An Unexpected Stir in the LCS: 100 Thieves’ Minion Controversy
Last Saturday, the LCS was taken aback when the 100 Thieves duo lane was caught messing with some minions. The incident sparked confusion and debate among coaches and analysts, with LCS commissioner Chris Greeley later apologizing for the rules misunderstanding.
Understanding the Difference: Blocking vs Trapping Minions
Greeley clarified that blocking minions is allowed, which is what the 100 Thieves were doing. However, trapping minions against terrain is against the rules and intentionally doing so can result in a match forfeit. So what’s the distinction, and why would teams attempt it?
Blocking: A Longstanding Mechanic
Minion blocking is a mechanic that has been around for a long time. Riot Games, the creators of League of Legends, made a deliberate decision early on to prevent players from interfering with allied minions. Unlike in other games like DotA, Riot’s code prohibits champions from attacking their own minions to deny their opponents gold and experience.
Instead of attacking minions, players discovered that standing in front of them would cause them to path around the champion. By continuously repositioning themselves, players could effectively block the minions’ intended path, delaying their arrival at their final destination.
This may not seem significant, but when used strategically, it can manipulate an entire wave to arrive later than the enemy’s wave. This allows players to create a freeze, farm safely, and expose the opposing laners to ganks. It can also set up advantageous situations for sieging or recalling, all without engaging with the enemies directly.
Trapping: A More Serious Offense
While blocking minions is allowed, trapping them is prohibited and seen as a more serious offense. Trapping occurs when a minion is deliberately blocked into a tower, preventing its movement. The player positions themselves in such a way that the minion is forced to move towards the turret and then forms a wall that the minion cannot pass through.
Trapping is problematic because it readily leads to minion freezes, denying the opposing team gold and experience. Although blocking can happen accidentally during a game, trapping requires intentional actions.
The Impact of Minion Manipulation
Some may argue that these tactics are minor details that don’t significantly impact the game. While it may go unnoticed in solo queue games, freezing or trapping minions can have a substantial effect on high-level play, particularly in the early stages of the game.
Even small shifts in experience and gold can influence entire game strategies. Duo lanes, for example, often plan specific plays around hitting level two at the same time. A single creep block or trapping incident can disrupt these plans and lead to unintended consequences.
In a recent incident involving 100 Thieves, their bot laner Bang was able to create a freeze that lasted for several minutes, making him invulnerable to ganks. If the opposing team had planned to gank at level two or three, as is common in the current meta, Bang’s actions would have thwarted their strategy.
Now that the rules have been clarified, it’s likely that more teams will attempt to block minions. This will raise questions of game theory, such as whether teams should block their own minions to counteract the other team’s block and prevent a freeze. These intricacies are the focus of analysts and coaches who have a greater level of control in the early stages of the game.
As the game progresses beyond the early phases, wave management becomes more influenced by various factors, making these tactics less prevalent. Nonetheless, the minion block controversy of 2018 has opened up new possibilities and strategies in the competitive scene.
100 Thieves, LCS, minions, blocking, trapping, game strategy, wave management