Riot Implements Pause System for League of Legends Tournament Games

If there's one thing to take away from Riot Games latest announcement, it's that they really strive to create the best product possible.  Riot continues to prove that they listen to fans

 

In an announcement yesterday, Riot Games introduced a "game pausing feature that has been made available on the Tournament Realm."  Disconnects have always been an issue with League of Legends, especially in tournament play where so much is on the line.  Even losing a few minutes of farming due to a disconnect can lead to some serious underleveling and the opponent outfarming.

 

One particular example which caused plenty of fan outcry was the Epik vs. Fnatic match, which took place in the first game of the 2nd semi-final.  Westrice disconnected around the 8 minute mark resulting in Vayne getting a serious advantage in levels and creep score.

 

Accoridng to Riot's eSports Manager, "The match was not restarted since the disconnect occurred after first blood & after the 5 minute mark."  While this is only one case, there have been plenty more issues with tournament play and disconnects.  It's a slippery slope that Riot has taken a pretty firm stand on.

 

This new pause system still keeps those same disconnect/restart rules, but "allows administrators at events to halt gameplay in case a player experiences technical issues while playing League of Legends."

 

Now this won't stop disconnects, but what it'll do is prevent one team from gaining an advantage over the team with a disconnect player.  Since the game still continues after first blood or the 5 minute mark, teams ar estill prevented from intentionally disconnecting or sabotaging their machines in order to reset the game to a neutral state.  Now, if a team disconnects, the official can pause the game until  the technical issue is solved.  This still keeps the game in it's current state, without affecting past or future gameplay resulting from the disconnect. 

 

What this means is if my team is up 5 kills to 0, and a memeber of the other team disconnects, the official can pause the game.  I still get to keep my 5-0 lead, and the other team doesn't have to worry about falling deeper into a hole.  At least until the player reconnects.  Riot didn't reveal how long a "pause" would last.

 

"This new feature will improve the integrity of competitive play in the League of Legends tournament scene, and will provide a much better viewing experience for eSports fans around the globe!"