How to use a League of Legends overlay safely

What an overlay is and what it is not

A legitimate overlay is a regular Windows window, transparent and click-through, placed on top of the game. It is not part of the game and does not modify it: it only draws information on your screen.

For it to show up, LoL has to be in Borderless mode (Options → Video → Window mode). In exclusive full screen, Windows draws the game above every other window.

What Riot allows third-party apps to do

Riot publishes official interfaces for third-party tools: the client’s LCU API (champion select, runes, items), the game’s Live Client Data API (on 127.0.0.1:2999, read-only) and public services such as Data Dragon. An app that only uses these works with data Riot chooses to share.

Riot’s policies also limit what can be shown. In general, an overlay should not give you information you would not have playing without it: no enemy summoner or ultimate timers, no positions of enemies you cannot see, and no decisions that play the game for you.

Red flags

• It reads game memory or injects code or DLLs into the process.
• It shows enemy cooldowns, positions outside your vision or enemy jungle timers.
• It simulates keyboard or mouse input, or automates actions such as dodging or casting abilities.
• It analyzes screenshots or the minimap to extract information.
• It asks for your Riot password or claims to be “undetectable”.

Checklist before installing an overlay

• It clearly states which APIs it uses and what it does not do to the game.
• It does not ask for credentials: the client is already open on your PC.
• Its privacy policy explains what data it sends to its servers.
• It includes Riot’s legal notice and does not present itself as an official product.
• You can hide it or turn off any part of it at any time.

How Coach LoL IA does it

Coach LoL IA only uses the LCU API, the Live Client Data API and Data Dragon. It does not read or write game memory, does not inject code, does not take screenshots to analyze them and does not simulate keys or clicks. Jungle timers are for your side only and you set them yourself, and for the enemy jungler it only repeats what is already in the kill feed.

Even so, Riot always has the final say on third-party tools. That is why we review every alert against their current policy, and we recommend you do the same with any app you install. See the safety section.

Set it up so it stays out of the way

• Put the game in Borderless mode.
• In the app’s Overlay view, use “Move and calibrate” to place each widget where it does not cover the HUD.
• Lower the opacity or turn off the widgets you do not use.
• During the game, Ctrl+Shift+O hides or shows the overlay.