The TFT Paris Open: A community-first esports event

Featuring 768 players, the 2025 Teamfight Tactics Paris Open was more than just an esports competition.

Alongside boasting a $300,000 (~£222,000) prize pool, TFT’s crowning esports event was a celebration of its passionate community.

Thousands of content creators and fans attended the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles as TeamFight Tactics’ largest Open featured players battling it out through multiple rounds over three days. In the end, only eight remained to play on the main stage in front of a packed crowd.

But for fans attending, the TFT Paris Open was more of a festival than an esport event. To delve into this community aspect, Esports Insider spoke to fans and stakeholders during Teamfight Tactics’ biggest event of the year.

Whilst players were competing for the TFT’s biggest prize, attendees were provided with an abundance of activations. Fans could play Riot Games’ fighting game 2XKO in an arcade section or explore Riftbound’s corner featuring previews of the upcoming Spiritforged set.

At the heart of the venue stood the Artist Alley, where 16 community artists displayed and sold TFT‑themed art and merchandise. Nearby, lines formed each morning for the official Riot Games merch store as hundreds queued to get Riftbound Origin boxes and other event-exclusive items.

Close by was Brunch Studio’s art wall displaying concept drawings of the event’s official art, where attendees sketched messages of support for players and talent on site. In one corner of the event space, there was also a Pengu Pâtisserie serving themed treats and drinks. In front of it, Riot Games installed a TFT-themed art gallery featuring famous paintings reimagined with the game’s little legends. 

This blend of activations, alongside its carnival atmosphere, made the TFT Paris Open feel less like an esports tournament and more like a convention where fans, developers and creators celebrated the game together. For one American family from Austin, Texas, the TFT Paris Open became a shared family experience. 

“I might be the oldest player competing today,” said Matt Landers, who was accompanied by his wife, Meschelle Stringer Landers and their two daughters. With hands full of merch and eyes drawn to every corner of the convention floor, the family was enjoying their time at the Open in Paris. 

The parents framed the game as an alternative to “passive screen time,” explaining that rather than isolating themselves, their daughters could play “a strategy game” that had them “use their brains.”

“I’d much rather them do that than just sit and watch something passively,” said Matt Landers.

Even if the kids were too young to grasp all of TFT’s systems, Meschelle Landers said it was meaningful to have something that the whole family can “get behind and share together.”

The event itself reinforced that idea, offering spaces where children could interact with the world of TFT in ways that didn’t require a deep mechanical understanding of the game. Rather than feeling out of place, families blended naturally into the crowd.

The discussion of when and how kids should engage with games like TFT came up again with Ysabelle, who attended the Open with her two young children despite her husband, Albert ‘Mismatched Socks’ Chen, not competing this year. Despite the long trip from the US, she framed the event less as a tournament and more as a space for her family. After all, TFT has been part of her children’s lives since infancy.

Ysabelle acknowledged that bringing children to esports events is still unusual, but she sees TFT as an exception. “It’s definitely not normal yet,” she said, noting that for a long time her family was often the only one bringing kids to conventions and competitions. Still, she emphasised how the community adapts, explaining that everyone knows to “keep PG-13” around the kids. 

That generational mix at the Paris Open stood out to Stephen ‘Mortdog’ Mortimer, TFT’s Gameplay Director, as he walked through the venue. Seeing parents with children and young players discovering the game alongside their families reinforced what he believes makes TFT different.

“I actually talked to Dishsoap’s dad, and I thought that was pretty cool,” said Mortdog. “He came by and was talking, and he enjoyed things. So that made me really happy as well, seeing a parent being really happy for their kid doing really well.”

For Mortdog, moments like these have reshaped how he thinks about Teamfight Tactics’ longevity.

“You know, whenever you make a game, you hope people enjoy it for like two or three years, and that’s good,” continued Mortdog. “But the fact that not only are we been around for six years, but we’re on the rise […] makes me excited.”

He said the idea that today’s kids and teenagers could still be playing TFT decades from now is “pretty wild,” especially given that the game continues to grow six years into its lifespan.

That sense of time passing has also become evident at work. Mortdog joked that Riot Games is now hiring people who are younger than his career as a game designer, calling it “a little wild” to realise he has been working on games longer than some coworkers have been alive.

But rather than feeling distant from the community, this feeling has reinforced how deeply Riot’s games have woven themselves into multiple generations of players.

Ultimately, Teamfight Tactics’ long-term growth as an esport is rooted in its community.

Laura Hassert first stepped into TFT’s ecosystem as a player during the pandemic before moving into esports and event operations, including work with the Guardian Angel League.

From her perspective, both personally and as an event organiser, the Paris Open has succeeded because Riot Games knows how to align communication, structure, and atmosphere.

She pointed to additions like the Artist Alley as evidence that Riot Games understands why people show up to its events, “not just to win, but to belong to a community.” However, she noted opportunities for growth and improvements, particularly in activations for attendees who don’t yet play TFT. 

Still, her overall assessment was that Riot Games “definitely knocked it out of the park.”

That sense of finding one’s own community came through vividly when discussing ‘Paper’s‘ experience. As a German fine arts student, she brought a handmade Smolder puppet to the event, a project that took about a year to create from scratch. Smolder’s expanding wings, moving eyes, and flaming lights made her impossible to miss on the TFT Paris Open floor. 

What started as a personal art project quickly became a bridge to the community. “I can’t believe that everyone is here,” she said. “I’ve finally met so many people that I’ve known online for years now.”

One moment in particular captured that shift from online fandom to in-person connection.

“A year back, I got invited to the Arcane event, and there I saw Scarra, but I was too shy, too scared to approach him,” Paper said before sharing how this year the roles reversed. “He was one of the first people to approach me and ask for a photo! I was so flabbergasted.”

That same passion for Teamfight Tactics and its community has also caught the attention of organisations like Gentle Mates and Solary, who had a stand at the event.

A production manager at Gentle Mates explained that TFT holds a central place within the organisation’s identity. “TFT is a game that Gentle Mates considers as important as VALORANT or other Riot Games’ titles,” he said, adding that being present was about showing that Gentle Mates takes care of players “no matter which game they play.”

By the end of the weekend, the TFT Paris Open had proven itself to be more than just the game’s largest Open to date.

However, despite all of the activations, the game is still an esports event at its core, and needed to crown a champion.

Over 200 PCs were set up across the floor, divided into sectors representing the various lobbies, all full on the first day as competitors battled through multiple rounds.

As the weekend progressed, the players in each sector gradually thinned until the top eight qualified for the final showdown on Sunday. Brazilian player Luis ‘Toddy’ Hüttl was one of the first to secure a spot in the final lobby through cheers from fans. But in the end, it was Ge ‘Huanmie’ Wuxin who claimed the Tactician’s Belt, winning the decisive final lobby with a well‑executed Void comp.

While the Tactician’s Belt and its six-figure prize pool drew competitors from around the world, it was the atmosphere beyond the main stage that defined the event.

Between family-friendly spaces, community art, casual play areas, and moments of genuine connection between attendees, the Paris Open was a celebration of the game and Riot’s community. If the Teamfight Tactics Paris Open offered any clear takeaway, it was that TFT’s future will be carried forward not just by its players, but by the culture growing around it.