Crowd control (CC) is the term used to describe an ability or spell that temporarily reduces a unit's ability to fight. The term 'crowd control' comes from the ability to control the enemy team during fights, by either restricting their contribution or means to escape. In addition, the use of crowd control can aid in your own survivability: in the same way you can stop them from escaping, you can stop them from following.

Crowd control does not make an enemy untargetable. In the case of Airborne effects, the target is considered to be on the ground for the purposes of skill shots and area of effect damage (such as  Morgana's  Tormented Soil).

Types of Crowd Control

This article contains a streamlined version of the content. For the full article, see: Types of Crowd Control.

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

• Airborne: 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 0.75 seconds ( Rammus's  Powerball) to 1.5 ( Lulu's  Wild Growth).
  • 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 0.75 seconds ( Rammus's  Powerball) to 1.5 ( Lulu's  Wild Growth).
  • Pull/Fling: A pull effect causes the target to be made airborne in a direction toward the point of cast.
• Blind: A unit that is blinded will miss its auto-attacks for the duration.
• Entangle: A unit that is entangled is unable to control its movement or attack 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.
  • Charm: A unit that is charmed will move toward the source for the duration.
  • Fear: A unit that is feared will walk in random directions with reduced movement speed for the duration.
  • Flee: Targeted unit will move away from the attacker.^[1]
  • Taunt: A unit that is taunted will attempt to attack the source of the taunt for the duration.
• Polymorph: A unit that is pacified cannot attack or cast abilities and has reduced movement speed for the duration.
• Root: A unit that is rooted is unable to control its movement for the duration (occasionally referred to as a Snare).
• Silence: A unit that is silenced cannot cast abilities for the duration.
• Slow: A unit that is slowed has reduced movement speed for the duration.
• Stun: A unit that is stunned is unable to move, attack or cast abilities for the duration.
  • Suspended: A unit that is suspended is considered to be airborne for the purposes of  Last Breath, but for countering purposes it's considered a stun.
• Suppression: A unit that is suppressed is unable to control its movement, attack, cast abilities or use spells (including Cleanse). The duration is also unaffected by crowd control reduction.

Summary Table

   denotes that the action is blocked

	Movement	Attacking	Abilities	Interrupt	Spells	Reduction	Removal
Airborne						No
Blind		Miss				Yes
Entangle				See notes		Yes
Forced Action						Yes
Polymorph	Reduced					Yes
Root				See notes		Yes
Silence						Yes
Slow	Reduced					Yes
Stun						Yes
Suppression					All	No

Please note the following:

• Movement includes abilities (such as  Ezreal's  Arcane Shift).
  • For example, while airborne you can cast all summoner spells except Flash and Teleport.
• Ability refers to a champion's castable spells (by default Q, W, E and R).
  • Mikael's Crucible cannot be activated where 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.
  • Contrary to popular belief, Roots and Entangles will NOT interrupt channeling. This is with the exception of two special-cases: Teleport and  Shen's  Stand United. Roots and Entangles will, however, interrupt charged abilities (namely  Elastic Slingshot,  Vault Breaker and  Piercing Arrow).
• Mercurial Scimitar removes any crowd control effect that Quicksilver Sash would.

Categorization

Loss of Control

Crowd control is often categorized into two categories depending on whether or not the effect removes total control of the player's character.

Hard CC — The following effects completely remove control of one's character:

• Airborne
• Forced Action
• Stun
• Suppression

Soft CC — The following only remove partial control of one's character:

• Blind
• Entangle
• Polymorph
• Root
• Silence
• Slow

Disruption

As an alternative to the above, crowd control is sometimes categorized into two categories depending on whether or not the effect disrupts the channeling of an ability; abilities such as  Karthus's  Requiem and  Katarina's  Death Lotus.

Hard CC — The following effects disrupt the channeling of abilities:

• Airborne
• Forced Action
• Polymorph
• Silence
• Stun
• Suppression

Soft CC — The following effects do not disrupt the channeling of abilities:

• Blind
• Entangle
• Root
• Slow

Modifiers

Abilities can also be categorized by what their effects inhibit.

Movement Modifiers — The following effects in some way inhibit movement:

• Airborne
• Entangle
• Forced Action
• Root
• Slow
• Stun
• Suppression

Action Modifiers — The following effects in some way inhibit the ability to attack or cast abilities:

• Airborne
• Blind
• Entangle
• Forced Action
• Polymorph
• Silence
• Stun
• Suppression

Countering Crowd Control

Crowd Control can be countered in various different ways.

Preventing

Crowd control can be prevented. All forms of crowd control can be prevented, including knockback, knockup and pull effects.

•  Master Yi's  Highlander prevents slows for its 10 seconds, champion kills and assists extend the duration by 4 seconds.
•  Poppy's  Diplomatic Immunity prevents all forms of CC for 6 / 7 / 8 seconds except from her target.
•  Olaf's  Ragnarok prevents all CC for 6 seconds.
•  Morgana's  Black Shield prevents all forms of CC for 5 seconds or until the shield is broken.
•  Nocturne's  Shroud of Darkness creates a magical shield for 1.5 seconds which can block the next enemy spell that hits him.
•  Sivir's  Spell Shield creates a magical barrier for 1.5 seconds which can block the next enemy spell that hits her.
• Banshee's Veil creates a spell shield that can block a spell once every 25 seconds.

Removing

Crowd control can be removed after it has been applied. These effects can be activated while under the effects of the crowd control.

All forms of crowd control can be removed except knockback, knockup and pull effects.

Items and Spells

• Cleanse removes all CC except suppression.
• Mercurial Scimitar: Unique Active - Quicksilver: Removes all debuffs from your champion. 90 second cooldown.+60 attack damage, +45 magic resistance 3700 gold.
• Mikael's Crucible: Unique Active: Removes all stuns, roots, taunts, fears, silences and slows on an allied champion and heals them for 150 + 10% of the target's maximum health. 180 second cooldown.+40 magic resist, +12 mana regeneration per 5. Unique Passive - Mana Font: Increases your Mana Regen by 1% per 1% Mana you are missing. 1600 gold.
• Quicksilver Sash: Unique Active - Quicksilver: Removes all debuffs from your champion. 90 second cooldown.+45 magic resist 1550 gold.

Champion abilities

•  Alistar's  Unbreakable Will removes all forms of CC.
•  Gangplank's  Remove Scurvy removes all forms of CC.
•  Olaf's  Ragnarok removes and prevents all forms of CC.
•  Evelynn's  Dark Frenzy removes all slows.
•  Garen's  Decisive Strike removes all slows.
•  Lucian's  Relentless Pursuit removes all slows.
•  Master Yi's  Highlander removes and prevents all slows.

Reduction

Crowd control reduction reduces the duration of crowd control effects by a percentage equal to its value. The reduction will stack multiplicatively with other types of CC duration reduction.

Items

• Mercury's Treads: Unique Passive - Tenacity: The duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, silences, blinds and immobilizes are reduced by 35%. +25 magic resistance, Unique Passive - Enhanced Movement: +45 movement speed. 1200 gold.
• Spirit of the Ancient Golem: Unique Passive - Tenacity: The duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, silences, blinds and immobilizes are reduced by 35%. +350 health, +10% cooldown reduction. Unique Passive - Butcher: Against monsters, deal 30% bonus damage and restore 8% of damage dealt to monsters as health and 4% as mana (half effect for area of effect spells). Unique Passive - Conservation: You generate Conservation stacks every 1.5 seconds, up to 80. Killing a large monster will consume up to 40 stacks and grant 1 bonus gold per stack consumed. You may only be in possession of 1 Gold Income item. 2000 gold.
• Zephyr: Unique Passive - Tenacity: The duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, silences, blinds and immobilizes are reduced by 35%. +25 attack damage, +50% attack speed, +10% movement speed, +10% cooldown reduction. 2850 gold.

Champion abilities

•  Dr. Mundo's  Burning Agony reduces crowd control by 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30% while active.
•  Garen's  Courage reduces crowd control by 30% for 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 seconds.
•  Irelia's  Ionian Fervor reduces crowd control by 10 / 25 / 40% for 1 / 2 / 3 nearby enemy champion(s).

Masteries/spells

• Cleanse reduces crowd control by 65% for 3 seconds.
• The Tenacious mastery reduces crowd control by 15%.

Slow Potency Reduction

These effects reduces the potency of movement slows. Similar effects stack multiplicatively with each other. Note: This does not reduce the duration of the effect.

• Boots of Swiftness reduces the potency of movement slows by 25%.
•  Sejuani's  Frost Armor reduces the potency of movement slows by 10 / 15 / 20 / 25%.

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.

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

•  Caitlyn's  90 Caliber Net
•  Ziggs's  Satchel Charge

Self-Root: A champion that roots itself is unable to control its movement and will ignore movement commands (included forced actions, such as fear). A champion that is rooted can still be moved by airborne effects, but it will not break the root.

•  Xerath's  Rite of the Arcane

Self-Slow: A champion that slows itself has reduced movement speed. Most of the current examples are

• Xerath's Arcanopulse

•  Garen's  Judgment (while passing through enemy units)
•  Varus's  Piercing Arrow
•  Vi's  Vault Breaker

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

•  Rumble's  Junkyard Titan

These effects are not affected by crowd control reduction, nor can they be removed by cleansing effects.

A note on channeling and casting animations: neither are considered forms of crowd control, however disruptive they may be. A notable example is  Renekton's  Ruthless Predator, which incapacitates Renekton for a fair duration of the stun - much to many player's detest.

• Casting: 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.
• Channeling: The channeling of an ability can be cancelled by hard CC, or by the player attempting to perform another action (such as movement, casting another ability or attacking) - a notable exception is  Galio's  Bulwark, which can be cast during  Idol of Durand without interrupting the channel. Summoner spells and most items can be activated without disrupting channeling (which is particularly useful information for jungle  Fiddlesticks as Health Potions will not interrupt  Drain).
  • Self-Stun: The following champions have channeled abilities that the summoner cannot interrupt (contrary to most channels which will be interrupted if you attempt to move, attack or use another ability). This is comparable to a stun.
    •  Malzahar's  Nether Grasp (for the first 0.5 seconds of the duration)
    •  Urgot's  Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser
    •  Warwick's  Infinite Duress

Trivia

•  Sona's  Crescendo causes the target to dance.
• The highest continuous form of crowd control reduction can be achieved by  Irelia's  Ionian Fervor with 3 nearby foes, Tenacity, and Tenacious for 66.85%.
•  Tryndamere is the only champion in the game that can activate an ability while disabled that doesn't remove the disable.  Alistar,  Gangplank and  Olaf also have an ability that can be activated while disabled, but these remove the disabling effects.

References