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League in China: Differences between the Clients

Have you ever wondered why when you create a new account on a server the option to download the... | 26. December 2021

Have you ever wondered why when you create a new account on a server the option to download the client always pops up? Many of us have made the same mistake a few times for sure, creating an account without checking the region thinking the client is universal.

But it’s not, and to create an account on each server you need the client for that server as well. While most of us play on servers that are directly managed by Riot, most of the servers in the eastern regions are managed by separate organizations.

Playing on Asian Clients

For instance, in South East Asia the League servers are hosted and owned by Garena, not by Riot, that’s why they have different skin prices and features in the client. In China, however, there are 30 servers that were all established by Tencent, the parent company that owns Riot Games, but the servers are run by the two internet service providers in China.

As such the Chinese client and its servers function by different rules and offer a lot more features than the ones in Europe, Oceania or the Americas. The oldest and the biggest one is the Ionia server, which is also one of the most competitive, apart from the newly formed Super server.

Chinese League Client

Chinese League Client

That server was recently established to act as a training ground for current and aspiring pro’s as well as other high elo players. To get an account on this Super server you first must have proof that you have reached Diamond I or above on any of the other Chinese servers. Or if you are a pro player, Tencent gives you a special account that is already level 30 and has most of the champions.

If you live outside of China it’s very hard to get to play on the Chinese servers. You can’t transfer your account from other servers like EUW or NA to some of the Chinese servers. The only way to play on the Chinese servers is to buy a Chinese account or create your own account, which you can do only if you live in China since you need a verified phone number that’s necessary to create your QQ account. But if you somehow manage to get your hands on a Chinese account and play on their servers these are some of the differences you will notice between our and the Chinese client.

Tons of free stuff

The Chinese client is full of rewards for players, especially new ones. The TFT pass levels up extremely fast and can be leveled up through games on Summoners Rift. So even if you don’t play TFT you will still get emotes as a reward. The League passes for a specific event also give more rewards, regardless of whether you have purchased it or not. If you’re a new player, there is a separate event with missions that introduce you to the game and offer you champions of your choice to unlock, as well as more Blue and Orange Essence.

Chinese Client events

Chinese Client events

Special events

The Chinese Client is often integrating some special events only custom to China that we don’t receive. For events like All-Stars, Regional Cups, Chinese New Year, and most recently when EDG won the World Championship, the client offered major discounts for hundreds of skins, some of which cost only one RP, as well as all of the champions being free to play. As a new player that is a great feeling because you want to try out as many champions as possible before you decide what to main, but without paying for RP, getting all of the champions is a grind.

When there is no event, new players also get free experience boosts, free champions and skins that are temporary and switch at different level thresholds. All of these features are active until you reach level 30, which gives a lot more incentive as well as makes it more fun to grind till level 30 in two days. In the client, you have features that offer guides for runes/skill orders/spells/items for each champion depending on the role.

In game differences

In champ select you also have features that show you custom rune pages and builds recently used by pro players for the specific champion. We also have this feature via applications like Blitz and Mobalytics, but here they’re implemented in the client. Also in champ select, you can’t see the names of your teammates, which has long been requested by high elo players on our servers to prevent negative behavior. In-game the chat is almost nonexistent apart from the botted messages and ads that are spammed into the chat by the plugins that allow the already mentioned features for runes and stats.

Chinese Client in game

Chinese Client in game

Players usually avoid communication apart from pings, timers for all jungle camps, not just buffs are present and you can ping them. Players in Ranked Queues are always trying their best to win and play their main champions, or just straight troll from champ select. Most of those players are underage teenagers playing in internet clubs for which they pay by the hour, so they try their best to win every game, or if the game looks doomed they open by being AFK in base or they surrender at 15 minutes.

Level one invades are common, the mechanics of low elo players are surprisingly good, and selfishness is looked down upon. Even if your mid laner is bad and feeding you still need to give him the blue buff. Other 3rd party programs are also frequently used for champions skins, custom maps, and custom sound effects.