Is this third party program legal to use?

Andrew781·11/28/2014, 5:51:04 PM·3 votes·5,690 views

I've heard a while ago about a Rioter saying that "nothing should interfere with the game experience from "Play" to the end of game results screen" when it comes to third party programs. While I have seen that being used as an argument against functionality about information you normally shouldn't see (I've once seen a program that lets you see what champions are being picked by your opponents in blind pick normals and in ARAMs during champion select), I'm not 100% sure about information that can be retrieved using legal thrid party sites such as lolnexus.com and lolking.net; I would really like a detailed explanation about what EXACTLY is and isn't allowed to be used in third party applications.

11 Comments

Volt Cruelerz11/28/2014, 5:58:15 PM3 votes

Personally, I've never really been satisfied with their definition of "interference with the gameplay experience," or lack thereof, really. Obviously any bot that plays the game for you or program that gives you vision of things you shouldn't be able to see is bad, but fundamentally, this program does change the gameplay experience... that is to say, it makes it better (provided that their code doesn't crash).

Things like that don't give you inappropriate knowledge of the game (you could look up all the champion/summoner statistics if you really wanted to, it's just inconvenient) and IMO ought to be fine. That said, Riot's vague policy catches things like this in the crossfire. They're probably intentionally vague because it's hard to nail down what is and isn't reasonable except on a case-by-case basis. I certainly can't think of a better way to word their policy that doesn't catch reasonable programs in the crossfire.

Fury and Emperor11/28/2014, 6:01:15 PM1 votes

Yes, that's legal because it does exactly the same thing as lolking.

Junkο11/28/2014, 7:49:43 PM1 votes

It seems really unfair, but everybody uses lolnexus nowdays anyways so idk.

FedAsFuk11/29/2014, 9:02:40 AM1 votes

From everything I have read and I will talk to a friend who works as a tech for Riot there is no reason this wouldn't be allowed. It really only puts something not offered in the game client onto the game client (think curse voice) it really does nothing that's game breaking or even game changing. If you want to have the information at your feet you can if not oh well. It may help newer players learn how various runes impact champions but as a whole it shouldn't be massively impactful unless someone is running odd rune pages/masteries it gives you a more convenient "hey look out dumb%%%". I will contact my friend tomorrow though and get back to you ASAP

MrSlowDie11/29/2014, 9:09:05 AM1 votes

this, what if blind pick isn't blind anymore ?? :/