Connection Quality Deconstructed
Latency (Ping)
Latency is the amount of time it takes data packets to travel from your computer to Riot game servers and back in milliseconds.
When your internet connection works normally, your physical distance from Riot game servers is the largest contributing factor to latency.
Lower latency is better.
Packet-Loss
Packet-loss occurs when data packets don’t reach your computer or Riot game servers. Missing packets need to be re-transmitted and the delay in processing information results in lag.
Packet-loss should be as close to 0% as possible.
Jitter
Jitter is the change in latency over time. Your computer and Riot game servers expect a steady flow of data packets. When some packets arrive too late or out of order, it causes lag.
Jitter should be as close to 0ms as possible.
What About Bandwidth?
Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be uploaded or downloaded through your internet connection. When checking out different ISP packages or testing your internet speed, you’re probably evaluating your connection based on how much data can be uploaded or downloaded, usually in megabits per second (Mbps).
Streaming video services, for example, require a high-bandwidth connection to deliver high-definition video and audio content to you. They need a ‘big pipe’ for you to download a large amount of data as fast as possible. Streaming services also support buffering, which allows you to download a bunch of data before your content is presented. This allows the streaming services to gracefully handle less-stable connections since the delivery of content is not as sensitive as an online multiplayer game.
In contrast, League of Legends doesn’t send large quantities of data, so it doesn’t require a high-bandwidth connection. However, League does require a stable connection to make sure all data is successfully transmitted between your computer and Riot game servers.
What causes a connection to become unstable?
There are many points on the journey from your computer to Riot game servers that data packets have to pass through, and any one of them can cause an unstable connection. Broadly, here are 5 components that can contribute to an **unstable connection:**
Player Computer: The computer you play League of Legends on.
Ethernet vs. Wifi: Wifi connections are more susceptible to interference and can significantly impact the lag-measuring metrics. For more information on the impact Wifi has on your connection stability, check out this article on the League of Legends Clairvoyance Blog.
Other applications using bandwidth: Streaming or downloading too many things while playing can result in League traffic getting de-prioritized or stuck in congestion. Just like a freeway, your connection can get backed-up when there’s too much traffic on it.
Lag 101
Lag, the invisible killer.
It strikes at the worst possible times, ruins games, and lets your friends down when they need you most. We know lag is painful. Based on questions we frequently hear, we want to help demystify lag and what causes it.
Lag is really a catch-all term that describes any disruption impacting the responsiveness of your actions. Lag can be broadly categorized into three types:
- Computer performance lag is related to the performance of League on your computer.
- Network connection lag is related to the flow of data between your computer and Riot game servers.
- Game server lag is related to the performance of Riot game servers.
Network Connection Lag
Network connection lag is the most nefarious and unpredictable of all lag. As a real-time, online, multiplayer game, League of Legends has to keep players synchronized on what’s happening throughout an entire game. Whenever there’s a disruption in the connection between your computer and Riot game servers, you might experience some manifestation of lag.
What's Happening Behind The Scenes?
A stream of data packets is consistently sent between your computer and Riot game servers over the course of a game. These data packets are used to communicate information between your computer and the Riot game servers, to keep you and the game server synced on everything happening on the Rift.
10x Force Multiply!
Of course, your computer and the game servers don’t exist in a vacuum. While your computer sends data packets to the game server to communicate your actions, the game server also communicates the actions of all the other players. This exchange of information is necessary because the game servers are responsible for ensuring you and all the other players in a game stay constantly in-sync!
LAG! WTF!
When the stream of data-packets between your computer and the game server is interrupted or becomes unstable, the lack of information causes your computer and the game servers to briefly de-sync. In those moments where the stream of data packets is interrupted, you experience lag because your computer doesn’t have the information it needs to keep you up-to-date with the game.
