LEC Teams Vote To Ban Frostmancy And Minion Blocking
By Zac Cameron ·
After a contentious week of games in other regions, the European League of Legends pros have voted to ban the use of some controversial strategies.
The past week or so has seen some controversial topics rise in the League of Legends community. We’ve seen the resurgence of Minion Blocking, with all the distaste that topics brings, as well as the rise of the Frostmancy strategy, which many decry as contrary to the spirit of the game. Now, in an effort to prevent these problems from crossing the regions, the pros of the LEC have voted to ban both the Frostmancy strat and the use of Minion Blocking.
Quick update: The range on this had been increased to 2000u. The screenshot is outdated.
— Maximilian Peter Schmidt (@RiotMAXtheX) February 14, 2019
The Frostmancy nerf is fairly straightforward: requiring an ally to be within 2,000 units to receive the passive from either Spellthief’s Edge or Frostfang means solo laners cannot use it as a gold generation item. This won’t prevent AD Carries from buying the item and laning, but that will probably require a more detailed look from the Riot balance team.
We have also introduced the following rule in a collaborative effort with our teams. This rule will only affect the LEC: pic.twitter.com/LsC3FEDOnu
— Maximilian Peter Schmidt (@RiotMAXtheX) February 14, 2019
The Minion Blocking rule on the other hand is more complicated, with the current rules preventing minion blocking in some situations, but not others. In an effort to clear that up, the LEC have voted to ban all Minion Blocking in its entirety, meaning teams that try to influence the pathing of the Minions can be subject to penalties that include being forced to forfeit the game.
Overall the changes are to be commended, however it’s likely that Riot will be looking for some kind of global fix very soon, if only to prevent any confusion for fans switching between the regions and seeing different rule sets in the competitive scenes.