Recently, League of Legends launched spectator mode. It made it possible for anyone to spectate a game going on with a delay of 3 minutes.

Is it possible to still cheat/misuse spectator mode? Perhaps with things that use longer than 3 minutes like spawn times, wards, inhibitors. What are the advantages you can gain by having a friend spectate a game?

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5 Answers

The immediate exploit I can think of is destroying Teemo's mushrooms. Since they last for 10 minutes, a spectator could direct a player with an oracle's where to go to clear them.

A spectator could also help keep track of buff respawns, though this is typically handled by the jungler.

Though not directly useful, a spectator can watch a player's play-style and make best guesses about future moves. Any pattern they see could potentially be used against that player.

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The only real influence i can think of is:

It can be used for jungle respawn timers. Blue/Red buff have 5 minute respawn, Dragon 6, and Baron 7.
A spectator could follow the opposing team and give info on the respawn times of those objectives, so next time the opposing jungler tries to grab a buff or the opposing team tries to get dragon/baron, your team will already be waiting for him/them.

All other information won't really be useful 3 minutes later.

Since it happends to be 3 minutes delay, it's easy to asume that the moment (give or take a few seconds) someone places a ward, the spectator knows that this ward just expired the moment it was laid out by current champion.

So basicly you can say "enemy dragon ward just expired" the moment it's placed out, for instance.

Not that much use obviously, but that actually means that you may get a moment when the enemy team doesn't see your jungler or similiar approach. Depending on how often they ward that same spot, that is.

The most exploitable Spectator action has to do with Jungle camps and respawn timers.

A spectator could alert someone when a jungle camp such as Elder Lizard's camp has been cleared. The alerted player can then make better use of the time available on 1 ward to better intercept a player planning on clearing that jungle camp OR plan a strike at that camp for when the opposing prospector is busy away from that camp immediately after respawning.

I don't believe there's anything exploitable. A spectator 3 minutes behind can't do anything that the players in the game couldn't/shouldn't have done in the intervening 3 minutes. Wards are too short a duration (they're gone in 3 minutes), and jungle camps up to and including Baron are visible if someone clears them (let alone knowing if the opposing team HAS Baron's buff). I think spectator mode is harmless, and a good way to improve and learn.

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