Crowd control

Debuff — Tristana under the effects of Nasus' Wither

Crowd control (commonly shortened to CC) is a blanket term used in League of Legends to describe abilities or spells that remove 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 Yasuo's Last Breath) even require a catalyst crowd control to function.

Types of Crowd Control

For the complete article, see Types of Crowd Control.

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

Template:Cctip: 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' 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' Powerball) to 1.5 ( Lulu's Wild Growth).
- Pull: A pull effect causes the target to be made airborne in a direction toward the point of cast.
Template:Cctip: 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.
Template:Cctip: A unit that is disarmed cannot declare attacks for the duration.
- Template:Cctip is a combination of Disarm and Root.
- Template:Cctip 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.
- Template:Cctip: A unit that is charmed will move toward the source for the duration.
- Template:Cctip: 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.
- Template:Cctip: A unit that is fleeing will move directly away from the source with reduced movement speed for the duration.^[1]
- Template:Cctip: A unit that is taunted will attempt to autoattack the source of the taunt for the duration.
Template:Cctip: A unit that is rooted is unable to control its movement for the duration (occasionally referred to as a snare).
Template:Cctip: A unit that is silenced cannot cast abilities or activate items for the duration.
Template:Cctip: A unit that is slowed has reduced movement and/or attack speed for the duration.
Template:Cctip: 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.
Template:Cctip: A unit that is stunned is unable to move, attack or cast abilities for the duration.
- Template:Cctip: 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.
Template:Cctip: 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.

Crowd Control	Movement	Attacking	Abilities	Interrupts Channels	Disabled Summoner Spells	Modified by Tenacity	Removal
Airborne (status)	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Yes		No
Blind	Allowed	Parried	Allowed	No	None	Yes
Cripple	Allowed	Reduced	Allowed	No	None	Yes
Disarm	Allowed	Disabled	Allowed	No	None	Yes
Forced Action - Berserk, Charm, Flee, Taunt	Uncontrollable	Disabled / Uncontrollable	Disabled	Yes		Yes
Ground	Partial	Allowed	Partial	See notes		Yes
Kinematics	Partial	Allowed	Allowed	No	None	No	None
Nearsight	Allowed	Partial	Partial	No	None	No
Root	Disabled	Allowed	Partial	See notes		Yes
Silence	Allowed	Allowed	Disabled	Yes		Yes
Polymorph	Allowed	Disabled	Disabled	Yes		Yes
Drowsy	Reduced	Allowed	Allowed	No	None	No
Sleep	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Yes		Yes
Slow	Reduced	Allowed	Allowed	No	None	Yes
Stasis	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Yes	All	No	None
Stun and Suspension	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Yes		Yes
Suppression	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Yes	All	No

Notes

Movement includes basic movement and mobility abilities (i.e. dashes and blinks, e.g. Ezreal's Arcane Shift or Shen's Shadow Dash).
- Ground does not impede basic movement, but existing sources will also apply a slow.
Attacking refers to a champion's basic attacks (by default right-click).
Abilities refers to a champion's castable spells (by default , , , and ).
Removal refers to cleansing effects that can remove the crowd control debuff.
Root and Ground will only interrupt channeled movement abilities.
Impaired movement refers to crowd control effects that inhibit the unit's movement, which includes all immobilizing effects as well as Drowsy, Ground, and Slow.
Immobilizing effects refer to crowd control effects that render the unit unable to control their movement, which includes Airborne, Forced Action ( Berserk, Charm, Flee, Taunt), Root, Sleep, Stasis, Stun ( Suspension), and Suppression.
Airborne, Knockdown, and Stasis are the only crowd control effects that interrupt dashes and displacements (airborne status while knocked up is not changed by stasis however).
Crowd control applied by one's self or an ally cannot be countered in any way (neither reduced, resisted, nor removed) unless otherwise stated.
- Self- slows (e.g. Pyke's Bone Skewer, Galio's Shield of Durand, and Varus' Piercing Arrow) will be reduced by slow resist.
Brittle is a debuff that reduces a unit's effective Tenacity by 30%. It ends prematurely when the affected unit is immobilized.
Forced action crowd control effects (excluding Berserk) end prematurely if the Source dies.
Berserk, Charm, Flee, and Taunt all individually apply the same debuff even from different ability sources.
- Forced action effects override each other when they're applied on the same target; an ongoing forced action will end prematurely when another one is applied.
All crowd control effects that inhibit attacking also interrupt attack windups. In terms of crowd control, basic attacks with uncancellable windups are interrupted by polymorph only.
All crowd control effects that inhibit casting will also disable abilities that can be recast, unless otherwise stated by the ability.
Spell shield blocks all components of an ability, including crowd control, unless the ability itself cannot be blocked.
Anivia's Glacial Storm and Samira's Inferno Trigger are special cased to be deactivated by all forms of crowd control that interrupt all channels.
Crowd control applications trigger a stack for Electrocute and Phase Rush.
Taunt is the only crowd control that could theoretically break stealth (due to it being interrupted by declaring an attack).

Interactions with Crowd Control

The following mobility spells are interrupted / prevented by immobilizations, ground, polymorph and/or silence:

The following interact with immobilizations and/or slows:

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/Snare
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 Karthus' Requiem and Katarina's Death Lotus). Hard CC will disrupt channels, while soft CC will not.

Hard CC

Airborne
Forced Action
Silence
Stun
Suppression
Suspension

Soft CC

Blind
Disarm
Root/Snare
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/Snare
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/Snare
Slow
Stun
Suppression
Suspension

Action Modifiers

Airborne
Blind
Disarm
Forced Action
Silence
Stun
Suppression
Suspension

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.

Fiora's Riposte provides immunity to all forms of CC applied during the parry.
Malzahar's Void Shift provides immunity to all forms of CC applied in the duration.
Master Yi's Highlander provides immunity to all slows applied in the duration.
Morgana's Black Shield provides immunity to all forms of CC applied in the duration of the shield.
Olaf's Ragnarok provides immunity to all forms of CC applied in 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 Karthus' Wall of Pain) 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.^[2]

Darius' Noxian Guillotine provides immunity to all forms of CC for the duration of the dash.

Hecarim's Onslaught of Shadows provides immunity to all forms of CC for the duration of the dash.
Jarvan IV's Cataclysm provides immunity to all forms of CC for the duration of the dash.
Malphite's Unstoppable Force provides immunity to all forms of CC for the duration of the dash.
Nocturne's Paranoia provides immunity to all forms of CC for the duration of the dash.
Vi's Assault and Battery 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 Mikael's Crucible, 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).

Alistar's Unbreakable Will removes all forms of CC.
Gangplank's Remove Scurvy removes all forms of CC.
Olaf's Ragnarok removes all forms of CC.
Evelynn's Dark Frenzy removes all slows.
Garen's Decisive Strike removes all slows.
Master Yi's Highlander removes all slows.
Cleanse removes all forms of CC aside from airborne, stasis and suppression.
The Quicksilver item active removes all forms of CC, including airborne effects only if a movement ability or summoner spell is used.
Mikael's Crucible's 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.

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 Boots of Swiftness).

Self-Knockback: A champion that knockbacks itself is temporarily unable to attack and issue movement commands. The target may still cast spells.
- Ziggs' Satchel Charge
- Caitlyn's 90 Caliber Net

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

Self-Slow: A champion that slows itself has reduced movement speed.
- Blitzcrank's Overdrive
- Tahm Kench's Devour (with an enemy champion)

Self-Stun: A champion that stuns itself is unable to control its movement, attack, or use abilities.
- Sion's Unstoppable Onslaught (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 Galio's Bulwark cast while channelling Idol of Durand, 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).
- Sion's Decimating Smash
- Vel'Koz's Lifeform Disintegration Ray
- Xerath's Rite of the Arcane (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.
- Caitlyn's Ace in the Hole
- Fiddlesticks' Crowstorm
- Karthus' Requiem
- Malzahar's Nether Grasp (for the first 0.5 seconds of the duration)
- Rek'Sai's Void Rush
- Tahm Kench's Abyssal Voyage
- Twisted Fate's Gate
- Urgot's Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser
- Warwick's Infinite Duress

Trivia

Sona's Crescendo causes the target to dance.
If abilities that share cooldowns or are unique to different forms are counted separately, then Gnar possesses the highest number of crowd control abilities in the game, at six, with Nautilus and Karma tying for second place, at four. Otherwise, if they are counted as shared, Nautilus and Gnar possess the most, at four.
Nautilus also possesses the highest number of unique crowd control types, at five.
- Poppy and Xin Zhao possess the second-highest, at four. If Lissandra's Frozen Tomb is counted as a form of Template:Cctip, she also has four.
  - Alistar, Bard, Blitzcrank, Braum, Cho'Gath, Gnar, Gragas, Janna, Lee Sin, Leona, Lissandra (otherwise), Lulu, Maokai, Morgana, Nami, Tahm Kench, Thresh, Sejuani, Sion, Syndra, Vel'Koz, Zac, Zilean and Zyra each have three.
The highest persistent level of crowd control reduction in the game can be achieved by Irelia with 3 nearby foes for the maximum benefit of Ionian Fervor, any item bearing Tenacity and five points in the mastery Swiftness for 67% reduced crowd control. With an Elixir of Iron, she can achieve a further 4 minutes of 75% crowd control reduction, and if Cleanse is used on top of this, Irelia 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, Nasus' Wither, lasts only 0.43 seconds.
Aatrox, Alistar, Cho'Gath, Gangplank, Heimerdinger, Jinx, Karma, Olaf and Tryndamere are the only champions in the game that can activate an ability while disabled. Of these, Alistar, Gangplank and Olaf can also remove the disabling effects.
Mordekaiser, Ezreal, Katarina, Lucian, Master Yi, Sivir, and Nidalee are the only champions in game without any sort of crowd control inherent to their kit.

References

Template:Ability types

[1] Wiksy describes Flee

[2] Patch 3.13 Notes

[1]

[2]

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