cost unit, consistently loses to this shithole comp with a two cost carry since she can never break through Pantheon, even if Pantheon isn't two starred. The reason for this is that Xayah relies way too much on Shyvana to be a relevant comp, which leads into my next point.

Level 8 Legendary Lottery:

Xayah is not really a comp that can top 4 unless you hit Shyvana. In theory, this sounds fine because Xayah should be a comp played with tempo, and you should be able to reach level 9 and hit Shyvana then. The issue is that other Xayah players will hit Shyvana on 8, and then hit you for a million damage because that one unit makes them so much stronger than you.

The thing with this is, in your initial rolldown you only have about a 65% chance of hitting Shyvana, assuming you have 50 excess gold to roll and nobody else has Shyvana. As the game proceeds, your odds of hitting a Shyvana get even lower as other players hit Shyvana as well. Pretty much, when you commit Xayah you're playing some lottery on level 8. If you hit Shyvana, you can play to win. If you don't, you play to not lose.

Other times level 8 legendary lottery can feel terrible are when you're playing Daeja and you slammed a Cavalier spat and don't have the tempo to go 9. Pretty much you're forced to roll for Yasuo on 8, and again if you hit you can play to win and if you don't you pray for top 4.

On a similar topic, when the Mirage variant is one that the Daeja comp doesn't necessarily benefit from, such as Pirate's Greed or Electric Overload, there is no reliable AP carry. So if you slam AP items with one of these Mirage variants and can't go 9, you again have to play level 8 legendary lottery for Ao Shin. Not hitting 65% odds feels absolutely terrible.

Matchmaking

The player you fight each turn is chosen at random out of a pool of three players. Sometimes this randomness feels extremely bad, whether it's trying to maintain a lose streak going into Krugs, or another player being allowed to win streak just because they never fight you.

It gets extremely bad in stage 4/stage 5 where there are so many different things to position for for each player. For example, if one person in your fight rotation is playing Zyra, you have to ruin your positioning for the other two players in my rotation just to position around the Zyra. It's even worse when you never fight the Zyra player, and they're just in your fight rotation forever, and you have to fuck up your positioning forever, costing you HP for no reason.

There are also games where you just fight every player right when they spike or every player at the worst possible time. Or when you fight your only losing matchup 3 times in 8 fights, despite 7 players being alive. It just feels so terrible, and there is no control over it.

Displaying autonomy

Something I really prided myself on was my ability to climb without really using anyone else's concepts except for my own. I made it a point to learn the game myself rather than reading guides or listening to tips from other players. This is mostly just a "me flexing my critical thinking skills and game knowledge" section, but these were some of the breakthroughs I personally made that made me excited about TFT and therefore they are a bit important to me to include. Skip this if you don't care.

Concepts

Dodging Zyra

I'll begin with a more obvious one, dodging Zyra's Grasping Spines.

Traditional Xayah postioning (roughly):

Zyra Dodge:

Something I heard complaints about were being unable to make use of aura items, such as Zeke's herald, because of Zyra. You can bypass this by putting aura items on melee units, especially Cavaliers since they move faster, reducing the impact of putting a frontline unit in the back.

Aura items Zyra dodge:

As Sejuani is a melee unit, she will walk up, therefore making Xayah not stand in a row with the most units. This is all pretty obvious.

Xayah/Swiftshots positioning

You could really abuse the way Swiftshots works by positioning in such a way that there would be less distance between your units and the enemy Xayah. This could mean positioning your frontline directly in front of Xayah, but there's even more advanced tech with units with dashes/movement abilities like Zippy and Yasuo.

Here, Zyra and Pantheon will focus fire and kill Rakan. Pantheon will then walk up closer towards Xayah, reducing Xayah's attack speed bonus from Swiftshot.

A cool concept here is defensive Qiyana/Edge of Night Qiyana.

Not only does Qiyana disarm the Xayah, but she actually causes Xayah to retarget onto her after the stun ends reducing Xayah's attack speed as Qiyana is so much closer to her. Edge of Night helps Qiyana buy even more time, sometimes even allowing her to tank Xayah's spell. With the removal of Frozen Heart assassins, this Qiyana tech has a similar effect. This is also more effective since Xayah is a Ragewing, therefore Qiyana won't feed her mana. Yes, Xayah does end up killing the Qiyana and this definitely doesn't really work late game, but it could cheese a fight or two in stage 4. The purpose of Qiyana is not to kill Xayah, rather to buy time for the rest of your team.

Patch 1 Astrals

"The Warweek that never happened"

- Mismatched Socks

For context, Warweek was a week in set 4 where some Warwick comp was extremely oppressive. dominating every lobby with half the lobby playing the same comp. If the Astral tech was more popularized, Socks believed there would be a similar outcome where every player would do the same thing (aggressive level Astrals).

The way the Astral trait used to work was that there were breakpoints where Astral loot orbs would increase in quality. This was at 3 stars, 7 stars, 10 stars, 13 stars and 15 stars. At a time where pretty much the whole server wrote off reroll Astrals as an unviable comp, I was having success with it. Why? I was abusing these breakpoints.

My idea was that I would stabilize off Nidalee 3, then farm higher Astral rewards. After reaching my 9 stars with the Astral 1 costs, I would then look for Varus 2 and Lux 2 to reach 13. Then came the breakthrough, I would play another Varus or Lux 2 to reach the maximum 15 stars. I think I was the only player on the entire server that did this, and it was really strong.

Level 8 board with 15 Astral stars:

But it extended past reroll Astrals. I would level up at weird intervals to reach Astral break points. I would play two Skarners, two Vladimirs, and two Nidalees on my board to reach break points. Quite honestly, I thought that this was quite common knowledge, but I also did notice that I was one of the only players abusing it.

Levelling to 6 at 2-6 to reach Astral breakpoint:

A few days later Mismatched Socks made a post to Reddit about this Astral tech. I only figured this out when I was called a "Mismatched Socks abuser" in game more than once. Yet this was a concept I came up with by myself. A few days later Astrals was reworked. This was a monumental moment for me because it was at this moment that I realized that I think the same way as NA's best internationally performing TFT player. Although it's not really too much to be proud of, anyone could have thought of this.

Axiom Arc

I'm not sure why this augment has such terrible stats, I personally believe it is one of the strongest in the game. I think people misutilize it and often take it at the wrong times. Axiom Arc is a fast 9 augment. It has the most value on high burst units that like blue buff (Ezreal, Kai'sa, Lux). This is such that when these units kill something with their ability, they're able to instantly recast.

The way this augment plays is you cheese your way through stages 3 and 4 by itemizing full damage (Infinity Edge, Jeweled Gauntlet), utilizing Axiom Arc as a pseudo mana item to win fights that shouldn't be winnable, whether it's Lux casting multiple times in a row due to killing backline, or Ezreal/Kai'sa repeatedly casting on frontline. Pairing it with Thrill of the Hunt is nice as well.

Late game it has the most value on units that fall under the same category as before (Aurelion Sol), or units with high mana whose ability cast will kill units but not one shot the entire board (Ao Shin with items that help her cast (Guinsoo/Shojin), and Daeja, but mostly Ao Shin). I think one mistake is playing Sohm with this augment, it's worthless on him

My Axiom Arc Stats:

Diamond Hands as the Premier Defensive Item

Another concept I theorized and successfully executed was using Diamond Hands as a pseudo frontline, particularly its synergy with Idas' ability. A lot of the time, I see people dropping Shimmerscale after completing their Determined Investor, and I don't think many people know the true power of Diamond Hands, especially as a frontline item. I've seen it on backline as a counter to Mage/Ao Shin, but never really as a frontline.

Essentially, with Diamond Hands you can solo frontline Idas, and with the Diamond Hands procs, she'll be able to completely finish her cast of Golden Scales while taking zero damage, getting the heal off multiple times. As Idas is tanking every single unit on the opposing board, this usage of Diamond Hands is essentially invulnerability to your entire team, which is huge. I've had fights where my solo frontline Stoneplate/Diamond Hands Idas tanked for 30 seconds.

And as a bonus, you get 2 gold for free every fight.

The Best Terra Item is Soraka 2

The biggest issue with the 4 dragons Ao Shin comp was too little frontline, even with Terra 2, Idas and Shyvana. This is where I realized how important Soraka 2 was for the comp, her ability to continuously heal Terra is just so helpful and this as a discovery I made pretty early on which helped me solidify what I thought was the best level 9 board.

The idea behind this is that the fewer the units on the board, the more likely Soraka is to cast on the unit you want her to. With four dragons, and Ao Shin sitting in the back at full HP anyways, there are only so many units Soraka can heal. And with Soraka's Starfall, Terra's effective HP increases significantly.

4 Tempest is fake, 4 Ragewing is fake, Guardian is fake. Soraka outshines all of it.

Ao Shin Itemization

It's a pretty big misconception that Spear of Shojin is the item that helps Ao Shin cast fastest. I can see where this comes from, as Shojin does grant on-hit mana. But the item that makes Ao Shin cast fastest is actually Guinsoo's Rageblade.

It's a 2 second difference, which is huge.

Part 2: Flexibility

Early Game:

This once again begins with stage 2, mainly methods that allow you to bypass having to play the game in stage 2, largely reducing the amount of decisions you have to make in the game. This is mainly just slotting in economy traits at 2-1, such as Lagoon or Astrals, then going AFK for the entirety of stage 2. Oftentimes, these are the optimal plays as well, which to some degree is because the game isn't perfectly balanced and the less decisions you have to make, the less mistakes you can make.

Stage 2 flexibility is also reduced when some units are "unbuyable." Basically, just much, much worse than the other units and a lot harder to pivot out of in midgame if you play around them early. Currently, these are Wukong, Sett, Senna (to an extent), and Karma (to an extent), Aphelios (if not committed to Aphelios comp), Gnar (without Nidalee 2/Astral opener), Lillia, Qiyana, and Yone (with bad Mirage). When 10 of the 26 early game units are "unbuyable," flexibility is greatly reduced.

Ezreal:

This unit is the most unbalanced 1 cost in the history of TFT. Mixed damage source, can itemize AD and AP, high single target burst, doesn't rely on synergies, and flexible with any frontline. It's playable with win streak and lose streak, as it both wins hard (with strong frontline) and loses gracefully (high single target burst helps kill units, you lose less HP per loss). If I could guarantee hitting Ezreal 2 at 2-1 every game without changing anything else about the other players, I think I would be rank 1. Ezreal is the only 1 cost that guarantees a fast 8, and oftentimes it is correct to sell a Senna 2 or Karma 2 for an Ezreal 1. I think there might be something wrong with that.

Game Patterns:

The game patterns feel very repetitive to, which is in part due to the lack of diversity in stage 2 boards. I could probably make you a flowchart that encompasses 80-90% of games.

Obviously this is exaggerated and I'm probably excessively bitching but sometimes the game does feel pretty repetitive.

Endgame boards:

Another aspect that doesn't feel very flexible this set is endgame boards. Many of the comps this set have very defined core units with little room for flexibility.

Seraphine Graves core:

Xayah core:

Sohm Core:

Usually these comps only have 1 open slot, and oftentimes it plays the same way. The Seraphine Graves comp wants Bard/Soraka, the Xayah comp also wants Bard/Soraka. With Mage cap, the Sohm comp wants Mage Zyra and to drop Nilah for Zoe. If not, it wants to drop Taliyah for Zoe and guess what? It also wants Bard/Soraka.

The more "flexible" comps

Mage Nomsy:

6 Whisper Zyra:

Spellsword/Duelist Dexterity Daeja:

Other Mirage variants Daeja:

With less core units, these comps seem more flexible, but they mostly just want the same exact things. With Mage Nomsy, with Mage Cap, you just play Mage Zyra with Zoe. Without it, you just add Zoe, a 7th Mage and then Soraka/Bard. With Zyra, you usually add 4 bruisers with Jax/Olaf and then Jayce/Soraka/Bard. With Spellsword Daeja, you also just want Twitch/Jayce/Soraka/Bard and maybe you think about flexing 6 Mirage with Yasuo. For the other Mirage varants, you also just want Sejuani/Twitch/Jayce/Soraka/Bard and you drop Leona for Yasuo.

Basically you're fighting the same comps and playing the same comps 80% of the time with "flexible" units but they're usually just Twitch/Jayce/Soraka/Bard. Not to mention the core units for each comp aren't exactly changing.

Even if you get a spat, you usually either you drop the worst unit with the trait (Leona in 6 Mirage, Jax in Zyra Whispers, Rakan in Xayah), you go up a breakpoint (5 Mage instead of 3, 3 Swiftshot instead of 2, 8 Mirage instead of 6, 6 Bruiser instead of 4, 4 Guardians instead of 2), or give a unit a trait that they really like (Mage Zyra, Cavalier Yasuo, Mirage Idas (certain variants), Swiftshot Hecarim).

Where Flexibility Succeeded:

Flexibility is most successful when fast 9 is sufficiently rewarded. Although the Level 9 board is mostly the same units, the fun part is playing strongest board with what you're given and going 9. Even though this usually involves playing an Idas/Ezreal, Idas/Kai'sa or Idas/Daeja board, the variety of the rest of the units is often enjoyable. What items do I make? Should I play 3 Shimmerscale or 5? Is Jayce stronger than Twitch? How can I save the most HP? Can I greed until 6-1 or do I need to send it at 5-3 or 5-6? I hit a natural a Shyvana/Terra/Ao Shin/Aurelion Sol on 8, is it stronger than anything else on my board? Do I play 2 dragons, or 3, or 4? Do I keep Idas at 9? How do I make the most use out of the Shimmerscale items? The adrenaline of fully pivoting your board, playing 1 star dragons until you fully cap out, it's the most fun I have playing the game because I feel rewarded for my creativity.

And I'm happy to say that fast 9 was what I played most during my climb, and I was able to make it work.

In fact, I hit Ao Shin 3 on my Challenger promotion game.

Concluding Thoughts:

In all, I do think TFT at its core is a very great game, I just think that there are too many frustrating things about it that just make it not fun to spend my free time on. It's really degrading to lose to unfun game mechanics or bad rolls over and over again (augments, annoying units, not hitting key units on roll downs).

I enjoy the game most when I'm rewarded for flexibility, that's why fast 9 Ao Shin was my most played comp, even though it's very risky and a lot of the time not the optimal play. Right now, there doesn't seem to be much of that, game patterns are super similar game to game, each comp has the same core units all the time, and the "flex" units are usually also the same units.

Although I think this set has a few design failures (Xayah's reliance on Shyvana, Darkflight, Seraphine, Zyra, Nomsy) I think there were also many good mechanics, many good unit designs and many steps in the right direction (rerolling augments, Jayce, Soraka, Bard, Terra, Shimmerscale, ability to play multiple dragons). I also think Ao Shin is a fucking cool unit (hence why I played it so much).

How to Fix These Issues:

haha nice try guy i'm just here to complain lol