League of Legends is a game that has spent most of its existence exclusively on the PC platform. This is only natural, as the entire MOBA genre originated on the PC way back in the early 2000s.
As one of the direct successors of the original MOBA DOTA, it has dominated the PC market for well over a decade. Of course, seeking to expand its ever-growing global empire, League of Legends was also released on the popular mobile market.
Though that isn’t precisely the genuine League of Legends experience, it’s an excellent alternative for people who either don’t own or don’t prefer gaming on the PC.
Apart from this, many crazy ways of playing League of Legends have come up over the years. The player base has undoubtedly been creative throughout this decade-long journey, ranging from playing with your legs to playing with a set of bananas.
One of the ways that people might be most curious about is the controller.
Consoles are the most significant gaming market next to the PC and Mobile, and their controllers are equally as popular, if not more. Crossing platforms consistently, the gaming controllers are some of the best tools for playing video games out there.
In this article, we will go over how you can play League with a controller and a bit more. As always, here at LeagueFeed, we like delving deep into all the topics that come to mind.
We’re not fans of blunt answers, and thus we will also discuss why you should or shouldn’t play with a controller and other related stuff.
Without further ado, let’s begin!
Also read: How to Fix LoL Another Instance of the Launcher is Running Problem?
Is League Suited for a Controller?
To put it simply – no, League of Legends is not a game suited for controller gameplay.
It was designed for and remains to be a PC gaming rig. The usual mouse and keyboard combination is the best way to play this game and likely the only viable way.
If you were to cross swords with a controller against a player that is versed in the mouse and keyboard combo, you are bound to lose. Quite embarrassingly so, actually.
Thus, I wouldn’t really recommend playing this game with a controller. However, for those who still would want to do that, we will cover the how-tos in just a moment. You’ll have to keep on reading, though.
Why You’d Want To Play Lol With A Controller
League of Legends can and will get stale after too much gameplay. People always love to seek out new ways of experiencing familiar content. This is why you might want to consider alternative ways of playing League of Legends.
The controller is just one way of doing so. Through some extreme examples, other players have gone on to play the game in unthinkable ways.
Getting creative with this can be a source of great fun. However, this will also get stale pretty quickly, and you will want to go back to the usual. Also, keep in mind that people who you’re playing with will be insanely annoyed at your doing so.
Ruining the game for everyone else just to have some fun is not a sportsmanlike thing to do. Therefore, you should consider these alternate gameplay approaches only if you have four other friends to join you on the adventure.
It’s best to keep these experiments within your friend group, as you will avoid ruining the game for everyone else and likely even have more fun.
Also read: League of Legends Flex Queue Rank Distribution
How To Play With A Controller?
Getting everything to work will require quite a bit of effort. League of Legends, and any other PC-specific game in general, will not be directly designed for controller gameplay.
Games of this nature are simply not meant for this. So, let’s get into it.
Firstly, you will have to own a controller. For the purpose of this guide, we will be using an XBOX 360 controller as the base. If you get some other controller, everything on here should work fine. However, deviances are bound to happen if you venture into some shady third-party grounds.
Secondly, you will have to download the required drivers for your controller. The XBOX 360 controller should be automatically installed into your device like a Microsoft product. For the sake of certainty, visit Xbox Support.
After successfully connecting your controller to the PC, you can move on to actually making it usable in-game. This is done by downloading JoyToKey – Download the Latest Official Version, a program that is created to map joystick inputs and turn them into keyboard ones.
The final step is creating the controls. You can search online for CFG files and settings other players have made. Keep in mind that this is relatively niche, and not many options will be found anywhere. Even those that are may be coming from a bygone age and not work anymore.
Set up the controls as you like, and be sure to understand them as well as you can. It can be hard to get used to this new form of playing League, as simulating a keyboard with a controller is not that simple. It gets convoluted a bit, but you’re pretty much set if you can get around that.
And that should be it. Problems can arise because the game does not natively support a controller. With any game of this type, not only MOBA, setting up a controller is a pain that honestly isn’t even worth the trouble. But there’s the guide if you really want to play League using a controller.
Conclusion
Players always seek some crazy new way of playing League of Legends. They want to feel that thrill they did years ago when they first started playing the game. However, playing with a controller or doing any other alternative and insane stunt is not really the way of doing so. I want to think that the best way of experiencing the game anew is by learning new Champions, mechanics, etc., that you wouldn’t usually pick.
Either that or just find a new God damn game already. There are so many out there that don’t require the pain of managing a controller in this way. Honestly, there’s not much worth in spending so much time and effort to make this work when it simply isn’t made for it.
I hope you’ve found this article informative and fun to read, and I wish you all the best on the Summoner’s Rift!
If you’re as LoL crazed as we are, you can take a look at out our article on checking how much time you’ve spent on LoL so far.
Also read: How big is the download size of League of Legends?
