LoL Esports Draft Simulator - Teamfight Manager 2 Release Date, Early Access
- Teamfight Manager 2 will release in early access later this year
- The game lets League of Legends fans live out their esports coaching fantasies
- Find out how the sequel has updated the game
Have you ever watched a League of Legends tournament and thought, "I could draft better than these clowns!" Drafting is a quintessential part of League of Legends esports. Games and even tournaments have been won or lost based on a team's ability to effectively use the pick-and-ban phase in a best-of-5. In the era of Fearless Draft, it will be an even more impactful difference-maker.
In 2021, the developers at Team Samoyed set out to give esports fans the chance to prove their own drafting prowess without being limited by such a trivial thing as "actually being able to play the game at a high level." Enter Teamfight Manager, an autobattler heavily inspired by League of Legends that focuses entirely on drafting, building synergistic team compositions, and becoming the best esports team in the world.
The game earned a "Very Positive" rating on Steam, peaking at over 8K players. Now, Team Samoyed is back for another round with a sequel simply titled Teamfight Manager 2. Here's what we know about the game so far:
Teamfight Manager 2 Release Date and Early Access
Teamfight Manager 2 will release in early access in Q4 of 2025. No official release date has been revealed at time of writing. The developer released a detailed Q&A on the Steam page explaining the decision to go with early access rather than waiting for a full release. Based on that, it appears the game will be in a fairly robust state in early access with more features to come as it prepares for the official launch.
While no price information is available yet, the early access info mentions that the price will increase on full release, so players hoping to get the most out of their purchase will want to pick up the game before it finishes the early access phase.
Related Article: How to Watch MSI 2025 - Fearless Draft, Full Schedule, Streams
What's New in Teamfight Manager 2
TM2 appears to be a suped-up version of the gameplay experience from the original version. A host of new champions, improved menus, more detailed coaching tactics and new maps are the headline upgrades for the sequel. But perhaps the biggest change is the decision to move the game even closer to League of Legends.
In Teamfight Manager 1, players would win a game by simply eliminating every opposing champion. Now, the sequel has added a "rune" that must be destroyed to win, similar to the Nexus in LoL. The description even specifically lists out familiar roles including Top, Jungler, Bottom and Support
This change will make the game even closer to the League of Legends coaching fantasy its predecessor offered.
Finally, the way you recruit players has been upgraded to more closely resemble how teams find talent in League of Legends esports. You'll now be able to monitor the solo queue ranked ladder to pick up young talent rather than simply recruiting from an invisible pool of players. If you get destroyed by a talented assassin player, you'll have the ability to try and pull them away from that team as well. This makes roster-building a much more dynamic and active part of the game.
Esports Impact
Teamfight Manager is a love letter to League of Legends esports. The players you recruit are named after legends of the game like Faker, Lehends, and WildTurtle. While the champions are distinct, drafting still tickles the part of the brain that yells at your phone when watching your favorite team let a priority pick slip through the pick and ban phase.
Dozens of League of Legends veterans, content creators, and even general managers have played Teamfight Manager on their livestreams or YouTube channels. Before he was ever the coach of Los Ratones, Caedrel played Teamfight Manager on his stream, screaming at some of the biggest names in the scene when they whiffed their ults. Those gamers are certain to return now that Teamfight Manager 2 offers them an even more similar experience to coaching a top-level League of Legends Esports Team.
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Trent has covered esports since the birth of the LCS. He also led content strategy and served as Senior Writer for The Esports Observer and Sports Business Journal, and worked on the development team for Rushdown Revolt.