LEC Chronobreak issue – Explanation, solutions and controversy

The LEC found itself facing a difficult issue, as a game-breaking bug was detected during the match between Excel and Fnatic.

Because League of Legends is ever changing with new additions in the form of new champions, items, reworks and patches it is bound to happen that ever so often one of those nasty little bugs slips through the playtesting process. When this happens in a competitive environment what is right for the players? What upholds competitive integrity? What is feasible?

As it turns out, the game between Excel and Fnatic would put those questions to the test.

What exactly happened?

Last weekend Fnatic and Excel went in to break the tie for third place. Excel started off strong with an early game lead but it seemed it just wasn’t meant to be for them. Fnatic headed into second gear and came back with fury, creating a lead with a 20-8 kill score to their advantage along with a reinvigorating ocean soul. During the 34th minute of the game a game-breaking bug occurred, where Fnatic’s botlaner Upset was able to do damage while being revived by Guardian Angel. More specifically he was doing damage with his ultimate and killed Excel’s toplaner Kryze.

Bug or feature?

First we must establish if this is an intended interaction or a bug within the game. Let us look at a similar interaction. Karthus is notorious for being able to do area-of-effect damage while dead since his passive turns him into a static form that can still cast abilities. If Karthus dies while his defile ability is active and has purchased a guardian angel, he will first be revived by the item. During this time, he cannot interact in any way and his abilities are automatically turned off. This mechanic applies to all other champions.

A similar case is Katarina’s ultimate ability which in essence is almost identical to Samira’s. If Katarina uses her ult and dies during this channel, the revive process will interrupt her ultimate and it will go on a full cooldown period. This also applies to all champions that use a channeling ability. Combining the logic from these two examples, we can only conclude that a champion that dies during a channeling ability is not intended to be able to interact with anything during the revive process.

A unique solution: Chronobreak

Chronobreak is the name of a tool that Riot Games can use during a live game. This tool essentially records the entire game and replays the game automatically. Riot officials can then restart the game from a certain point and players can take control again of their respective characters. The idea behind this tool is that when an unintended interaction (bug) occurs, the game is rewound to just before that bug and the game proceeds from that point. The unthinkable however happened and Chronobreak failed to initiate.

Courses of action?

Since Chronobreak was not an option there were multiple options Riot Games could explore. The first option is to play out the game as is with the game still containing the bug. As you can imagine this would give an objectively unfair advantage to Fnatic so this option is quickly dismissed.

Option two would be remaking the game and both teams start the game again from the beginning with the same draft. This option on first glance seems most logical but eventually causes the most problems. Games are not won in pick-and ban. They are won with the execution of that pick-and ban. Both teams are now aware of each other’s tactic and game plan and this favors the team that was in the losing position the most. One can argue that both teams now have this information and thus both parties are on an equal playing field. However keep in mind that Fnactic was in a winning position so this would break competitive integrity.

Option three: The current game is cancelled and declared void. Both teams play out the game again on a later date. This option has the advantage that both parties start from a clean slate, but it does remove any already gained advantage. While on the surface more beneficial for Excel, remember that neither Fnatic nor Excel had won that game, so it exists in a “super-position” state. Riot rules dictate that the third option is offered to the disadvantaged team, in this case Excel, and they accepted it.

Controversy

So it was decided that the story would continue at the end of that day. Not everyone was as pleased with this decision. In particular, Fnatic’s head coach Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi expressed his displeasure with the process during the pause on Twitter stating that his team was in a winning position and the mental exhaustion was a factor that needed to be taken into account.

In the end Fnatic won the rematch with better two-vs-two skirmish, drawing first blood and an early lead in the process. During the midgame they kept gathering objectives and eventually shattered the enemy nexus at 33 minutes. The decision did incite controversy in the LEC but any decision being made would have always given dissatisfaction to at least one party involved.

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Image Credit: Excel (Twitter)
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