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Over 3,000 Chinese Players Banned For Abusing Age-Old Ornn Exploit

Tencent has put down the hefty ban-hammer on over three thousand players for abusing a well-known Ornn exploit on April 24, 2020.

It's really as they say - with great power comes great responsibility. And while this quite isn't generally interpreted in relation to cheating or abusing exploits - players who go out of their way to exploit an unfair mechanic should often be wary of repercussions looming on the horizon.

In the case of over 3,000 players on Tencent's Chinese LoL server - these repercussions landed in a swift and heavy-handed manner.

So, What Actually Happened?

On April 24, 2020, seemingly out of the blue, Tencent issued a three-year-long ban to several thousand Chinese players. The ban was cited as a repercussion for the heavy exploitation of a somewhat unintentionally broken mechanic with one of Ornn's abilities.

While Ornn is no stranger to exploits, he is one of the most powerful champions in Season 10 due to his immense tankiness, damage potential, and the fact that he can provide his teammates with upgraded items that effectively give his team a significant competitive advantage under the right circumstances.

However, when this is combined with a game-breaking exploit that renders Ornn practically invincible and allows him to do crazy damage to the opposing team regardless of his location on the map - Ornn was essentially equated to free ELO prior to the April 24 patch.

What Was The Ornn Exploit In Question?

Ornn's W, "Bellow's Breath" allows Ornn to become unstoppable as he moves in a targeted direction for 3/4's of a second. As he moves, however, he deals hefty fire damage that can deal up to 16% of enemy champions' life pools.

The 16% is dished out over 5 ticks of 0.15 seconds each, and the final tick of damage also applies the "Brittle" defuff to enemies hit, which reduces tenacity and increases the duration of any knockbacks in the next 3 seconds by 30%.

However, while this ability only did damage in Ornn's short pathing - if Ornn should glitch into a wall, this damage would suddenly become global. This allowed Ornn to deal hefty damage and debuff enemy players across the entire map, without risk, and without their ability to counter it in any way.

While the glitch isn't exactly easy to reproduce, there were many YouTubers and members of the League of Legends community that shared videos and messages of frustration showcasing just how game-breaking, frustrating, and damaging this exploit was.

Closing Thoughts

This recent LoL exploit had caused some serious damage in the competitive League of Legends community and with thousands of individuals exploiting it - Tencent made a heavy-handed example to dissuade players from abusing in-game exploits to gain an unfair competitive advantage over their opponents.

This time around, over 3,000 Chinese players received a 3-year-long ban-hammer, which only goes to show that abusing exploits isn't the right way of going about ranking up in LoL.

However, if you're feeling stuck in an unfair rank bracket, we're here to help. Whether you want LoL coaching by one of the top challenger players on your server, or simply want a helping hand in ranking up your account, we've got you covered.