Riot Games Engineering: LoL vs. real-time internet

Riot·11/5/2015, 11:58:08 PM·0 votes·24,372 views

Riot’s engineering blog offers an inside look at some of the tech powering League of Legends and its systems. In this post (the first in a new series), tech director Peyton Maynard-Koran explores some of the challenges Riot faces in maintaining a real-time online game with the internet’s current architecture, which wasn’t exactly built with games like League in mind. In a world where buffering simply isn’t an option and data bounces haphazardly from city to city, how do we go about giving players the best possible experience?

Check out the post here: Fixing the Internet for Real Time Applications: Part 1

82 Comments

George W Ambush11/10/2015, 9:36:36 PM31 votes

It sounds like you should have servers pretty local, then. Like one on the west coast and one on the east coast.

ßANKSY11/11/2015, 1:19:08 AM10 votes

Hey Riot, just a friendly suggestion: maybe add a function on the client itself to check your ping before entering a match. I'd say just call it Ping Checker or something. I know that I've had terrible experiences with my bad ping that was unknown until I got into the loading screen, consequently making for giant disappointments and team losses. In my group I am notorious for bad ping because it always strikes at random for me item 3070 but I think it'd be awesome to be able to check it before entering a game so that I know it's safe for me to play.

VibeCheck F11/10/2015, 10:06:25 PM5 votes

rito wth Call of Duty Black Opps III makes a tentacle map and now you make a tentacle champ you need to think of your own ideas

ZappyTheUnicorn11/10/2015, 11:38:40 PM3 votes

Not a problem Ekko

ChocoMooCow11/11/2015, 12:16:45 AM3 votes

That explains why I play with canadians...

TomasuKush11/11/2015, 8:11:18 PM2 votes

It's not a good business model to move your servers which gave us on the west coast a jump in lag that we weren't already experiencing, just so on the east coast players would have better bandwidth speeds. Make TWO servers! Quit being cheap skates, your the runner of possibly the biggest E-sports game, no more excuses, just get it done!

EZ404011/10/2015, 9:24:31 PM2 votes

fourth

emanon dupits11/11/2015, 1:17:01 AM2 votes

Um... I know this is a long shot but why doesn't riot take over the internet, you know like wiring up all your customers and making lol have priority over all other traffic.

HKG Bambino11/11/2015, 3:53:32 AM2 votes

I think that when you're playing ranked and there is an early dc and a quick reconnect, the game should start over.. Talking 1:45 in or something.

Prince Kollin11/11/2015, 5:28:09 PM1 votes

I was just cursing rito for all the mini dcs. It's like you read my mind .

7 ºC 11/11/2015, 7:12:55 PM1 votes

Ashe

fatherofjesusGOD11/11/2015, 8:27:44 PM1 votes

This discussion isn't bout power struggle of who owns the most shares makes the decisions, this is about the network architecture design.

Save your political crap elsewhere.

Back on topic, if this is what they have currently available and all in the West Coast than they really need to expand. Can't complain though, planning something this big needs to have statistics to show improvement and floor space to expand in the future.

KSO Cougar11/14/2015, 2:35:07 AM1 votes

Seems to me the real problem here is that people complain about ping issues to Riot instead of their ISP, who can actually do something about it. If the ISPs had enough people complaining about their infrastructure they would be forced to change it to stay competitive in the market.

TwiztidDemonz12/8/2015, 8:45:28 PM1 votes

why not just have it right in the middle?

LoL SilentEcho11/11/2015, 3:04:58 AM1 votes

Internet of things fun lol

Unintelligence 11/11/2015, 4:20:55 AM1 votes

East and west coast servers would be nice

AzureBaron11/11/2015, 5:35:15 AM1 votes

I know that this probably wouldn't happen, but Riot (Not to mention other big gaming companies like Blizzard) could fun Google Fibre's spread across the country. That way, people could get a much better internet connection, and data will also be sent and received faster than the cable/DSL connections that people currently have.

SwizzieTactics11/11/2015, 6:13:03 AM1 votes

Why do they have billions of dollars yet the server sucks? Riddle me that.

Socodemon11/11/2015, 7:44:03 AM1 votes

So what about ping-biased matchmaking?

bongolo00711/11/2015, 8:22:41 AM1 votes

when I play league I always lag :( So please fix the internet please RIOT.

GrimYael11/11/2015, 4:06:07 PM1 votes

Riot should make this into a skin XD

xXHashiramaXx11/11/2015, 4:11:23 PM1 votes

well verison/Fios is a good answer i guess xD