Riot launches client cleanup campaign to fix LoL’s buggy client

Riot Games has launched a six-month campaign to clean up and fix the notoriously dated League of Legends client.

Despite being one of the biggest video games in the world, LoL’s actual computer application is a blast from the past in all the worst ways. The client is known for having uncontrollable lag, bugs, and various other issues.

After years of complaints Riot is beginning a full campaign to fix it, with the target end date being in six months.

LoL client cleanup will have two parts

Riot explained which parts of the client are most problematic and how they are planning on addressing the issues. Riot is using two metrics, bootstrap time and the champion select lock-in time.

Bootstrap time is the time it takes the client to boot and be fully functional. Ideally, it takes 15 seconds or less. Right now, the bootstrap can take 40 seconds or more for players with older computers.

The champion select lock-in time is self-explanatory. It’s the time it takes the server to recognize that the player made a selection. This time changes from player to player and is one of the metrics that Riot is looking to improve.

In order to improve both of those times, Riot must rework pieces of the client architecture. The developer will fix any bugs they find as they go, which will ideally allow Riot to fix most of the other issues in the client along the way. Problems like the black screen in the champion select and the problems to save the rune pages are on the list.

The source of LoL’s bugs and lag

The League of Legends client uses plug-ins and apps for every action the player takes. For example, changing summoners, locking in a champion, trading champions, and other features create more and more apps. This means that longer sessions will inevitably create lag, which builds up more and more over time.

Riot is fully aware of the problem and will look to simplify the way the client works. The goal is to make the system as clean as possible so players experience less lag. The first step in this is changing the back end of champion selection. The process will receive major changes in the coming months.

Riot will update fans about the progress regularly through the developer’s corner.