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@Riot: Can we get an update on east coast ping?

Cynicatt·6/5/2014, 7:25:48 AM·16 votes·3,930 views

I'm making this post here because I couldn't find one on this topic here on the Community Beta that was written in a constructive manner, and many of the threads on this topic on GD are extremely long but haven't been answered in months.

Back at the end of February, a Riot employee made this post:

Not promising East Coast game servers but I am committing to lower ping time for East Coast players and an attempt to balance ping time for most players to a closer range then we see today between the coasts. So more like centrally located servers for the NA player base (USA and Canada) as best as we can manage given the need for bandwidth, data center services, and other complicated issues about working in different parts of the USA. Servers are in hand, location contract is in work, then magic (though we might need some tweaking after the switch is thrown).

-sonicdeathmonk

Which is awesome! This post uses some language(such as "servers are in hand") that gave many players an idea that a solution to ping that can be almost ten times that of west coast ping was close at hand!

However, it's been almost 4 months since that post was made, and there have been no updates on the situation yet, but the thread keeps growing in size(more than 600 pages now) so it's easy to see the amount of passion and interest your players have in this subject. The silence may be slightly understandable, as you at Riot are probably very busy, but it is frustrating for those of us that are eager for this to happen.

So, to sum things up, I was just wondering if it would be at all possible to get even a teeny little bit more information about what's going on with this project at current, and, if possible, some kind of indication of how long we can be expected to wait to see improvements.

47 Comments

Hyrum Graff6/5/2014, 5:27:41 PM4 votes

+1. I know these things take a long time; I'd also like to hear a status update.

TheRealCoxinator6/5/2014, 3:01:08 PM3 votes

I get a standard of 246 ping on wireless east coast. Rito plz.

reaperman4386/5/2014, 12:55:27 PM3 votes

agreed this should not be happening considering most of the other gaming franchises such as Dota have east coast servers.

CaptainWednesday6/5/2014, 3:33:47 PM3 votes

While the online experience is not as bad as some servers (looking at you EUW), it can still be bad at times here on the East Coast. When I first started League, my ping was around 79-90 (I live right outside Atlanta). Even after upgrading my internet service speed, my ping stays around 120-129 now. Sometimes the server will go out for split seconds or long periods of time with no warning or explanation. Riot's argument against an NAE and NAW separation is "community fracturing". That the two servers will become vastly different in terms of meta, gameplay, experience, communication, etc. While I can understand their concern, I think the first thing to worry about is the actual performance of the game before the geographical consequences of it.

tripleamp6/5/2014, 4:51:05 PM2 votes

east coast servers plz only been waiting 5 years now

insaneluver6/5/2014, 2:58:54 PM2 votes

I live in boston and get the best internet possible but never go below 120 ping, usually 120-180 ping average. I was in san fransicso recently and the ping there was 20.... and it made a HUGE difference. A lee sin q'd on me, (I was renekton) and I was able to stun him and q before lee could w away. At my home , lee sin's q-w is too fast for me to stun him always. I ended up winning 5-6 games on a trot at 20 ping, carrying them all. I'm not very good so ping makes a huge difference lol. It was so much easier to orb walk at 20 ping also.

RasCaelestis6/6/2014, 4:08:23 AM2 votes

I'd also like to know what's going on. When I started playing this game about a year and a half ago, my ping was around 80-90 most days. Now it never drops below 115 and is usually steady around 120-140. My friends in the area have also noticed the same thing happening to them, and it's getting really annoying.

A while ago I made an account on LAN just to test the rumor that your ping is better there. The rumor was true, and I usually get a ping of around 70 there. The problem is that my high-school Spanish classes never taught me translations for "I'll fill but jungle is my worst role", "Enemy MIA", "Let's go do Baron", or "Wow, their ADC hits like a truck to the face." The ping is nice, but communication is too important an asset to lose. :\

ez Kami7/29/2014, 7:07:17 PM1 votes

It's bullshit this game has been around for SO long and has a dedicated esport scene, yet they still can't manage to support anyone other than the west coast and central US players. They are making insane amounts of money doing what they're doing; we all know they can afford it.

bzhen09156/5/2014, 2:44:51 PM1 votes

East coast ping really isn't that horrible. I get about 100 ping wirelessly living in the east coast. Yes some improvements could be made, but I'm not sure if it is a really big priority for riot.

Penguin Eclipse6/5/2014, 3:35:57 PM1 votes

He also said:

Work has been underway on NA for many months. We need to get EUW on our new architecture and make sure we have it baked into our automation. Then on to NA and EUN. Should start to see better network to game servers real soon. Also we are working on improving ping time for NA East Coast players. Cool things coming.

And:

We are working on getting game servers more centrally located in North America. We can share more on this soon. We are also optimizing our connections to many large ISPs in the USA and Canada which should improve things for everyone in the meantime. A few more were just hooked up just last week. Comcast, Level 3 and Cogent are now in the mix. Key changes coming first is a direct connection to the San Jose, CA and Seattle, WA located Internet Exchanges, this should reduce ping time a bit even for East Coast players (while also improving our DDoS defense). These Internet Exchanges bring us direct connections to many more USA and Canadian ISPs, cable companies, and telecoms than we have directly connected today in NA. Connections are ordered, so not too much longer to wait.

We also have truck loads of game servers built and waiting to be delivered closer to the Eastern US Coast as soon as we nail down the best place to put them to benefit the most NA players. This year for sure, hopefully soon. Won't be able to give everyone in the US 20 msec ping time but I think we will achieve getting most player closer to the same ping time (and still keep almost everyone faster than a Ferrari FXX can shift gears).

-sonicdeathmonk

An update would be very nice. I have been monitoring AS6507 (Riot Games, Inc.) for changes... but nothing significant as of lately. But as far as I can tell, nothing has been successfully done to lower the ping for Central and East Coast players as very few have reported lower ping. My ping actually increased.

The Red Warden6/5/2014, 8:21:24 PM1 votes

They have said soon since 2009