Who is TF Blade? LoL streamer overview

Ashkan Homayouni, more commonly known as “TF Blade” in game, is one of the, if not the best top laner in North America outside of the professional scene. TF Blade is renowned for his amazing plays and mechanics in the top lane, mastering both Irelia and Akali, while occasionally dabbling in a few games of Jax. He has been a full-time streamer on Twitch.tv ever since gaining notoriety for being the first player in North America to hit Challenger in season eight.

TF Blade age

Born in June 1999, TF Blade is only 20 years old currently. It has always been seen as a solo queue prodigy ever since appearing in the scene. However, despite his current success, TF Blade could have easily been shut down early on. He mentioned that he had only been able to turn into a full time streamer, after his older brother believed in him, and convinced his parents to let him do so.

Dominating North America

TF Blade had previously maintained his position as North America’s best player according to the challenger leaderboard for numerous weeks, having hovered around a steady 1250~ lp, 200 over the next trailing player at second place. While both of his main champions Irelia and Akali have been reworked, he has kept excellent mastery over these two picks and continues to dominate the North American challenger scene.

TF Blade further cemented his control over the NA challenger scene by ranking his second account to rank 2 as well. This journey to take the top two spots in the challenger leaderboard was made into a series which can be viewed on his YouTube channel.

tf-blade-ashkan-homayouni-team-liquid

Signing with Team Liquid

Judging by his very eccentric and hyper personality, it comes as no surprise that Ashkan Homayouni has been signed to a streaming team. Team Liquid picked him up, announcing on the 11th of June that TF Blade would be one of their new partnered streamers.

His skill to reach the top ranks while streaming and attracting a multitude of stream snipers without covering his minimap is a testament to his individual ability. While it is unlikely TF Blade will enter the pro scene with Team Liquid, or another team, if he fully concentrates on widening his champion pool, he will certainly get very far in professional play.

TF Blade - Team Liquid

© Team Liquid

How good is TF Blade?

Ashkan Homayouni set a goal to hit rank 1 in every League of Legends server in the world. This goal involved starting a fresh unranked account, and grinding solo queue in every region to gain the most lp on the challenger leader boards. Note, this goal is not for TF Blade to maintain rank 1 in each server, as that would be near impossible considering the amount of time commitment needed.

That said, reaching the top spot in every server is no easy feat, especially for a streamer. Streaming most of his games gives TF Blade a massive disadvantage in his quest to conquer rank 1, especially on high elo where stream sniping and ghosting is an easy method to gain an advantage. Furthermore, having announced his challenge to the world, to take the top spot in every region, many have purposely sabotaged his games. This range from soft inters, to those hard inters running it down mid, and those who simply AFK in his games.

Despite all the obstacles, Ashkan Homayouni has managed to conquer multiple regions, reaching the top spot in LAN, EUW, EUNE, and of course, NA. Previously TF Blade mentioned this challenge would not extend to the smaller servers like OCE, as these servers were too small, offer a lower quality solo queue experience, and would be less entertaining for viewers.

Current endeavours

Having already dominated 4 major regions across the world, TF Blade is working on his hardest quest yet, Korea. Korea had once dominated the competitive scene for years, producing many of the best players in the world. While the region has slightly declined in the competitive scene, with Europe and China taking over recently, Korea’s solo queue remains top notch. Currently in Korea, TF Blade has stated, Korea’s solo queue is certainly harder, and is of higher quality compared to the previous regions he has already challenged. This is especially so for the region’s mechanics, where even the average silver player is able to pull off hard combos rarely seen in normal low, or even high elo games (see clip from 8:35).

Currently, TF Blade plans to stay in Korea until he hits rank 1 if possible, and resides in an apartment with two other well known streamers, Rush and Midbeast.

Where to watch TF Blade playing live?

What’s next for Ashkan Homayouni?

Following his goal to hit rank 1 in Korea, it is highly likely TF Blade will return to NA, and stream there to relax for awhile. However, following this period, it is almost certain TF Blade will then look to enter the world’s current top region, China.

He is extremely underrated considering his entertaining personality and top level mechanics, it is most likely Ashkan Homayouni will continue streaming and expanding his Youtube channel. While he might have a troll type personality, he possesses the undeniable skill.