How third-party software creates unfair advantages in League?

If you have been gaming at any point in the last two years, you have probably heard of third-party gaming software. Platforms like Blitz and Overwolf have created an entire industry and marketplace offering software that helps gamers.

The League of Legends scene might have been the start of it, as we have had OP.GG for the longest time. But apart from these platforms spreading across multiple game genres, they have also tapped deeper into the games. In League, that means giving away valuable information that creates unfair advantages which any player can abuse. The problem is that it’s so common and strong, that if you are not using these applications, you might be setting yourself up for failure.

Rune choices

Most of these tools started off with the same purpose. New League players who have to learn the kits of 160 champions can improve much faster if an app recommends them runes and items. But what about players who don’t understand English or have never heard of these tools? Their trajectory of improvement and how much they enjoy the game are directly impacted by the existence of these apps.

But apart from suggesting preferred build and rune choices for your champion in the specific game mode, these apps can show also you the rune choices of your opponents. You get so much free information that it naturally creates an unfair advantage. If your opponent has runes like Sudden Impact and Coup de Grace, you know they can kill you faster than without those runes. And because you know their win condition, you play safer and increase your chance of winning the game. They might have spent a few months figuring out the matchup, win condition, and how to play the game, while you counter all of that because the application told you how.

Player tendencies

On top of the rune choices, player tendencies were the next step for these tools. If you have some of these applications installed, you could see the tendencies of the entire enemy team. Their top laner is auto-filled, their jungler can only play one champ that got banned, their mid laner has a negative win rate on their champion, the bot laner dies to every gank and the support is on a seven-game losing streak. The amount of unfair advantage information like this creates can’t be overstated. 

Jungle respawn timers

A few seasons ago, tracking the respawn timers of Dragons, Heralds, and Buffs was an issue that Riot resolved by adding them in-game, but now it’s kind of back. Having timers on the minimap to let you know when the camps will respawn is a huge benefit. A lot of the intangibles that make a great jungler is them planning their pathing based on the lane matchups, tacking the enemy jungler, and the respawn timers of the camps. This is what makes jungling hard for beginners and makes jungle the most important role at the highest levels of play.

It used to have a learning curve that took years to master depending on the champion choices, the meta, the lane matchups, clear speed, among other things. Now, all of that skill expression goes out the window, since anyone can download the app. And that’s not to sound bitter, as it surely helps ease the learning curve for new players, but it arguably needs to be regulated. This feature has been available on the Chinese client for a long time and has helped the region capture three of the last four World Championships by producing more skilled players.

Summoner Spell tracking

One of the newest third-party tools are the Summoner Spell tracking timers. Tracking these used to be a duty reserved for professional play, where they made the most impact. The 2019 Worlds Champion and MVP Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang popularized this by doing it in high elo Solo Queue games by spamming the timers of the enemy Summoners in team chat. Anyone who bothers enough to do this can do it, but now, these applications make it easier than ever.

You can start the timer by simply pressing a single button and it even calculates the timer based on their rune choice. If the enemy has the Cosmic Insight rune or has purchased Ionian boots of Lucidity, both of which reduce the cooldown of Summoner Spells, these apps will consider that. Cooldown tracking precise to the very second is a great advantage to be had in a MOBA game and it just might ruin the competitive integrity of the game.

Header: Riot Games