Ping for League of Legends – How to check and lower ping for LoL

Ping. We have all had issues with it in the past. Mid game spikes to 250 ping in a key moment of the game can cause you to lose and is very frustrating. Many players simply deal with bad ping all the time, unsure how to deal with it. This can have a very negative impact on your online gaming experience. If you are anything like the average gamer, you are willing to try almost anything to lower that ping. Here, we will explore a couple of tips and tricks in order to lower that pesky ping.

Before we get into that, we need to define what is exactly ping and what constitutes a good ping. To put it simply, ping is the time it takes for your mouse and keyboard actions to register on the server of the game you are playing and it’s measured in milliseconds (ms). For example, 1000 ms ping would mean that each action takes one full second to register on the server. That is considered extremely high ping and would make your game unplayable.

Read our full article on “What is ping in gaming?” to know more.

lower ping for league of legends

Here are some parameters to measure your good ping:

  • The lower the ping, the better it is for any online gaming. Ideally, you want it to be below 20 ms. 
  • 20 – 50 ms is considered the average ping. The vast majority of gamers end up playing with a ping around this level.
  • 50 – 100 ms is where you may start to notice a slight amount of lag in your actions. It’s not game-changing but it can be highly annoying and influential in hyper-specific situations.
  • Anything above 100 ms is considered slow and makes it very difficult if not impossible to play online games. Having a ping above 200 ms would make the gaming experience almost unplayable.

How to check ping for LoL in-game

While in-game, open your setting menu > In the setting menu, click on the “Display” tab > In this tab, locate the “Toggle FPS Display” button > Press that button in-game to view your ping. As a shortcut, you also also press Ctrl + F to toggle the FPS and ping display.

Your ping will be displayed in the top right corner below the game scores.

Ping in LoL

How to lower LoL ping

The ping you get when playing LoL can be influenced by a mix of different factors. A high ping can be a hardware-related problem or it might depend on the location you’re playing from and the infrastructure the location has.

If you have a high ping via cable, you should contact your ISP (Internet Service Provider), as they are usually the ones causing the issues. Otherwise, here are some steps you can take to try and lower your ping if it appears high once it is toggled on for you to see.

  1. If you are on WiFi, it is preferable to get an ethernet cable to plug directly into your router. If that is not possible, try and move to a spot where you get a better signal.
  2. Restarting the router and the modem is also a good starting point.
  3. Restarting your computer can sometimes fix the issue.
  4. Oftentimes, gamers have Google Chrome opened up in the background to listen to music or watch Youtube videos. Chrome is notorious for slowing down your PC and should be closed out when playing. The same rule applies to Torrent apps and active downloads. If you don’t have a fast connection that can manage multiple downloads of data, it’s generally recommended to close all apps while playing games.
  5. Updating drivers can sometimes help with ping issues as well.

Finally there is a poor man solution that sometimes does that trick. This is called flushing your DNS. You will need to open your command prompt (cmd) and type in:

  1. “ipconfig /release” and press Enter.
  2. “ipconfig /renew” and press Enter.
  3. “ipconfig /flushdns” and press Enter

This “fix” has been reported to work for many users in fixing or lower ping for League of Legends. Finally, LoL ping issues can also be caused by firewall issues or improper installation. This can be reprimanded by checking out this tool designed by Riot Games.

If none of these fixes work, try creating a ticket with Riot Games or contacting your Internet Service Provider to see if it is an issue with your internet provider.

Ping for League of Legends FAQ

What is ping?

In its simplest form, ping is the amount of time it takes for your computer to send instructions to the game server. The longer the time taken, the more your game will be affected. If you’re having problems with the game lagging, checking your ping should be the first port of call.

Does ping matter when gaming online?

Unfortunately, ping is one of the most important parts of online gaming. Having high ping can cause delays in the time taken for your PC to respond and that means missed plays and kills.

Can I fix high ping problems?

Ping problems are usually fixable but it might not be easy. There are a number of things you can try to improve it including prioritizing the game in your task manager, using cabled internet instead of wireless or, in extreme cases, upgrading your internet package itself.