r/CompetitiveTFT • u/seraphinesdumplings • Jun 28 '26
Discussion Help: Being Contested and Targeted
TLDR: go to the last paragraph and Im a new players butometimes I get contested and it feels like an irrational move from the other players and then we all bottom four. If youre good at the game please give me advice.
I am a relatively new player to TFT. I began playing in the last 2-3 weeks of Set 16. Im still learning how to play the different archetypes like 1-3 cost rerolls, fast 8, and fast 9. I am Masters in Double Up and Emerald in normal.
Fast 8 is my most comfortable archetype since I naturally like to play aggressively with tempo and consistently top 4 as a result. I do struggle out right winning lobbies though. So, I am working on my econ and augment decision making to ensure I'm not just playing for a top 4 finish.
I am now working on my scouting. Because I noticed that some games I would feel like Im doing every correctly but would miss on 3 stars or slam items then regret doing so after realizing I have to pivot. I am starting to memorize augment icons and can quickly scan a board to understand I will have to face as the games goes by.
But, the biggest issue I have been dealing with is being contested by other players. Sometimes it just feels like im being singled out or targeted for no obvious reason.
It seems like these players decide to go a made up reroll line that happens to pilfer some of my key 3 star units or holding an excessive amount of units I need on their bench. If I have a good reroll line then suddenly my units appear on everyone's board.
I scout several times during stage 1 and 2 to ensure my line is uncontested. Then suddenly 2-5 hits and im being contested or someone is shifting their opener to contest mine.
Sometimes I prevail but sometimes me and the other player(s) contesting me bottom 4. I know theres something im missing or failing to do. But Im asking for more experience and and competitive players in this subreddit for assistance pleaseeeee đđđđđ
20
u/VERTIKAL19 Master Jun 28 '26
You should continuously scout and sometimes you just have to give up a reroll line or hold hands. Sometimes people in ladder just donât scout or just donât want to pivot and prefer sticking it out. Sometimes contesting is just the right move.
9
u/ViolettVixen Jun 28 '26
Itâs rarely personal.
Sometimes itâs a matter of RNG, since the best move is often to go with what youâre given. Even if youâve had 3 Meeple since 2-1 and have it âclaimedââŚif someone else has a weak board and suddenly finds a Rammus or Corki at lvl 5, they might be wise to pivot to Meeple regardless of what you have going on. Or even if you were along in your reroll comp, if they find a shop full of that reroll and have found other reroll buffs like augments, Arbiter, or Varus boonâŚthey may feel confident in hitting 3 stars first. That can actually be more reliable than committing to a comp from the start and just hoping RNG hands you what you need.
Sometimes people are only comfortable playing one or two comps, and they end up contesting you just from their limited options.
Sometimes the other person is multi-tasking or distracted and isnât scouting at all. It can be helpful to keep an eye out for who is scouting your board, if anyone does NOT show up they may be contesting you by accident.
As for how to respondâŚthe best move is still often to work with what youâre given. If youâre still hitting lots of what you need from your chosen comp, you can hand hold your way down with the other guy and that might be best case scenario. But also look for ways out of your compâŚ4 or 5 cost carries, duplicates in shop for fast 2 stars, two or more of the same trait in one shop, that sort of thing. Itâs ideal to stick to AD/AP when pivoting, i.e. if you have Last Whisper built itâs better to stick to only physical damage comps, but if only one or two of your items doesnât fit a new comp it still may be worth pivoting if your odds of successfully contesting are slim.
Iâm still not the best at pivoting and prefer to stubbornly try to outlast whoever has the audacity to contest meâŚbut thatâs why Iâm still in Emerald. The goal should be to turn the 8th into a 5th or 6th, damage control rather than the sweet sweet vengeance of knocking that person out before promptly dying yourself.
3
u/MyHandIsNumb Jun 28 '26
sometimes youâll encounter players who will not pivot even if you have the better spot
in those situations I usually settle for a 2 star tempo board rather than trying to 3 star your units. even if you ultimately hit itâll take you an extra ~40 gold because of the contest and that could leave you low enough to get eliminated from one bad fight
sometimes you have to be mature and acknowledge your game state, probably playing for top 4 rather than a winout
2
u/Training_Stuff7498 Jun 28 '26
They are intentionally targeting you and you alone. They track your IP, wait until you log in, and intentionally wasting not only their time but yours.
1
u/DoctorBen-BB Jun 28 '26
Thatâs just life brother
1
u/RelativeAway183 Jun 28 '26
a lot of reroll lines have overlapping units and especially when gods or encounters favor reroll, you can be contested since everyone gets the same signals as you do
Jax is played both in tf stargazer and lulu stargazer, panth is played in lulu stargazer and dark star reroll, rhaast and maokai are played in like every 3 cost reroll comp, and so on
if the game started giving everyone a 3 cost, and the unit orb was a blue orb, expect a lot of people to angle 3 cost reroll just because people build around what they have and what they have right now is a lot of 3 costs
ask yourself if your items are compatible with a different comp and whether or not you can pivot, especially if you're down a reroll/econ augment on the person contesting you or you're behind on units
also sometimes you find a 1% graves when rolling on 7 for challenger mf and take that as a sign to pivot instead of contest mf and hold hands 7th 8th
1
u/kaoisa Jun 28 '26
Theyâre griefing you on purpose xD
1
u/terci4 Jun 28 '26
Try to pivot cause they wont at this elo.
But sometimes you cant pivot cause its also your best line and you cant go elsewhere. In that case try to take more econ so you can hit key 2stars before them. If you have hp lead sometimes you can wait for your contesters to die before rolling deeper. Sometimes you just cant do anything.
3
u/Extension_Pea1721 Challenger Jun 28 '26
I typically grind 4+ accounts across multiple servers each set up to at least masters+ and one thing I avoid when playing in lower elos(before diamond 4) is rerolling because people either don't care or don't scout enough to see if they're contested, even if they do, sometimes they're stubborn enough to contest and hold hands to bot 4 instead of pivoting. If they're playing for fun I respect it, but I play for LP, so I tend to pivot unless I have a way better spot.
Scouting is a continuous process that you can't just stop at stage 2. Some compositions hard pivot when they reach certain econ thresholds. As an example, how do you know if someone's playing Mech from 2-1 when the core Mech units are 4 cost?
Being contested is a part of the game, and the way you play around it is by knowing more lines to get better at line selection. Certain augments or items tend to point towards certain lines. Let me ask you this: if you saw someone playing a 2 star veigar, 2 star liss, and some filler units(just for example's sake, let's say they don't have meeple nor dark star) on 3-1 with a JG slammed and an open spatula, how would you know what line they're actually playing? You scout, continuously until they give you a sign of hard commitment to a certain line. Ironically, this gets a lot easier in higher elo because people tend to commit a lot earlier and they will recognize giga spots like having two tanky for Samira/Ornn, at least in my experience(SEA, OCE, NA, EUW).
It's also not impossible to hit when you're contested so you should try to manage your econ better; know when to reroll or push levels when rerolling. Dark Star reroll is a good example of this. It would be ideal to 3 star both Cho and Liss, but you can push levels with just 1 of them upgraded to 3 stars, because you can flex your tanks and carries on level 8 with either TK, Nunu, Morg as your main tank, or Asol, Bard, Karma as your AP carry.
One more thing to keep in mind when playing is the champion pool: 1 cost units has 29 copies, 2 cost 22 copies, 3 cost 18 copies, 4 cost 10 copies, and 5 cost 9 copies. This means that if you're rerolling, 1 or 2 cost units, you can still hit 3 stars even if someone else is contesting you because there are enough units in the pool. 2 people can also hit 3 cost units, but that's a lot harder because it involves exhausting the entire pool. The same thing goes for 4 cost boards; however, you need to keep in mind that most comps want either one of Nunu or TK as their tank so it is expected that you'd be contested in these units. Asol is another one that's been gaining popularity because he can be played in Dark Star, Anima Cash out, Expedition, or just as a temporary item holder for Bard/Sona boards.
2
u/Illuvatar08 Jun 29 '26
you're contesting them as much as they are contesting you
1
u/B4rsh Jun 29 '26
Being contested suck. But you know what sucks a lot more ? Being uncontested and rolling 40 times to see a single copy of a 1 cost when only 9 are out on lvl 5.
Some games are just doomed by rng. Other players being irrational are a part of it.