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Teamfight tactics core mechanic in set 10 is the Headliner mechanic. Despite being the core mechanic for the set, some players don’t quite understand how it works. Let’s figure it out.
The Headliner mechanic is integral to Teamfight Tactics in set 10, but some players are having trouble determining which Headliners can and can’t show up throughout the various stages of the game.
Fortunately for TFT players, Mortdog, the Lead Designer of TFT has explained all the hidden rules of the Headliner system to dispel the confusion. So let’s go through these rules so that you can improve your final push for your desired rank!
What are Headliners?
For TFT veterans, Headliners will seem familiar to you as they’re the same as the Chosen mechanic from set 4. Headliners are powered up versions of champions that are offered in your shop throughout the game. A Headliner will be purchased as a 2 star unit (costing the same as if you bought 3 of the same unit) and will have a unique buff that can be either a simple stat boost, or an upgrade to their ultimate. Additionally, the Headliner unit will have one of their traits highlighted, which means the unit will count twice towards that trait.
The Rules
In general, there are five rules that dictate what Headliner can and can’t show up every time you reroll your shop:
- It’s not possible to see the same Headliner until you see a certain number of other headliners of the same tier in your shop (7/7/7/5/4).
- After your first time passing on a Headliner, it is guaranteed that the next time it appears in your Shop that , the trait that will receive the +1 bonus will be different.
- After passing on a Headliner trait, you won’t see the same trait being highlighted for the next 4 headliners
- There must be at least 3 copies of the champion left in the pool for them to show up as a headliner.
- If you own more than 4 copies of a tier 4 or 3 copies of a tier 5 champion, they will not show up as a headliner for you.
While there are quite a few rules to keep in mind to figure out what can and can’t show up as a headliner, the rule that determines when headliners can show up is a lot simpler: When you don’t own a headliner, one will show up in every shop, but don’t be afraid to buy one to maintain a strong board if it makes sense because you'll still be able to see headliners if you own one at the rate of once every third shop.
How do Headliners work?
Here’s a scenario to better show off how these rules work:
Let’s say you’re playing a Disco comp and you hit level 8, making tier 4 Headliners become possible to appear in your Shop. So, immediately, you start rolling for a Twisted Fate with a +1 to disco trait to help carry you to victory. Soon after you start rolling, the shop offers you a Twisted Fate Headliner but to your dismay it’s his Dazzler variant. Unlucky, but it happens and you still have ample gold so you decide to reroll. In this situation, there are two things you want to keep in mind:
- For the next 4 headliners the shop offers, you won’t see another dazzler trait highlighted. So while it may still offer you a Lux headliner, she’ll have her EDM trait highlighted instead.
- You won’t see Twisted Fate again until you see at least 5 other tier 4 headliners. HOWEVER when the shop does end up offering Twisted Fate again, it will definitely be with his disco trait highlighted instead.
Now, let’s say once Twisted Fate becomes available to be offered to you again, the rest of the players have somehow bought up 8 of the 10 Twisted Fates from the pool. Unfortunately you’ll never see a headliner Twisted Fate again no matter what unless a Twisted Fate returns to the champion pool.
Let’s rewind now and, instead of the other players buying up all Twisted Fates, you’re completely uncontested and you plan on giving yourself an insane power spike. By already having two 2-star Twisted Fates, when you hit the Headliner Twisted Fate, you’ll get a huge power spike with a strong 3-star champion to help you win the game.
Riot also noticed that tactic was a bit too strong, so they quickly added rule 5 which makes it so you wouldn’t be offered the headliner Twisted Fate you’re looking for if you own more than four copies of Twisted Fate, a rule that applies only to tier 4 and 5 champions.
Now that you have a better understanding of the hidden Headliner rules we’ll leave you with a small trick to bypass one of the rules. Let’s say, in the Twisted Fate example, you run into a headliner Blitzcrank that had its Disco trait highlighted. Ideally, you want that on a Twisted Fate but if you roll away from the Blitzcrank it means if you get Twisted Fate in the next 4 rolls, it won’t have Disco highlighted and you’ll be stuck on a nasty string of terrible luck.
To prevent that from happening all you have to do is simply buy the Blitzcrank and sell him. That way, you didn’t actually skip the Disco trait and it’ll remain a possible highlighted trait going forward. Keep that in mind if you’re going for a highlighted trait on a champion that has an overlap!
Now get out there and queue up with your newfound knowledge on the Headliner system and good luck on the rest of your climb!
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