League of Legends Installation Packet

02 Installing League of Legends

Starting a Tournament Draft for Your 05 Students to Scrimmage System Requirements and IT 10 Considerations Riot Games Repair Tools for 20 Troubleshooting Additional Softwares Needed for 22 Competition Resources from One District’s Journey: 24 Key Considerations Games

1. Visit the League of Legends website, or paste the link below into your internet browser a. https://play.na.leagueoﬂegends.com/en_US → Select ‘Play for Free’

2. After selecting ‘Play for Free,’ you will be prompted to create an account

a. An account will need to be created to complete any patching* of the game. If you already have an account, move onto the next step (page 5)

i. To create an account, you will need to submit an email, date of birth, username** and password

1. Note: You will also need to create a ‘Summoner Name’ when you log into the downloaded software

a. What is the difference between username** and ‘Summoner Name’? i. Your ‘Summoner Name’ is what your friends will see in-game. This is the name that you will be known by on screen and on your friends' buddy lists. Unlike usernames, your summoner name can be changed whenever you like. This change will not affect your username or the way you log in.

2. What is patching? A patch is a set of changes to a computer program or its supporting data designed to update, fix, or improve it. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, with such patches usually being called bug fixes or bug fixes, and improving the functionality, usability or performance.

1. If you already have an account, or are not ready to create one, select ‘Already Registered? Click to Download’

i. For Mac, you will be prompted to download the DMG ﬁle

1. The DMG file format is used in the Mac for distributing software. Mac install packages appear as a virtual disk drive on the Mac. When the DMG file icon is double clicked, the virtual drive is "mounted" on the desktop. 2. To install, launch the DMG file or drag the file into your ‘Applications’ folder

ii. For Windows, you will be prompted to download the EXE file 1. EXE is a file extension for an executable file format. An executable is a file that contains a program - that is, a particular kind of file that is capable of being executed or run as a program in the computer. 2. To install, you can run the file in Windows through a command or a double click

After logging in, press the PLAY button in the upper left-hand corner

On the next screen, select 5v5 Summoner’s Rift, and click Create Custom

4. Enter Game Name, and place a Password (optional). Ensure Game Type = Tournament Draft, and Allow Spectators = Lobby Only.

Invite Players into the Lobby. Ensure the players are in the follow order of positions: Top, Jungle, Mid, AD Carry, Support

Top Jungle Mid AD Carry Support

If you are planning to have your match spectated, make sure to invite the correct Summoner Name into the Lobby, and have them join the Spectator section.

TIP: You can use the spectator slot to bounce players back and forth until they are in the correct order.

After you have both teams in the Lobby, in the correct order, and have all of your spectators, you can now click Start Game.

Hardware

● 10 PCs will be needed to facilitate a competition between two teams within a single school, outﬁtted with: ○ Keyboard ○ Mouse and mousepad ○ Headset with microphone capabilities (or external microphone)

Windows Computers

● OS: Windows XP (Service Pack 3 ONLY), Vista, 7, 8, or 10 ● Processor: 2 GHz processor (supporting SSE2 instruction set or higher) ● Video Card: Shader version 2.0 capable video card ● Memory: 1 GB RAM (2 GB of RAM for Windows Vista and newer) ● Storage: 8 GB available hard disk space ● Display Resolution: Screen resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 ● Other: Support for DirectX v9.0c or better

Mac Computers

● OS: Mac OS X 10.8.5 or higher ● Processor: 2 GHz processor (supporting SSE2 instruction set or higher) ● Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT / ATI Radeon HD 2600 or better ● Memory: 2 GB RAM (4 GB is strongly recommended) ● Storage: 5 GB available hard disk space ● Display Resolution: Screen resolutions up to 1920 x 1200

The computer should be equipped with videoconferencing capability using a Skype, Google Hangouts, or a similar type platform. Exact requirements will depend on which video conference platform is selected.

System Requirements Minimum Specs Recommended Specs Recommended Specs LoL (Riot) LoL (Riot) Overwatch (Blizzard) Intel® Core™ i3 or AMD Phenom™ 2 GHz processor X3 8650 3 GHz processor

supporting SSE2 instruction Intel® Core™ i5 or AMD Phenom™ II set or higher X3 or better recommended

2 GB of RAM 4 GB RAM

2 GB RAM 4 GB of RAM for Windows Vista 6 GB RAM recommended and newer

8 GB 12 GB 30 GB available hard disk space available hard disk space available hard drive space

Dedicated GPU with 512MB or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460, ATI higher Video Memory (VRAM) Radeon™ HD 4850, or Intel® HD Shader version 2.0 Graphics 4400 capable video card Nvidia GeForce 8800/AMD Radeon

HD 5670 or equivalent video card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660 or Support for DirectX v9.0c or better AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 or better Support for DirectX v9.0c or better recommended

1024 x 768 minimum Screen resolutions up to 1920x1200 Screen resolutions up to 1920x1200 display resolution

Windows XP® SP3 Windows XP® (Service Pack 3) Windows Vista® Windows® 7 Windows Vista® Windows 7® Windows® 8 Windows 7® Windows 8.1® Windows® 10 64-bit* Windows 8® Windows 10®* Windows 10® *With the latest service pack installed *With the latest service pack installed

The latest update to Schools may want to consider .NET Framework from Microsoft We no longer support Windows XP purchasing the higher end computers

Service Pack 1 or 2. Since Windows which will allow them to expand The latest version of Adobe AIR is XP 64-bit doesn't have a Service beyond just LoL. required to connect to PVP.net. Pack 3, you will need to upgrade to a Adobe AIR is included with all League more recent version of Windows to LoL is an older game and has much of Legends setup files, but can also play League of Legends. lower system reqs then more current be downloaded from Adobe's games such as Overwatch. website.

Bandwidth Recommendations for LoL Tournaments # of Computers Recommended Mbit/s 10 10Mbit/10Mbit 20 15Mbit/15Mbit 30 20Mbit/20Mbit 50 30Mbit/30Mbit 100 50Mbit/50Mbit 200 100Mbit/100Mbit

In addition to considering gameplay bandwidth, there are several other factors which are incredibly important to understand when designing a network and ordering bandwidth.

Here are some additional considerations that are critical to the design of bandwidth/ networks to support successful tournament play for LoL:

The LoL client requires signiﬁcantly more bandwidth for patching.

● Make sure to patch all clients well ahead of time of the expected tournament, the patching can consume many megabits of bandwidth to patch.

The LoL Client requires Internet/network connections that can handle very high UDP packet ﬂow.

● For multiple computers sharing the same network/internet connection, make sure your connection can support hundreds of UDP packets per second per computer.

● High UDP packet flow can and routinely crush Firewalls and Small workgroup switches. This can compromise gameplay, cause lag and disconnects of the game. If you are supporting multiple computers playing LoL, please ensure that your switch and firewall can handle high UDP packet flow.

● DSL tends to no be able to be able to support high UDP trafﬁc ﬂow, do not use a DSL line for LoL tournament gameplay.

The LoL client requires a lot of bandwidth up and down

● Symmetrical Internet connections are preferred since LoL gameplay uses bandwidth in both directions.

Certain ports need to be open for an optimum game experience.

These ports are used to communicate to the client as well as other features and need to be open on the network in use:

LIST OF PORTS TO FORWARD:

▪ 5000 - 5500 UDP (League of Legends Game Client) ▪ 8393 - 8400 TCP (Patcher and Maestro) ▪ 2099 TCP (PVP.Net) ▪ 5223 TCP (PVP.Net) ▪ 5222 TCP (PVP.Net) ▪ 80 TCP (HTTP Connections) ▪ 443 TCP (HTTPS Connections) ▪ 8088 UDP and TCP (Spectator Mode)

Certain bandwidth /network setups help with client performance.

Refer to the bandwidth requirement recommendations above in case you decide to use rate limits or other restrictions. These are used for tournaments but apply for any setting when you have multiple machines at play on one network. In particular UDP traﬃc is pretty high for our network.

UPDATE SOFTWARE PATCHES

On the day of schedule matches, it is best to log onto League of Legends a few hours before start time to ensure all patches are up-to-date. Although patches may typically update quickly, it is best to get them updated and out of the way to avoid any delays.

For League of Legends, patches are typically biweekly on Wednesdays, launched at 6am PT.

Veriﬁed access must be granted to the following websites on the team computers for use during the inaugural league season. Please note that this list is not exhaustive and additional access needs may be shared throughout the new season:

● na.leagueoﬂegends.com ● www.twitch.tv ● www.discordapp.com ● www.myteamspeak.com ● www.youtube.com

Systems Access

NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, all discussion hereafter pertains to setting up club use of League of Legends (LoL hereafter).

While covered in the Conclusion & Recommendations section at the end of this report, it bears mentioning here that several game-required websites or “call outs” were found to be in danger of violating of CIPA; in order to continue system setup and allow gameplay, workarounds had to be developed and accepted by the clubs.

Reports from district IT technicians returned the following, unanticipated list of considerations that came to light during LoL gameplay:

While doing an initial trial of the software, it was noticed that the software requires to be run using a user with administrative rights on the local computer. Additionally, the software is not “mass deployment” friendly.

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1) Internet Filtration

Running extensive tests of the game, monitored internet connections revealed that the game/site connected to a large list of websites outside of what was initially provided in order to properly. Whitelisting these sites was needed to make the game function.

For reference, this is what ended up whitelisted in order for LoL to work: ● lq.na2.lol.riotgames.com ● auth.riotgames.com ● store.na2.lol.riotgames.com ● signup-api.leagueoflegends.com ● po-service.usw2.leagueoflegends.com ● lqak.na2.lol.riotgames.com ● us.edge.rms.si.riotgames.com ● leagueoflegends.com ● playerpreferences.riotgames.com ● api.lolesports.com/api/v2/streamgroups ● pbe1.cap.riotgames.com ● na1.cap.riotgames.com ● chat.na2.lol.riotgames.com ● ekg.riotgames.com ● L3cdn.riotgames.com

The IT Department was not comfortable with a couple of the sites that were recommended, based upon some of the other content that those sites hosted, and therefore did not open up those sites (Twitch, Discord and Teamspeak).

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2) Installation

The only way to install the software was to download the “bootstrapper” type .exe (executable file) that comes from the site. The particular district in question utilizes Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) which allows a “push” of software out from a central location to multiple computers for efficiency. Attempting to use SCCM with this software did not produce desirable results, therefore district technicians had to figure out a way to deploy it. The solution was creating a custom package in SCCM that runs a task sequence that installs the software into Program Files on the computer (by default it wants a c:\ root location), and then do a file copy of the of data that the game needs to work (somewhere in the neighborhood of 7-8 gigabytes of local storage space). This last file copy is not necessary, however, in order to not have the students all clog the internet bandwidth connection at the same time the first time the program is run, and in order to have a much nicer startup experience, the file copy option was selected in this case.

NOTE: The circumstances of initial deployment were complicated by the large (40 student profiles) deployment and tight timelines, so a manual deployment was required to satisfy all stakeholders. With more time, normal deployment would have been executed (e.g., appropriate prior notification, more efficient scheduling, appropriate prioritization of this project with other extant projects, etc.).

3) Administrative access for playing the game

During testing, it was noted that the game required Administrative privilege in order to function, thus requiring working with district IT programmers to create a custom .exe ﬁle that is basically a wrapper for a “run-as other user” scenario. The other user is a “generic” LoL Service-type, basic user account created speciﬁcally for this use, which is targeted via Group Policy to set that user as an admin on only the lab computers that have been pre-approved for LoL use. In simpler terms, the students cannot be given administrator privileges over our local computers for various security reasons, so a program was written that would recognize their logins and let them mimic administrative users for the purposes of playing the game.

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4) Player Communication

Several options were initially presented and discarded, mostly due to district inability to control either program access to district servers (by bypassing district ﬁrewalls and allowing executable ﬁles, malware and ransomware to be dropped onto those servers), or the inability of an adult to monitor active chats in real time. Discarded options included Teamspeak, Mumble and Discord.

Having critically reviewed other common, student-favored chat options, the decision was made to implement Google Hangouts, primarily because the district can control its deployment and use completely; settings were such that the students could only speak to other students that are playing eSports within the district’s Google Domain. Given the short window of time to get the esports club up and active, the district’s Google Admin had to work on getting things all worked out with Clever and with other programmers so that a way to automate the accounts could be created, so that necessary access was not manual, and again, so that the locus of control would remain with the school sites where the students play. In order to get this to work, manual exports and imports into Google were executed. Typically, district students had not been allowed into Google Hangouts, so this was a special conﬁguration for a select group.

5) Group Policy

Group Policy (GP) was leveraged to assign the generic LoL service account as an admin of the desired lab Organizational Units (OUs), as well as to push out the custom icons to run the custom .exe housed on a ﬁle share, for centralized management.

AD groups were created for the computers in order to properly authenticate the computers with district Network Access Control (NAC) appliance, in order for the proper network access to be applied, along with internet ﬁltration between the service account and the student account.

Additionally, after the initial implementation, mouse acceleration settings had to be adjusted so that the students could play properly.

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6) End User Support

In order to ensure that the user knows what is going on, the program administrator needed to be brought up to speed with the relevant complexities of what had been achieved to allow for a successful esport team play experience, in order to have some level of understanding while continuing to work out the unforeseen problems.

Here the the tools that Riot Games provides to their users that should be bookmarked on every computer with League of Legends installed for easy access.

● This page is for troubleshooting connectivity issues. This is useful for knowing what the current server status is on Riot’s side. This also provides other technical information and solutions to common problems.

● This page helps with the issue of not being able to get past the patcher.

● This page helps with the issue of not being able to get past the Login screen.

● This is called the Hextech repair tool. It's a great tool that automatically repairs your game files and identifies other issues. This is useful for corrupted game file issues, patching issues, and other issues that do not involve your own gaming computer or your internet connection.

● Here is a log reader that Riot provides on their website. This tool reads the logs from your game client and identiﬁes where the issues lie. Using this log reader and uploading your results to the League of Legends forums or attaching it to an email to a League of Legends representative will help Riot Games identify the issues better.

● This is a recent article on a ﬁx for Macs crashing and disconnecting.

Communication Streaming Voice Chat

Most Common to Esports Most Common to Esports Most Common to Esports Discord Twitch Discord

Alternative Options Alternative Options Alternative Options Slack YouTube Gaming Google Hangouts GroupMe Facebook Gaming TeamSpeak Mixer Ventrilo Caffeine

● Discord ○ Discord is a free voice, video, and text application used by gamers around the world. Discord can be accessed through your PC, web browser, or mobile phone. ○ Download: https://discordapp.com/download ○ Web application: https://discordapp.com/ ● Google Hangouts ○ Google Hangouts is a communication software product developed by Google. ○ Download Google Chrome Extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-hangouts/nckgahadagoaajjgafhacjan aoiihapd?hl=en ● GroupMe ○ GroupMe is a free group messaging app. GroupMe works on Windows, iOS, Android, and the web, so you can stay in touch on the go. ○ Download: Use Mobile App Stores ○ Web application: https://web.groupme.com/signin ● Slack ○ Slack is a collaboration hub where you and your team can work together to get things done. Slack messaging is grouped into channels and direct messages to organize conversations and replace communications that might otherwise be scattered across emails, text messages, or in person meetings. ○ Download for Windows: https://slack.com/downloads/windows ○ Download for Mac: https://slack.com/beta/mac ○ Note: for voice chat, you will need to upgrade your server plan by paying a per-user fee. ● TeamSpeak ○ TeamSpeak is an application for audio communication between users on a chat channel, much like a telephone conference call. Users typically use headphones with a microphone. ○ Download: https://teamspeak.com/en/downloads/

© Samueli Foundation | North America Scholastic Esports Federation 24 Providing Esports Websites to K12 Students While Navigating the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and other concerns: One District’s Journey

Often in the world of technology, there is a lack of understanding of just how much goes on behind the scenes in order to make a simple website work, because so many of them “just work”. A school or district’s IT Department has to keep in mind student safety, the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), various federal and state regulations, as well as basic student privacy...CONSTANTLY and CONSISTENTLY. When schools ask to start up any form of internet-based esports clubs, it seems that there is an assumption that districts could whitelist a select few websites and students would be ready to compete. While often it is as easy as whitelisting a website, this is seldom the case with a new (or enhanced) esports league; a single game platform can cause signiﬁcant disruption to current projects for thousands of students, all in order to ensure that much smaller number can play, train and compete. While the IT Department is fully supportive of these kinds of ventures and will always do everything possible to support students and their access to appropriate technology, anyone attempting to start any kind of program that involves technology should ensure that the project is feasible, completely tested, and that district technology leadership has a seat at the table from the beginning of club formation discussions before any commitments are made.

Twitch.tv is a website that Esports uses to post gameplay. District IT supervisors were concerned that content housed on Twitch.tv could violate CIPA, which states:

“Schools and libraries subject to CIPA may not receive the discounts offered by the E-rate program unless they certify that they have an Internet safety policy that includes technology protection measures. The protection measures must block or ﬁlter Internet access to pictures that are: (a) obscene; (b) child pornography; or (c) harmful to minors (for computers that are accessed by minors).”

Because the language of CIPA is vague, each district has to determine their own deﬁnitions of “obscene” and “harmful to minors”. As a test, some of the content that was discovered when searching for the terms “sex”, “adult”, and “breast” was concerning enough not to open the Twitch site to minors. Further, the district did not feel that it would be possible for a teacher/ team GM to monitor students consistently. When these concerns were brought to the Orange County Department of Education, they said that all gameplay would be posted to YouTube, which was determined to be an adequate work-around that satisﬁes the needs of all stakeholders.

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Conclusion and Recommendations for FLAWLESS Start-up

If a program like this was to be considered in the future, districts should have procedures in place to run through the software parameters to ensure viability of the program, and then communicate out to users and administration if the program is either concerning or may take longer to load up and become competition-ready than ﬁrst anticipated. A checklist that should be followed in the case of prepping for an Esports team / league should include the following steps:

1. Call a meeting of all stakeholders to discuss the number of steps needed to fully vet the program, and establish the true need and priority of each stakeholder with estimated timelines for implementation to determine if the project should move forward in a short time window while postponing other projects or wait for the next window of opportunity.

2. Check for references – are there any districts who are currently competing with a particular game title who have done the set-up work, so you aren’t recreating workﬂows, scripts, or research, etc.?

3. Research the video game itself on CommonSenseMedia.com for a rating breakdown of drugs/sex/violence/language in the game, including online chat forum.

4. Fully research the main game program and ancillary ﬁles needed to run the program.

a. How are you going to install the program? Can you do it remotely? Does a technician need to visit on-site?

b. Can a student run the program with their regular login credentials? If not can you supply them with increased privileges without sacriﬁcing security of the network or the local machine?

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5. Fully research any other “call out” websites that are needed incidentally to run the program completely.

a. Does the main gaming platform “call out” to other websites during the course of running, and are you comfortable opening those other sites to minors?

b. Internet Filtration – do you have to set up a sub group for a small group of students? If so how will you automate that process so you aren’t manually modifying the group every time a new student wants to join?

c. CIPA – is the content obscene or harmful to minors?

d. Executable ﬁles – is the website bypassing any security measures that could potentially harm your network through virus, malware, or ransomware exposure?

e. Communication and Collaboration – are students exposed to outsiders? Is communication moderated? Is anyone in the world allowed to communicate or can the GM control access?

f. Group Policy – Do you have to redesign permissions for a small group and do you have time to do this? Can you automate the scripts for this? Do any machine modiﬁcations need to be made for certain users only like mouse acceleration or graphics memory modiﬁcation?

g. Student Information System – Is there a way to add ﬁelds to your student information system so the site can select the students who will participate that can then be automatically assigned rights that have been redesigned?

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6. Fully research any other “call out” websites

a. Do you have time/funding to do this?

b. What is the long-term commitment?

c. What is the priority level of the program – can other projects be postponed?

d. Can you complete the program using overtime funds to not postpone other projects?

e. Are you communicating the true time costs of the project in order to help mitigate and reset expectations?

f. What are the needs for supporting the end user? Can you automate enough and test enough to feel comfortable that no on-site support will be needed, or do you need to dedicate on-site technical support to the ﬁrst few days of the launch?

g. Communicate to stakeholders as needed.

7. Complete the project - update all stakeholders with ﬁnal products, and let them know if / how there is a signiﬁcant difference in play from prior expectations.