"Killstealing"

Baitsa Dasuto·9/15/2014, 8:32:59 PM·3 votes·1,084 views

The age-old question. Does Killstealing, in LOL, exist? What is your stance on it? Would you report somebody for stealing kills, either yours or your teammates? Or is your stance "KS means Kill Secured, stealing doesn't exist"? What does RIOT think of the topic? Please try to be civil. :)

As for me, I'm more of a casual player. I'm not completely bad, though I would most likely be somewhere around Bronze, maybe low Silver, if I bothered to play ranked. I play LOL more for its many diverse champions and don't have a preferred role or champion. I know that a good kill distribution and a fed ADC helps my team. Yet most of the time I don't have enough judgement to tell if my team mates are able to get the kill before me or not, so I always try my best to take it. Most of the time I don't either way, no matter what role I play I have way more assists than actual kills most of the time, even as ADC.

10 Comments

redniwediS9/15/2014, 8:58:22 PM2 votes

To me kill stealing and kill securing are two very different things.

Kill securing is when you are playing the game and fighting as a team.
Kill stealing is when you actively attempt to keep your team from getting kills.

The latter almost never happens, as trolls are rarely able to do so reliably, and so unless a troll specifically brings up that they are doing this I will throw all kills into the first category.

Lumus Avatar9/15/2014, 9:00:18 PM2 votes

If you have one tower pushed in your lane, and you enter your team mates' lane during their push simply to take advantage of the fact that they have been trading progressively with their opponents and do not allow them to take the kill they have been working on, then you are stealing a kill. You did little more than make the last hit, while your teammates were carefully playing a game of chess to whittle down the opponent. And then, at the moment their efforts come to fruition and they are to have the satisfaction of finally downing the champ they've been trading with, you swoop in and one-shot them, then yes. you're kill stealing.

I have had many unforgivable kill-stealers who will wait to jump a low health enemy until your assist bonus period has lapsed. You did the work, but you get nothing, not even an assist. that's not helping the team. It's also depriving your teammate of valuable interaction which helps them understand their champ better.

I use AI games to practice new champs, learn their timing, skill shots, counters, etc. But AI is also a haven of people who just want to get every kill in a game and steal as many as possible. All I learn in those games is that I'm not enough of an A-hole to compete with these people.

12tales9/15/2014, 9:02:46 PM2 votes

Killstealing doesn't exist because the game allows players to invest gold in one another through vision and such. Compare the following two situations -

ADC gets a kill, support gets an assist. ADC buys two wards later in the game.

End result - ADC and Support each get 150 discretionary gold, and 2 wards are placed on the map.

Support gets a kill, ADC gets an assist. Support buys two wards later in the game.

End result - ADC and Support each get 150 discretionary gold, and 2 wards are placed on the map.

EvilRabbitt9/16/2014, 12:22:39 AM2 votes

kills are 300g and shut down bonus. Assists are 150g (less on multi assist iirc).

Steal- when its early/mid game and one lane goes to another and gets the kill instead of the laner. You starved them to feed yourself. Exceptions are junglers.

Secure- you are the closest to the kill and target is near to escape. You close in first and kill.

buneter9/16/2014, 10:49:57 AM1 votes

it's kill securing until im any position but support and 0/0/25 then I want a kill somewhere

Kowlin9/16/2014, 11:19:30 AM1 votes

I would like to give Dota 2 an example, in my past 100 games of Dota 2 nobody complained about killstealing. Why is that you might ask? Because we are all working to a united goal. However, in League this is sadly another story. I see people here go for more kills when they don't need too. They rush in to try to get the most gold out of it. I don't know why this is and I'm one of the people who won't find it out.

YGW Caspie9/17/2014, 12:16:33 PM1 votes

But kill stealing as a bloodthirsty support is so much fun! In all seriousness though, why is this topic brought up so often? You would not believe how many kills I let go because I thought my teammates could secure it and as such I've started to play more aggressively and if they can't take the kill from my weak support auto attack with a slow animation then too bad. I don't do this to purposefully steal a kill I do it because in the end it doesn't matter who gets the kill, the death of an opponent is not something to let squander away, the money isn't the only thing it grants... it's the loss of pressure that can be taken advantage of and letting that go can be game changing and isn't worth the risk. Does that mean I'm going to flash ignite someone who is about to die, no (unless I'm trolling my teammates in ranked 5s).

TL;DR: Stop pressing tab and looking at your K/D/A there are better things to do like objectives and winning the game.