I Asked 100 TFT Players How to Hit Challenger

[@zankaa8031]

"game is just too hard" ok setsuko

[@yonyvalverde2436]

this video was amazing, thank you so much! i been climbing and hit diamond 3 for the first time ever. i think my fundamentals are ok, but i do not play enough games to climb (usually just 1 or 2 per day, sometimes i go days without playing). hopefully this set will be the one, thanks for the content! :)

[@tighegilmore9202]

In the same boat, good luck on your grind bro!

[@dabumkind4477]

I suck this set, but last set I almost hit Master Tier mostly watching setsuko or Frodans in too deep

[@ryanmahon1]

I can say I'm more impressed that you play 1-2 a day. Daily balance is more valuable than challenger imo. Good luck w the climb!

[@spinkgames496]

update on rank?

[@tlyee6166]

was super fun participating in this survey, great video and thanks for all you do Dan ❤

[@DezireTunes]

14:10 This was one of the main reasons I quit after being challenger in early sets, it felt like I had to invest too much time into not playing the game to maintain my LP. Playing 2 server, watching streams/discord group streams, literally flipping my sleep schedule to watch GV8 stream when he was nuts, turned from a hobby into a fulltime commitment. The twitch community around TFT made it very hard to step back from playing, its so good.

[@ZedBeiFeng]

Every new set your back to square one just frustrating putting in hours of studying comps and lines. I just play sets I like and don’t play the bad sets. Inkborn was garbage Arcane is so much fun.

[@JadeJungle]

Something to go off of the beginning of why is this worth doing, getting to high ranks in games can actually help with your resume for jobs, the job I am interviewing with right now contacted me due to being top 100 in Legends of Runeterra(they brought it up as a core reason that they reached out), it can show dedication and hard work which is valuable for employers to see!

[@brandonperry4275]

That is very strange to me

[@JoeyTheMonkk]

dont do this

[@dementedmanatee1298]

???

[@gediminaskulakauskas8799]

I dont understand the responses to this comment. Like... if someone becomes top 100 or top 50 or whatever in tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands or even millions of people where the competition is fierce, it's a significant thing to pay attention to. Whether it's conscious or not, it still takes a lot to get to that place and most of the times it's not random. Someone who analyzes themselves and looks at their own performance, looks for mistakes and tries to improve upon them in a video game and ends up top 0.01% is more likely to do that in another field than the one who has not shown such qualities of self-reflection and analysis. That does not mean that it will 100% correlate, but it's a higher likelihood. I'll tell you from my own experience- stuff like being competitive, self analysis, looking for ways to improve is almost like a default mode of thinking to me, and I've done it in all video games that I've played. And basically the games that I play, I end up at least 5-1% of top players. This means that I may not play 100s of games, but the few that I play, I tend to be good (relatively speaking). Hearthstone, Battlegrounds, Apex Legends, Dota 2, League of legends, TFT, Valorant, CSGO (or cs2 now). These are the games where I hit high ranks at a certain point. All of them had the same approaches. And guess what? When I went for a job interview, there's quite a few things that I told my employers that overlapped with the things that I've done in video games- I introspect, I analyze, I'm open to the feedback, I look for ways to improve and think that improvement is a good thing, I'm proactive in looking for ways to do it (I don't have to be forced into looking for ways to improve, it's natural for me most of the time).

[@dementedmanatee1298]

@@gediminaskulakauskas8799 obsessing over video games, to most people, signals lack of ambition & is often seen as a juvenile hobby. "top 100 in tft" is only impressive to people who play tft, I'm sorry.

[@MWhipple2]

I think the biggest barrier for many people is time. Most challenger responders said you need 4-5+ games per day to hit challenger. I know myself and many other players simply can’t get enough games in to make challenger since I don’t have an extra 1-2 hours a day on average to play TFT. That’s not including the many hours some responded with watching others play. Essentially you need it to be a part time job to get the games and experience/learning from others to reach challenger which most can’t do. Hypothetically can most, probably with enough time and work. Do most people have that time? No.

[@ferenc1512]

Im an university student, when set 11 released I had 3 big exams, so I had very little time to play, but still hit challenger. If you are skilled enought 2 games per day is enought.

[@Songval]

This is a really late response, but when I was playing the game consistently in set 9 I hit challenger for the first time with an average of 2 games a day with like 5 minutes at most of study before each session, and very little consumption of the game outside of that. The number one most important thing is your mentality before and while you play.

[@TheTyrannosaurusWax]

Classic Ludwig yoink and twist, love the content mr. Fro

[@terrychu5308]

Bro I was thinking the same thing

[@kiba26521]

I love the visuals in this video! Great Job. Earned my subscription.

[@battlemeow6290]

brotherman where is the degen shurkou

[@toadonwheels]

This was some high quality data analysis tbh, love it

[@frankt.8561]

Love it! And now I have this movie idea of some billionaire betting that not anyone can make Challenger and then Frodan and Dishsoap have 100 days to make a Challenger out of some wannabe Katdashian xdd

[@SINTOSrsf]

i was a Hyperoll player only, got rank 3 euw like four sets in a row and honestly reason number 3 is the reason why i kept playing, finding the same people here and there and just playing the other guy while S-talking eachother was so funny, the 20-30 minutes q were worth ngl

[@peytonsmith1062]

You're not rank 3. Look at how much you're bragging. Link me your account here if it's true. *Exactly.* 🤡 I forgot this is the internet sorry. Continue lying to everyone. *yourself.

[@ShenobiYT]

Thanks for making this video Frodan, this gave me the motivation to even just hit Gold in TFT. Really love the visuals and memes!

[@2004hondacivic4doorsedan]

you are seriously the best TFT content creator of all time

[@LOLzum101]

Bunny has a tft OF he is the goat of content

[@PyroFortune]

Oh ok ​@@LOLzum101

[@Brandon-tz5pn]

What do I have to be to participate in tournaments?

[@idleinthesewer5562]

the week of ranting was about kai'sa, yone, stale meta and bag size. quite sure was nothing else

[@justinpham936]

Great video Frodan! Do you happen to know a good resource on challenger-level fundamentals? Been playing since set 1 and can only peak masters so not entirely sure what challenger fundamentals entails. Love this style of content :)

[@brotendo]

What does it mean to study? Looking at stats alone doesn't seem like it'll help me.

[@HOUROFPOW3R]

I remember hitting top 200 (I think it's been years lol) in set 1 (challenger wasn't hit yet or at least not by more than a handful of players) because I played tft for fun to avoid my depression. It was a watershed moment for the power of mental. I'm not good at video games. I'm not known for being good at games. I'm hardstuck iron in league. But I got legit good in tft even if only for a moment and it came entirely down to the fact that I GENUINELY did not care about my elo, didn't care about meta comps that much, and I didn't pay attention to the game's discourse at all. I never really watched other people play the game. But I did hit a plateau at that time that made me realise that if I wanted to actually climb to the real top and stick around I'd have to socially interact with other tft players, think about the game I'm playing on a deeper level, and--shudder--review vods. And I just didn't want to do that LMAO. But seriously.. mental and flat time investment is 100% the most important. No cap, no hyperbole. TFT is the ultimate game to reward you for entering the zone and chilling out and suddenly winning because omg once you let yourself make decisions off of every factor in the game and actively adapt you suddenly win games like crazy. The moment you tilt is the moment you lose.

[@HOUROFPOW3R]

Also @ the LP tier question I have noticed (and in other games that I got pretty good at as well, mainly TF2) what I consider the logarithmic scale of skill. The top 100,000 players consistently beat the bottom 900k, and of them the top 10,000 way better than the bottom 90,000, 1,000 better than the 9,000, 100 than 900, 10 than 90, etc. Because once you get to a certain high skill level there's a point where skill levels between players get EXTREMELY consistent and winrates and lossrates against each other get really stable. This is kinda why a lot of challenger players will say that the top of the top chall players are on a like transcendant level of skill. It's because they know that even as good as they are, they would consistently lose to these players basically 100% of the time. I'm pretty good at tf2 and I body any pub I'm in, but I've played against top tier plat players (highest basic elo in tf2 at least last I checked) and they will reliably make me go 0 against their 20 if I ever dm them. They ANNIHILATE me. The fun of getting high tier in tft is to me hitting that point where all the players in the lobby are playing consistently and the results of the game are genuinely hyper reflective of your skill. Even if I haven't hit challenger I can get high enough to reach that experience and that I really enjoy.

[@moneymaker8815]

My goal recently has been to hit Diamond. I hit 2 sets in a row, I'm Plat right now. I'm mobile only, so I think I've capped my APM, I just don't have the speed and time to transition my board. I might try to go higher though if I have time, I hit Diamond 3 last day of Set 10. I also only get to Diamond on the last Patch 😂 when nobody plays and I'm matched with Emerald 4 players.

[@juryrigg5568]

Kinda off topic but I would like to know, since there is many less slots for challenger in a small server (let's say LAS), is harder to climb to chall?

[@p-go.fidcgvjhbkloo-wo7nv]

No easier.

[@atypewriter]

That's wild that so many people loved set 4 chosen. The highroll effect of chosen made me quit for years (came back set 11 to play with friends)

[@Orion4053]

Hey Frodan, love the videos. Do you have a good resource to improve at positioning? Especially in the late game

[@oRisingTide]

I would love to see an in-depth video on how to read and analyze stats, it’s pretty confusing to me. Great video as always though Frodan!

[@moneymaker8815]

I think for Question 7b, some might not understand the question because it can either be the spirit or the literal interpretation of the question as you mentioned.

[@flourish_52]

Really great video! Very insightful. I just wished that we could see the percentages or raw values beside the legends, especially for the pie charts that had more than 3 sections (things like what % of people said mental as something to work on to hit challenger)

[@jonathanhh3728]

good stuff thanks for the vid

[@janikhybhober5240]

Set 6 and 8 are definitely my favorites. Only time i hit chall as a low master player

[@Danocaster214]

The fact that so many people took question 7 so literally tell you a lot about the people who hit challenger.

[@violetbreeze3408]

felt the bad rolls. Had a basically non-contested fine vintage game (hit all units for free). 8 support anvils 2 reforgers and hit only 1 zzrot, ended 6 and lost my mentals, probably could’ve played better but it was my first fine vintage game ever so idk the variances besides zzrot

[@christianchinem9064]

Amazing content Frodan

[@felippearruda6430]

Very nice video and presentation

[@reyaidhi]

After hearing all these, in conclusion to hit Challenger, play the game fulltime and overtime. 😎👌🔥

[@iamteacher3088]

I teach full time, so I don't have the luxury of playing that many games and studying 10+ hours a week. It's basically impossible for me. And it shows, stuck at masters since set 7, but hit challenger for a few days in set 8.5 (proudest gaming moment for me :D)

[@kitsuvai]

dude i loved set 4

[@TimWavee]

22:50 the Sologesang pronunciation xD

[@Xicor111]

Werent there Rioters in this poll? So the +20hours of stat looking doesnt seem that crazy

[@Zarya.]

As a former challenger and currently returning player close to challenger, the way everyone prays on stats for augments is hilarious to me. I would never do that. Stats on augments don’t reflect how useful they are in each situation, so that’s why right now i feel like players are just generally worse at understanding and feeling the game But yeah, being challenger in this game isn’t anything too special since lp gains are inflated and with enough games you can just hard force high ranks, and that just shows you have a lot of free time on your hands to play the game consistently

[@drewskeezlol]

19:21 Call me odd but lowk I agree with the person that I don’t understand the question

[@oddxdancer]

Gracias Frodan

[@xuanbachlai5371]

Dude, you just said that I should care about reaching challenger, yet I should also learn to cope. Is this enlightenment? xd

[@HopeArk]

I peaked gm in 7.5 and masters a few times and this set is act quite fun so mighy go for chally but itll be one heck of a journey cause I didnt play much last 2 sets so this helps a lot!

[@dimalyubchenko2918]

Hero augment was very good imho

[@binomis3468]

After watching this video I've gained 10 lp. This is miraculous Doctor Frodan!

[@jSteez360]

frodan with the classic yoink n twist on his channel role model luddy

[@kriskitt]

Wax on, wax off, Daniel-san...

[@whysmile9412]

Great video!!!!

[@awesomegamer7036]

Tft challanger is very hard,I start playing tft in set 5.5 and hit the dimond rank and i thaught I am very good at this now it's set 11 i never crossed the above dimond rank in fact I am getting worst at the game ,i am forgetting clicking units when I play reroll my brain get so dizzy in fast 9 comps and beside tanks in front and Carry on back line i have no clue off positioning,and if some comp is so hot i never want to play it because the fear off contested, being a tft challanger player dream is over for me 😅😅

[@zephyr7347]

nice concept

[@marchippp]

This is a banger vid.

[@Xkaappi]

Ngl I can quite easily hit challenger in League, but always stuck in Masters on TFT, soo I wouldn't say one is easier than the other.

[@johnnyblackrants7625]

Open secret is that the entirety of challenger ladder is essentially mid 20s guys with an iq of 140 and undiagnosed adult ADHD. We can focus on TFT because it’s so damn stimulating, but struggle at real jobs due to lack of contentiousness. It sucks being smart but bad at a lot of real world things, and it’s really fun being good at TFT.

[@nymphithys1558]

Having adhd myself i actually see a lot of (undiagnosed?) autism when i watch the absolute top of the challengers play on twitch though. We have that hyperfocus when things give us dopamine, but are also more prone to get dizzy in the chaos of possibilities that our minds fire at us. Being on the spectrum in these kinda games is like an infinite superpower though, they get to remember all the data and numbers slightly better than we do and their level of focus is absolutely unrivaled and insane. They usually have it even harder IRL than us though. If you dont agree with this, you will when you are 30+ and apm goes down faster than u want to admit to urself, trust me ive been there xD

[@jakeedwards4454]

Dang you just hit my theoretical nail on the head, except im not challenger, and 132IQ

[@kriskatastrophe8614]

Set 7 was fun no flame

[@Spellbook1212]

no way he called Soju a "TFT content creator"

[@Oleoay]

Challenger? I played about 2-3 hours a day and can't get higher than platinum III... For Set 10, I played 452 games. I'd like to think I'm not bad...

[@drwzytft]

I hit master my very first season, and so I am a firm believer that anyone can at least hit master. If you’ve played that many games and are still platinum, I don’t think it means you’re bad. I think it means you don’t know how to improve.

[@Oleoay]

@@drwzytft fair statement. I’ve played since set 8 and can’t get past platinum. I watch streamers and read guides and I use things like tactics.tools so I’ve seen things like improving my team score or my Econ and have worked on them. But I’m still not sure what I can do to be better. I’m not sure if it’s an apm thing or if I just learn slow and by the time I get used to a patch, a new one comes out. I’m also probably missing some fundamentals too…

[@drwzytft]

@@Oleoay APM and fundamentals are definitely a factor. Its hard to say without actually seeing your gameplay. I would say if you are struggling with meta, try to learn the ins and outs of 3 comps and stick with it. It also helps if the 3 comps are 1 reroll, and 2 lategame. Scout for positioning and contested ppl. And learn what items are slammable and which arent. And imo the most important thing is knowing how to view HP as a resource

[@Oleoay]

@@drwzytft I do scout. Of late I’ve been running heavenly or fated depending on what’s contested, also splashing in a bit more sage or altruism. I think after this patch when 4 stars become better, I’ll have to pivot more into mythic since heavenly has no four stars and is getting a little nerfed. On tactics tools I’m Oleoay on NA if you want to look. Generally score well on execution and flexibility and I’ve been working to do better with Econ, items and augments.

[@morizhofer7238]

on the note of agresive behavior from other players just had a game where i had one 100 percent player rly agresive i got my loostreack greeved (he was fair game also 7 loss) in chebaron...felt so nice when i got top 4 with some weird trenchcoat chembaron experiment ww and he bot 4 xD

[@jakeedwards4454]

If i wanted to go challenger i would its that simple

[@marius7854]

that vietnam's stat must be wrong no ? 2m+ playing tft in vietnam??

[@KerbalLauncher]

The game is all about maximizing gold value

[@FedyshaIsJinxed]

Set 6!!! YES

[@spacecadet6617]

I watch Boxbox and then hit top 53 challenger set 10 VN server :D

[@DarrieusJohn]

The way how I absolutely can stand Soju and Setsuko lmfao they're so whiney. Emily, you, Mort and sometimes Boxbox are my go to streamers

[@LitWithYachty]

Can somebody please explain to me what stats they’re talking about in question 9 😭

[@azuyaaa]

Probably the stats as in like is this augment/items good with this and that or better than the other and also their delta for placement n shit

[@joaquinbaume1291]

set 7 was so bad lmaooooo my favourite was set 10

[@QUIVOT]

I think i ended 30th in Challenger on the VN server but I'm really sturggling this set. Im really bad at these sort of metas. Im Master on the VN server but mostly fuck around on NA server where im D1. Just a note for players struggling, just know that some metas may be not be suited for you. Or maybe you really suck like me, Idk

[@sagittariusa2145]

This game is so cool man

[@RavenBeauty312]

That's because Setsy is unhinged and only plays the most ridic comps on stream LOL

[@LethalAscend]

Never played tft but cool vid

[@Warriorfall]

ok cool vid but dudebro move the cam common bro

[@emitrin24]

So one thing I see that skewed this in the Bonus is you didn't add .5 sets. Set 5 was notoriously bad, but 5.5 was probably the best set. Set 2, being the worst set. Speculation of course.

[@TuNguyen-hm4fq]

"TFT influencer"

[@Cancertrain]

Since TFT is just a LoL game mode, you get a jacket at the end of the season, and then you can get laid. Right?

[@0bbie96]

I peaked diamond 1. I know for a fact I could hit challenger. It’s just A matter of how long I want to sit in front of a computer that at point. It’s just not worth it to me.

[@darkking4748]

Soji gonna get mad at being called a creator not a top player

[@queensforever7498]

My honest question is. Can you hit challenger on mobile tft 😢 tft mobile only player here 😭😭. Also shout-out to emily wang as the best tft streamer 😅😂❤

[@ItsDylanBui]

Educationally cute 💪🥰💙🐸

[@Leon-R2D2]

19:29 Frodan... remember that your questioning is actually really open. Best example is two answers before this one where they took you by your words.

[@DUKEzors]

No outro song! Boooo! (great vid tho)

[@johnnyblackrants7625]

The 67% of players who said “anyone can get challenger” must never leave their little bubble. TFT is one of the most g-loaded games ever created. Master with hard work is doable, and extremely admirable, but top 250? Not within reach for everyone; not even close, sorry.

[@justinlin2020]

You’re only capable of what you believe

[@NextRated]

it is actually easy to hit challenger and you will find out that main difference grandmaster below compared to challenger are is just the high impact decisions that make or break your winning chances. Like augment picking or Line picking or forcing something

[@johnnyblackrants7625]

@@NextRated Find a player who hovers around gold, and I would bet you $50,000 that they can't hit challenger in 3 months. You can split it with the player, 25/25, so that they have some real incentive. It will never happen.

[@NextRated]

@@johnnyblackrants7625 my brother who is hard stuck at silver for atleast a year now playing tft I literally just taught him few meta lines and how to play early game and how to transition at different stages literally hit master in 2 weeks so yes it can be done with right guidance. It all boils down to wider game knowledge tft takes zero skill in mechanics its mostly game knowledge. So challenger isnt really that special its just a matter of playing more and knowing more.

[@johnnyblackrants7625]

@@NextRated Hmm. I admit that surprises me, but there's an absolute chasm between master and challenger. While game knowledge is certainly a factor, I believe the limiting factor is processing enough information accurately under time constraint. I shouldn't understate how surprised I am, though. What do you mean by "hardstuck silver"?

[@Estafreak]

Play enough games... literally not hard. have done it twice in 200 games, unlike k3soju who takes at least 500

[@tylerwatson9659]

Yeah, Scarra. Where tf are the TFT videos.

[@MythosChronicles-jk7io]

Just walk xdd

[@YugenTFT]

Basically git gud

[@petrlnovak]

Very useless and honestly nothing telling survey

[@gera5891]

[@smallone2351]

Very useless and honestly nothing telling comment

[@jdturkdrcox]

I've hit challenger once, be a meta slave, stick to the same 3/4 comps. Recognise whether you're going for a win streak or loss streak and have strong fundamentals, Don't be dumb. You're welcome.

[@vexusdesu6272]

Even if a no life loner gets challenger who cares 😢 and that's the sad part s/he doesn't get recognition

[@TheSirAshton90]

eco and realising that you're life is resource to be used and not saved