Riot Bans Ultimate Timer Overlays in League of Legends after Community Backlash

Riot is cracking down on third party app overlays in League of Legends. Specifically, they are prohibiting enemy ultimate timer displays starting March 13. The change in policy was prompted after the community voiced their concerns regarding the unfair advantage the feature provided.

Apps with the feature built in, namely Porofessor, must remove this feature by the specified date. 

Here is the official statement from Riot Games:

“Products must not use or incorporate information not present in the game client that would give players a competitive edge (e.g., automatically or manually allowing tracking enemy ultimate cooldowns), especially when such data is not already accessible through regular gameplay.”

If they are not removed, the League of Legends client alongside Vanguard may trigger “API key detection.” The exact repercussions were not laid out, but Riot is essentially considering this feature “cheating.” The usual punishments for cheating will likely apply here. 

To avoid being punished, players can opt for other third party apps that do not have this feature built in or simply uninstall third party overlays for League of Legends.

It appears Riot has no issue with jungle and summoner spell timers being readily displayed, a feature most overlays support. Summoner Spell cooldowns and jungle timer are standardized, meaning for the vast majority, everyone has the same cooldown timer.

Ultimate cooldowns, on the other hand, are very much champion specific, influenced by cooldown reduction, minor changes in patch updates, and level ups. This nuance makes predicting an enemy’s ultimate cooldown time a very intensive process. There are over 150 champions in the game; the vast majority of veteran players who have played the game for over a decade still do not have every ultimate cooldown memorized.