Hide and Seek LOL

I’ve been playing League of Legends for about 4 years now but I’ve never been a huge fan of the ranked system; so when I hit level 30, it never gave me much endgame content or satisfaction until I discovered the player created custom game types and the wacky crazy fun that they offer. There are a bunch of different game types and this week I’m gonna talk about one of the more common ones: Hide and Seek. I'll give you a brief summary of the rules, and some strategies that are useful.

This game is always played on Crystal Scar, in Draft Mode. The blue team plays the hunters and receives first pick; purple side plays the hiders and will get the counter-picks. The objective of the game is to hide and seek obviously, and killing the hunters is pretty frowned upon. Hiders get 5 lives and the game lasts 40 minutes. The map objectives are off limits and capturing one means the game is over and the team at fault automatically loses. The game is won when all the hiders run out of lives, or if forty minutes pass without the seekers having killed all hiders. There are a few smaller rules like: only one person on each team may have a passive slowing item active items have no restrictions so long as they slow or speed up, etc..

Hunters have to wait 2 minutes to leave the base after the game starts to give the hiders a head start, and of course hiders must leave the base before the 2 minute mark. The centre fog of war is the only place you hide, as the outside rings of the map are off limits and if a hider is found hiding in this area (different from quickly getting the health relic) they automatically lose 1 life. Any side not sticking to the rules loses 3 minutes per fault, meaning if the seekers are caught cheating once, the hiders need 3 minutes less to win the game by surviving.

Three champs are auto banned and for pretty good reasons: Evelynn, for obvious reasons (she is always invisible unless you are on top of her); Kassadin, because he's impossible to catch or escape from; and Rengar, because the cooldown on his ultimate is too short making it either a guaranteed escape or kill depending on which team he’s on. The rest of the rules are more bureaucratic so here's the list. I had on a word document on my pc that was stolen from a forum post somewhere.

Seeking Rules

• Seekers are allowed 1 passive slowing item on the team (ex: Rylais, Frozen Mallet, Iceborn Gauntlet)
• Oracles are banned until 15 minutes
• Seekers must return to their base BELOW 300 HP. Likewise they must be given the chance to do so.
• If a seeker does not return to his base BELOW 300 HP then none of the kills he assists in or gets do not count toward hider lives.
• If a seeker does not return to his base BELOW 300 HP the hiders may kill him after a short period of 5 seconds.
• Once a seeker begins to "back" they must finish the channel, regardless of a hider stumbling onto them
• Seekers may not leave their base until 2 minutes into the game, while "their base" counts as the area where enemies get hit by the fountains laser.
• Seekers may not kill a unit on "Grace". If done, the kill does not count. If repeated, the hiders lose 3 minutes.

Hiding Rules

• A hider may not use an ability unless it provides "Hard Crowd Control (CC)" (SLOW, STUN, ROOT, PULL, CAGE, FEAR, TAUNT, PUSH), MOBILITY, SHIELDING or HEALING.
• Skills that provide only a SILENCE, VISION or DMG ONLY ARE NOT ALLOWED AT ANY POINT. ("Silence" and "Vision" are soft CC and are illegal.)
• Combination skills that lead to any of the named "Hard CC", such as brand stuns, kennen stuns, Lee Sin Q or Tempest are NOT ALLOWED. Riven's 3rd "Broken Wings" is allowed, so long as she is not INTENTIONALLY using the first 2 procs to deal damage and ONLY being used for escape purposes.
• No more than 2 hiders may hide together. This is to stop the popular group and run tactic.
• If there are 2 hiders in a brush together a third is not allowed to join them even being chased, if done, the hider loses 1 life.
• The group and run tactic is also not allowed at any point, even being chased it is only allowed to get help from up to 2 more hides NEVER from 3 or more.
• Thornmail, GA, Frozen Mallet and Sunfire Cape are banned for hiders.
• Any items that don't give movement, cc or defense are automatically banned in addition to items already mentioned. If bought, caught, and confronted you must return to the base and sell the item. You may not buy any additional items afterwards. You are given "Grace" for that time.
• Hiders must hide in the center of the fog of war.
• Hiders may NEVER auto-attack (even to heal) unless it is A HARD CC SKILL (udyr bear stance, blitzcrank popup, etc.) and even then only once per application. If abused and auto-attacks occur outside of CC, a warning should be issued, afterwards the hider will lose 1 life upon the hunter's discretion, if properly warned.
• Once a hider re-spawns, it is their responsibility to state the time upon when their "Grace" ends in /ALL. If they do not, they do not receive grace and may be hunted freely, the timer still applies for 45 seconds regardless.
• Once a hider dies, they may buy until they re-spawn and up to 45 seconds afterwards during their grace period. At the point when the hider spawns, they must write in the "/all" the exact time they have re-spawned and has 45 seconds from then on to leave the base and hide. This is "Grace" and is suggested to be used to run and hide, not stay and buy.
• If you interfere while on "Grace" your "Grace" ends promptly, you are now free game to hunt.
• During the 45 seconds of "Grace" hunters may not intentionally follow hiders.
• If a hider fails to leave base within "Grace" they lose 1 life and they are immediately free game to hunt.
• Hiders may not intentionally/accidentally/subconsciously/figuratively/literally prevent seekers from backing.
• Rylais does not legitimize a hider's spell, but one may be purchased among the group.
• Teemo Mushrooms may not be "Stacked" and are limited to 2 per bush or bush-sized-map-space.
• Shaco boxes may not be "Stacked" and are limited to 2 per bush or bush-sized-map-space.

Final thoughts

The game type is a ton of fun and takes very little to get up and running. It’s also the best way to teach new players the finer points of mechanics and escaping on a lot of champions. It’s a good way to train yourself how to juke and take advantage of player movements and vision control. This is the first “for fun” game type I ever played and I instantly fell in love with it. If you're looking for something other than ARAM (All-Random-All-Mid) and the basic Summoner's Rift, I highly recommend giving this a try. It has a great community of die-hard fans and it just shows that players can make anything fun, even Dominion.