Crowd control



Crowd control (commonly shortened to CC) is a blanket term used in League of Legends to describe abilities or spells that removing or diminish the control a target unit has over aspects of itself - aspects such as being able to cast spells or initiate movement commands. As crowd controls impact a unit's combat ability, they are essentially more specialized forms of debuffs - however, this ability to directly hinder a unit's ability to fight means that crowd controls are often given significantly more importance in regular gameplay than normal debuffs, resulting in their special classification.

There are many different forms of crowd control in League of Legends, each of which is unique in the way it affects its target and the ways it can - if at all - be resisted, mitigated or removed. Some crowd controls can be exclusive or near-exclusive to certain champions or items, and different champions can apply the same crowd control in multiple different ways. A few specific mechanics (such as ) even require a catalyst crowd control to function.

Types of Crowd Control
The following are the current forms of crowd control that exist within League of Legends:


 * : A unit that is airborne is unable to control its movement, attack or cast abilities for the duration. The duration is also unaffected by crowd control reduction and cannot be removed by cleansing effects.
 * Knockback: A knockback causes the target to be made airborne in a direction away from the point of cast.The duration depends on how far the target travels, from seconds  to.
 * Knockup: A knockup causes the target to be made airborne on the spot. The duration depends on how high is the target thrown into the air, from seconds  to.
 * Pull: A pull effect causes the target to be made airborne in a direction toward the point of cast.
 * : A unit that is blind will miss its auto-attacks for the duration. Miss occurs on-hit, and does not prevent attacks from being declared.
 * : A unit that is disarmed cannot declare attacks for the duration.
 * is a combination of Disarm and Root.
 * is a combination of Disarm and Silence (aka Pacify). The only example also reduces movement speed for the duration.
 * Forced Action: A unit that is under the effect of a forced action cannot control its own movement or attacks, and is unable to cast abilities.
 * : A unit that is charmed will move toward the source for the duration.
 * : A unit that is feared move around randomly at reduced movement speed for the duration. There are currently no examples of Fear that affect champions.
 * : A unit that is fleeing will move directly away from the source with reduced movement speed for the duration.
 * : A unit that is taunted will attempt to autoattack the source of the taunt for the duration.
 * : A unit that is rooted is unable to control its movement for the duration (occasionally referred to as a snare).
 * : A unit that is silenced cannot cast abilities or activate items for the duration.
 * : A unit that is slowed has reduced movement and/or attack speed for the duration.
 * : A unit that is in stasis is unable to perform any action while being untargetable and invulnerable. The duration is also unaffected by crowd control reduction.
 * : A unit that is stunned is unable to move, attack or cast abilities for the duration.
 * : A unit that is suspended is considered to be airborne for the purposes of, but for countering purposes it's considered a stun.
 * : A unit that is suppressed is unable to control its movement, attack, cast abilities or use spells (including ). The duration is also unaffected by crowd control reduction.

Summary Table
Please note the following:
 * Movement includes abilities (such as, and ).
 * Ability refers to a champion's castable spells.
 * cannot be activated while abilities are disabled, as the item is intended to be used on allies.
 * Spells refers to the summoner spells.
 * Interrupt refers to whether or not the effect will cancel channeled abilities.
 * Roots do not interrupt channeling except in two special cases: and . Roots will interrupt charged dashes (namely  and ) due to the second active no longer being castable.
 * is specially coded to be interruptible only by things which prevent basic attacks, not spells. Most things that will cancel standard channels (with the exception of silence) will still cancel.
 * and will remove any crowd control effect that  would.

Categorization
To facilitate easier communications, crowd controls are usually described under one of the following systems:

Loss of Control - Crowd controls are grouped into one of two categories depending on whether or not the effect removes total control of the player's character. Hard CC completely removes all control of a character, while soft CC only partially removes it.


 * Hard CC
 * Airborne
 * Forced Action
 * Stasis
 * Stun
 * Suppression
 * Suspension


 * Soft CC
 * Blind
 * Disarm
 * Root
 * Silence
 * Slow

Disruption - Crowd controls are grouped into one of two categories depending on whether or not the effect disrupts a channeled ability (such as and ). Hard CC will disrupt channels, while soft CC will not.


 * Hard CC
 * Airborne
 * Forced Action
 * Silence
 * Stun
 * Suppression
 * Suspension


 * Soft CC
 * Blind
 * Disarm
 * Root
 * Slow

Movement - Crowd controls are grouped into one of two categories depending on whether or not they restrict movement. Hard CCs prevent all forms of movement, while soft CCs do not.


 * Hard CC
 * Airborne
 * Forced Action
 * Root
 * Stasis
 * Stun
 * Suppression
 * Suspension


 * Soft CC
 * Blind
 * Disarm
 * Silence
 * Slow

Modifiers - Crowd controls are categorized by what their effects inhibit. Movement modifiers in some way inhibit the ability to move, while action modifiers in some way inhibit the ability to attack or cast abilities.


 * Movement Modifiers
 * Airborne
 * Entangle
 * Forced Action
 * Root
 * Slow
 * Stun
 * Suppression
 * Suspension


 * Action Modifiers
 * Airborne
 * Blind
 * Disarm
 * Forced Action
 * Silence
 * Stun
 * Suppression
 * Suspension

Airborne

 * Airborne crowd control effects are made up of two components: a movement modifier (called a "move block" by Riot, referring to a chunk of code) and a stun (which is responsible for the disabling of attacking and casting). In the game, the most recent move block will override any previous move blocks.
 * Move block
 * The target is unable to control movement.
 * The target remains targetable and will be affected by abilities as if they were on the ground (such as ).
 * The duration of the effect is related to how long the target is in the air. A common bug where a target who is dashing is made airborne causes them to be knocked "into orbit". The duration is largely extended due to the increased distance the target has to fall.
 * Interrupts active move blocks, namely other airborne effects and dashes.
 * Can be interrupted by subsequent move blocks, namely other airborne effects, dashes or blinks.
 * The duration is unaffected by crowd control reduction.
 * The effect cannot be removed by cleanse effects.
 * Stun
 * The target is unable to cast abilities or basic attack.
 * The duration is affected by crowd control reduction and can be removed by cleansing effects.
 * Explained in more detail below.


 * Through the use of cleansing effects or tenacity, players can remove the stun and subsequently activate abilities such as or champion-specific dashes to break the airborne's move block.
 * In some instances, the stun duration is longer than the move block (e.g. ), but in most cases they are the same duration. There have been cases in the past where the stun duration was shorter, but this usually lead to bug-like interactions and was later "fixed" (e.g. did not apply any stun at all in the initial charge on the ability, which allowed his enemies to use Flash/dash to supersede the charge's knockback and get over the wall).

Knockback

 * The target is made airborne in a direction directly away from the point of cast.
 * Champions with Knockback:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,.

Knock Aside

 * The target is made airborne in a direction perpendicular from the source.
 * Champions with Knock Aside:, ,.

Knockup

 * The target is made airborne on the spot.
 * Champions with Knockup:, , , , , , , , ,, , , , , , ,, , , , , , ,.

Pull

 * The target is made airborne in a direction toward the point of cast, and in some cases over the point of cast.
 * Champions with Pull:, , , , , , , (against minions and monsters), ,  (not coded as airborne),.

Blind

 * The target's autoattacks will deal no damage, incurring the message "Miss" above their attack target.
 * Blind only mitigates the physical damage portion of an attack, usually but not always including physical damage sourced from a physical on-hit effect. Other damage types and effects will not miss. See: on-hit effects.
 * Abilities that apply on-hit effects will also miss.
 * Blind is considered a form of damage mitigation. As such, will still return damage despite the attack dealing no base damage.
 * Does not interrupt channeling.
 * The duration is affected by crowd control reduction.
 * The effect can be removed by all cleansing effects (except for ).
 * Attacks will only miss if the attack is declared while blinded. An attack will not miss if the projectile was en-route prior to being blinded.
 * Champions with Blind:.

Disarm

 * The target is unable to autoattack.
 * This is distinct from Blind as the target cannot instigate an attack (whereas blind only occurs on-hit).
 * Does not interrupt channeling.
 * The duration is affected by crowd control reduction.
 * Effects with disarm components can be removed by all cleansing effects.
 * Although not strictly a disarm, the crowd control is implicit in other effects such as and the the reload of.
 * Champions with Disarm:.

Entangle

 * The target is unable to control movement or attack.
 * This includes abilities and summoner spells that move the champion.
 * This will not prevent delayed teleports that have already begun channeling, such as . This is with the exception of and . The target will arrive rooted, if the duration permits.
 * Does not interrupt the channeling of abilities.
 * Will interrupt charged dashes, namely: and.
 * The duration is affected by crowd control reduction.
 * The effect can be removed by all cleansing effects.
 * Champions with Entangle:.

Forced Action

 * ​The target is unable to control movement, attack or cast abilities.
 * Interrupts the channeling of abilities.
 * The duration is affected by crowd control reduction.
 * The effect can be removed by all cleansing effects.

Charm

 * The target will attempt to move toward the source for the duration.
 * If the target does not have vision of the source, they will instead stand still.
 * If the source dies, the effect ends.
 * Champions with Charm:.

Fear

 * The target will walk in random directions with reduced movement speed for the duration.
 * Champions with Fear: (non-champion enemies only)

Flee

 * The target will be locked in place for a brief duration and then run directly away from the source with reduced movement speed for the duration.
 * Champions with Flee: (non-champions only),, , ,.
 * Visual effect: black head with orange aureole over affected champion's head.

Taunt

 * The target will attempt to attack the source of the taunt for the duration.
 * If the target does not have vision of the source, they will simply stand in place.
 * If the target cannot attack the source (such as ), the target will simply stand in place.
 * If the source dies, the effect ends.
 * Champions with Taunt: ,,.
 * Visual effect: red circles around affected champion's head.

Polymorph

 * ​The target is unable to attack or cast abilities and is slowed for the duration.
 * This is distinct from Blind as the target cannot instigate an attack (whereas blind only occurs on-hit).
 * , when cast on an enemy, transforms the target into a small critter (reducing their size).
 * Interrupts the channeling of abilities.
 * The duration is affected by crowd control reduction.
 * The effect can be removed by all cleansing effects.
 * Champions with Polymorph:.

Root/Snare

 * The target is unable to control movement.
 * This includes abilities and summoner spells that move the champion.
 * Does not interrupt the channeling of abilities.
 * This will not prevent delayed blinks that have already begun channeling, such as . This is with the exception of and . The target will arrive rooted, if the duration permits.
 * Will interrupt charged dashes, namely: and.
 * The duration is affected by crowd control reduction.
 * The effect can be removed by all cleansing effects.
 * Champions with Root:, , , , , , , , , ,, , , , ,.
 * Visual effect depends on champion.

Silence

 * The target is unable to cast abilities or the summoner spells and . All other summoner spells are still usable.
 * Interrupts the channeling of abilities.
 * The duration is affected by crowd control reduction.
 * The effect can be removed by all cleansing effects.
 * Champions with silence:, , , , , , (on himself).
 * Visual effect: Silence icon.png

Slow

 * The target has reduced movement speed.
 * Does not interrupt the channeling of abilities.
 * The duration is affected by crowd control reduction.
 * The effect can be removed by all cleansing effects.
 * Champions with slow:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , EkkoSquare.png Ekko, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  KindredSquare.png Kindred , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,.
 * Visual effect: yellow (or blue: ) stripes or a path of ice behind the affected champion.

Stasis

 * The target is unable to control movement, attack, cast abilities, activate items or use summoner spells.
 * The target is also untargetable and invulnerable for the duration.
 * Interrupts the channeling of abilities.
 * Interrupts dash abilities.
 * The duration is not affected by crowd control reduction.
 * The effect cannot be removed by any means.
 * Champions with Stasis:, , , (a similar effect), ,.
 * Visual effect depends on particular champion.

Stun

 * The target is unable to control movement, attack or cast abilities.
 * Will interrupt the channeling of abilities.
 * The duration is affected by crowd control reduction.
 * The effect can be removed by all cleansing effects.
 * Champions with Stun:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,.
 * Visual effect: swirl over champion's head.

Suppression

 * The target is unable to control movement, attack, cast abilities or use summoner spells.
 * Will interrupt channeled abilities.
 * The duration is not affected by crowd control reduction.
 * The effect can be removed only by using or  ( is not an option since Suppression prevents summoner spell use).
 * Champions with Suppression:, Tahm_KenchSquare.png Tahm Kench, , ,.
 * No special visual effect.

Suspension

 * Suspension is a stun with "airborne" effect for the purposes of.
 * The target is unable to control movement, attack or cast abilities.
 * The target remains targetable and will be affected by abilities as if they were on the ground (such as ).
 * Interrupts the channeling of abilities.
 * Interrupts dash abilities.
 * Unlike a knockup, which is visually similar:
 * The duration is affected by crowd control reduction.
 * The effect can be removed by all cleansing effects.
 * The target is considered to be "airborne" for the purposes of.
 * Champions with Suspension:, ,.
 * Visual effect: swirl over champion's head.

Countering Crowd Control
Crowd control can be countered in various different ways.

Immunity
Units that are immune to crowd control will completely negate any attempt at its application on the recipient. This does not, however, necessarily mean the user is now also unaffected by crowd controls already applied.

All forms of crowd control currently in League of Legends can be prevented with CC immunity.


 * provides immunity to all forms of CC applied during the parry.
 * provides immunity to all slows applied in the duration.
 * provides immunity to all forms of CC applied in the duration of the shield.
 * provides immunity to all forms of CC applied in the duration.
 * provides immunity to all forms of CC applied from sources other than her target for the duration.

While not specific to crowd control, spell shields can be considered to provide pseudo-CC immunity against a single spell, but this is not guaranteed - abilities that do not interact with spell shields (such as ) will still apply any attached crowd controls if possible.

Deferral
Similar to immunity, abilities that defer crowd control will negate their effects while the ability is active, but any CC still present will be applied after the duration ends. CC duration will still tick down during the immunity period.


 * provides immunity to all forms of CC for the duration of the dash.
 * provides immunity to all forms of CC for the duration of the dash.
 * provides immunity to all forms of CC for the duration of the dash.
 * provides immunity to all forms of CC for the duration of the dash.
 * provides immunity to all forms of CC for the duration of the dash.

Removal
Most types of crowd control can be removed after it has been applied - with the exception of, the ability or item in question can still be activated while affected by the CC it removes, even when that CC normally precludes ability or item usage.

Airborne and stasis effects cannot be removed; airborne effects will still apply for the rest of their duration (although they can be prevented), while stasis makes units untargetable and completely prevents ability usage even for abilities that can be activated under CC (thus making whether it can be removed or not a moot question).


 * removes all forms of CC.
 * removes all forms of CC.
 * removes all forms of CC.
 * removes all slows.
 * removes all slows.
 * removes all slows.
 * removes all forms of CC aside from airborne, stasis and suppression.
 * The Quicksilver item active removes all forms of CC.
 * active effect removes all forms of CC aside from airborne, stasis and suppression.

Reduction
Crowd control reduction reduces the duration of crowd control effects by a percentage equal to its value. Sources of CC duration reduction will stack multiplicatively with each other, not additively - successive buys can only approach, not reach, 100% reduction. Crowd control reduction can sometimes be referred to as Tenacity, although this is technically only correct when referring to the unique passive on certain items that grants crowd control reduction.

Airborne, stasis and suppression are not affected by crowd control reduction and will always apply for their full duration.


 * Tenacity
 * Tenacity
 * Tenacity

Potency Reduction
This effect is unique to the slow crowd control; potency reduction reduces the effectiveness, or percentage, of movement slows by a percentage equal to its value. Sources of slow potency reduction stack multiplicatively with each other, but do not interact with normal crowd control reduction.

Only slows are affected by potency reduction.



Self-CC
The following effects are comparable to crowd control, except that the effect is caused voluntarily and affects the user rather than a target. These effects cannot be removed by cleansing mechanisms and will ignore all crowd control immunity and reduction except in the case of self-slows, which will be affected by slow potency reduction (such as from ).


 * Self-Knockback: A champion that knockbacks itself is temporarily unable to attack and issue movement commands. The target may still cast spells.


 * Self-Silence: A champion that silences itself is unable to cast abilities. They may still attack and use summoner spells.


 * Self-Slow: A champion that slows itself has reduced movement speed.
 * (with an enemy champion)
 * Self-Stun: A champion that stuns itself is unable to control its movement, attack, or use abilities.
 * (when colliding with terrain)
 * (when colliding with terrain)

Cast Times and Channels
The casting (sometimes "charging") of an ability cannot be cancelled by the player or an enemy except by death. Forced actions (such as taunt) will have no effect for the duration of the cast, and using airborne effects to move the player will not affect the trajectory of the skill - which will start from the point of cast, not from the player's current location. Summoner spells and most items can still be activated while casting.

The channelling of an ability, by contrast, can be cancelled by hard CC, and will also automatically cancel should the champion attempt to perform another action (such as movement, casting another ability or attacking) - there do exist exceptions to this rule, such as cast while channelling, but these are usually specific coding allowances and not standard behaviour. Summoner spells and most items can typically be activated mid-channel without disrupting it.

Channelling and casting animations are generally not considered forms of crowd control, however disruptive they may be. There do exist several notable exceptions, however:


 * Channelled Self-Slow: These abilities will slow the caster for the duration of the channel. In all cases the champion may freely move while channelling but may not issue attack commands.


 * Channelled Self-Root: These abilities will remove the caster's ability to control their movement and issue movement commands (included forced actions, such as fear).
 * (for the first 1 second of the duration)
 * (for the first 1 second of the duration)
 * (for the first 1 second of the duration)


 * Channelled Self-Stun: The following abilities have channels that the user cannot voluntarily interrupt (contrary to most channels which will be interrupted if any attempt is made to move, attack, or use another ability). This is effectively comparable to a stun.
 * (for the first seconds of the duration)
 * (for the first seconds of the duration)
 * (for the first seconds of the duration)
 * (for the first seconds of the duration)

Trivia

 * causes the target to dance.
 * If abilities that share cooldowns or are unique to different forms are counted separately, then possesses the highest number of crowd control abilities in the game, at six, with  and  tying for second place, at four. Otherwise, if they are counted as shared,  and  possess the most, at four.
 * also possesses the highest number of unique crowd control types, at five.
 * possesses the second-highest, at four. If  is counted as a form of, she also has four.
 * ,, , , , , , , , , (otherwise), , , , , , , , , , , ,  and  each have three.
 * The highest persistent level of crowd control reduction in the game can be achieved by  with 3 nearby foes for the maximum benefit of , any item bearing Tenacity and five points in the mastery  for 67% reduced crowd control. With an, she can achieve a further 4 minutes of 75% crowd control reduction, and if is used on top of this,  can achieve 3 seconds of 91% crowd control reduction, which is the highest reduction possible in League of Legends.
 * With this level of reduction, the longest crowd control in the game,, lasts only seconds.
 * ,, , , and  are the only champions in the game that can activate an ability while disabled. Of these, ,  and  can also remove the disabling effects.
 * ,, , , , and are the only champions in game without any sort of crowd control inherent to their kit. If  rooting neutral monsters is not counted,  also has no form of crowd control.