Riot Games employees were concerned and apprehensive about the company's plans to release seven new games last year, especially mobile and card games, due to prior backlash from the gaming community against similar projects. Therefore, a marketing strategy was put in place to avoid negative reactions. In a Twitter thread, League of Legends communications leader Ryan Rigney described Riot's five strategies for avoiding backlash when announcing "risky/controversial" games. In recent years, Blizzard released the mobile game "Diablo Immortal" and Valve released the card game "Artifact," both of which caused backlash from their devoted fanbases. Riot feared a similar backlash from League of Legends' devoted fans.

Riot especially wanted to make sure that the release of Autobattler and Teamfight Tactics was recognized as being current and to show the developer's love and geek cred for each new genre they were venturing into. Rigney said, "The solution here was to be as honest with players about TFT as we were internally," noting that the official announcement cites Dota Auto Chess as a direct inspiration for TFT.

Rigney also noted that some were reluctant to "lean into the meme" by incorporating the anti-Diablo Immortal meme "Do you guys don't have phones?" in the TFT mobile announcement. This was especially so because they did not want Riot to appear to be taking a cheap shot at the expense of its competitor, Blizzard. Their intention was instead to "play with and destroy" the meme. Nevertheless, it was inevitable that announcing eight new projects at once would be perceived as a move against a company that many had come to regard as Riot's natural enemy. Our own Steven Messner certainly thought it was a declaration of war.

You can read Rigney's entire thread on Twitter.