Riot Games are preparing a patch to tackle a wave of cheating in League of Legends – triggered by the discovery of a new and powerful exploit. Commonly misunderstood to be a bug, the exploit finds players taking advantage of a quirk in skill activation.
“This is a bannable offence,” said the developers last night. “Every player determined to have triggered this exploit will be punished.”
Some League of Legends champions, like Ashe, have passive abilities which swap out their auto attack for a useful variant. The game handles this by hiding the variant skill until the player toggles the passive with ‘Q’.
Using a third-party program, cheats have discovered that the same can be achieved with champions that don’t normally swap out their auto attack for another spell. With the right champions, they’ve been able to replace auto attacks with powerful ultimates.
In the video below, charcoal champion Brand can be seen using his ultimate, Pyroclasm, at level one. Understandably, its chain of powerful flame attacks causes quite a ruckus in the early game.
Riot said that skills were being used “in a manner in which they are not intended” and that the exploit would “provide unfair advantages”.
“This is not average players taking advantage of a bug,” wrote RiotEglorian. “It requires manipulation of the game on a level that is against our Terms of Service.”
The developers pledged to release a fix in the near future, and thanked players for their patience.
Riot approved the use of two third-party apps in League of Legends last week – but this one isn’t really up their street. Have you come across the hack in-game?