4 years ago a completely new type of game was created, and I am still addicted to it today

On January 4, 2019, the mod Auto Chess was released for MOBA Dota 2. This is a modified form of chess with champions from Dota competing against each other. This was such a success that many games have been developed from it, which MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch is following.

The auto chess genre, also known as auto gladiator, caused quite a stir in 2019. At that time it started as a mod for DOTA 2 and already in the first few weeks more than 2 million people subscribed to it. I downloaded Dota 2 myself for this, although I didn’t have much to do with the game itself. The strategy game fascinated me much more than that.

In the weeks and months that followed, new titles in the genre popped up like mushrooms. The most famous game is Teamfight Tactics (TFT), the automatic gladiator for League of Legends. It was released in June 2019 and reached number one on the streaming platform Twitch. Tournaments with prize money of hundreds of thousands of dollars are still held on a regular basis to this day.

But it’s not just Riot Games that has jumped on the hype train. Several major gaming companies and names have picked up on this trend:

But why was there this hype and what makes a genre so interesting that it’s still played today?

Lots of strategies and short runs inspire players

Auto battles are a subgenre of multiplayer strategy games. Matches take place on a board where players can place units in their own half before each combat round.

In the combat phase, you compete directly with a fellow player who is assigned to the other half of the board. The characters then fight each other automatically. The loser is deducted life points and if these points eventually reach zero, he is eliminated from the game.

Various strategic elements come into play in the automatic battles, including upgrading characters, synergy between them, proper placement on the battlefield, and side objects such as items that can be placed in characters’ hands.

Two things amaze me above all: the constant fighting against other players and the development of new strategies.

You can see what TFT gameplay is like and what makes it so awesome in this Golden Spoon Cup highlight video:

Strategy games have always held a special appeal to me, because I love to get deep into games. But with titles like Settlers, Stronghold, or Warcraft 3, I quickly lost my breath if I only played against NPCs. They were very transparent and after several attempts I found perfect strategies against them.

At some point, multiplayer rounds discovered for me, which brought me a lot of dynamics. No two people ever play the same style, and out-of-the-box strategies only help in the beginning – flexibility and adaptability become more important. But many matches in Civilization or Age of Empires 2 took hours, something I as a father only run in exceptional cases.

On the other hand, robot fighters have a fixed expiration time. I know I should be able to get through a match in 20 minutes in a Hyper Roll or plan around 50 minutes for a regular ranked match. I can also play most games on my cell phone.

Teamfight Tactics in particular requires an incredible amount of adaptability from me, for example if I don’t get my favorite heroes or items. Then I have to change the entire team building.

The ending is also interesting, for example when one of the opponents has a perfect counter strike for me. Do I now rebuild again and speculate on first place with the risk of falling further, or am I content with second place?

Although I spend most of my time playing MMORPGs, I am very active now with the release of new seasons at TFT. Then there are new heroes, new rules, and sometimes new items. Then it feels like a completely new game and you have to discover a lot of new things.

Thanks to tournaments for prize money, there is also a YouTuber and streaming scene that you can actively follow and cheer on with other players. TFT ranks 20th among all games played on Twitch in the last 30 days, with an average of 23,454 viewers (Via Solignum). So this genre is still active four years after its inception.

Do you have any experience with auto warriors yourself? Were you there in the beginning or are you still playing today? Feel free to tell your story!