Your champion responds with a delay, abilities go off a fraction of a second after you click, and sometimes the game freezes completely for a moment. Before you start changing graphics settings or restarting your router blindly, it pays to find out first whether it’s ping, FPS or a problem on the server side, because each one is fixed differently. This article explains what ping means, what’s normal on EUNE from Czechia and Slovakia, how to tell where the problem comes from, and what to do about it.
What ping actually means
Ping is the time in milliseconds it takes data from your computer to reach the game server and come back. The lower the number, the faster the game responds to your commands. With low ping you barely feel any delay; with high ping, abilities go off noticeably later than you click.
Ping needs to be told apart from two other things it often gets confused with:
- FPS (frames per second): how smoothly the game renders on your screen. Low FPS causes stuttering visuals, not delayed responses to your commands. It’s fixed differently from ping, through graphics settings rather than your connection.
- Packet loss: when part of the data on its way to the server is lost entirely, not just delayed. It shows up as choppy character movement and sudden “jumps”, even when the ping itself looks low. It tends to be a worse problem than high but stable ping.
You can display your current ping and FPS right in the game with the Ctrl + F shortcut, or through Settings → Interface by turning on “Show network stats”. The overview appears in the top right corner of the screen.
What’s a normal ping on EUNE
The EUNE server physically runs in Frankfurt am Main and covers northern and eastern Europe, including Poland and Czechia. From Czechia and Slovakia it’s a fairly short distance geographically, so on a regular wired or good wireless connection your ping to EUNE is usually low. It’s typically much lower than, say, to the North American servers, where ping usually ranges from tens of milliseconds to over a hundred because of the distance across the ocean.
What counts as a problem rather than normal: if your ping on EUNE jumps up and down by tens of milliseconds within seconds (fluctuating rather than holding a stable value), or it stays much higher than it used to be on the same connection, something is wrong, either on your end or in the network between you and the server.
How to tell whether the problem is on your end or on the server side
Telling them apart matters, because you deal with each scenario in a completely different way.
- Check the server status. Open status.riotgames.com, select League of Legends and the EUNE region (or EUW if that’s where you play). If Riot reports an ongoing incident there, the problem is on its side and there’s nothing you can do on your PC except wait.
- Ask your teammates. If other players in the match are lagging too, it’s more likely a problem with the server or the network between you and Riot, not your individual connection.
- Test other services. If video calls, streaming or other online games work normally and only League of Legends lags, the problem is more likely in the route to Riot’s servers or in the client itself, not your internet in general.
- Watch when it happens. Lag that appears only at peak times (evenings, weekends) or only in certain matches points to network congestion rather than a permanent fault.
How to find out exactly where your data gets stuck
If you want to see which way your data travels to the game and exactly where along the way the delay grows, use the built-in tracert tool. It’s a purely diagnostic command that doesn’t change anything in your system, so you can safely run it just to try it out:
- Press Windows + R, type cmd and confirm. The command prompt opens.
- Type tracert, then a space and the address you want to check (for a general diagnosis of the route toward Europe, a common European domain will do), and press Enter.
- The tool lists the individual “hops” (routers) your data passes through and the time at each of them. A hop where the time suddenly rises sharply shows the point on the route where the delay comes from.
This output won’t fix the problem by itself, but it’s useful evidence when you take the delay up with your internet provider. Instead of saying “I have lag”, you can show them the specific point on the route where the time jumps up.
What to do about high ping or lag
Steps from the simplest to the more involved:
- Use a cable, not Wi-Fi. A wired connection is more stable and less prone to dropouts and fluctuation than a wireless one, especially if the router is far away or behind a wall.
- Close apps downloading in the background. Windows updates, cloud backups, torrents or streaming in another window take up bandwidth that the game then lacks.
- Restart your router. Turn it off for a few minutes and plug it back in. It fixes a surprisingly large share of temporary network problems.
- Check whether a VPN is running. A VPN adds extra stops to your data’s route and almost always makes ping worse, not better. If you don’t need it for another reason, play without it.
- Update your network adapter drivers. An outdated driver can cause ping fluctuation even on an otherwise fast connection.
- If the problem persists only in League of Legends and not in other services, contact your internet provider with a specific description. It’s possible that the route to Riot’s servers passes through a congested node on their side.
When lag isn’t about ping
If your ping is low and stable (even under 30 ms) but the game still stutters or freezes, look for the cause elsewhere:
- Low FPS: check your CPU and GPU usage, lower the graphics settings and close demanding apps running in the background.
- A server-side problem: even with a perfect connection, an overloaded or unstable game server can cause delays that look like your problem but aren’t. Check the status at status.riotgames.com.
- Vanguard or the client: freezing right after launch or in champion select is more often a client or anti-cheat problem than a network one. That’s covered in the article on the most common LoL launch errors.
FAQ
With the Ctrl + F shortcut, or in Settings → Interface by turning on u0022Show network statsu0022. The overview appears in the top right corner of the screen.
In Frankfurt am Main, Germany. EUNE covers northern and eastern Europe, Poland and Czechia, even though Germany itself otherwise belongs to the EUW server.
At status.riotgames.com, where you select League of Legends and your region. Green icons mean everything is running normally; orange or red indicates an ongoing problem.
In most cases, no. A VPN adds an extra stop to your data’s route, so it tends to make ping worse. The exception is specific situations where your regular provider sends data along an inefficient route, but that’s more of a rarity than the rule.
Most often it’s the route your data takes between you and Riot’s servers specifically, not your internet in general. Check the server status, and if everything is fine, contact your internet provider with a specific description of the problem.
In practice, yes. High but stable ping is at least predictable, while packet loss causes sudden, unpredictable dropouts and character u0022jumpsu0022, even when the ping number itself looks fine.
It shows you the individual hops your data passes through on its way to the server and the time at each of them. It helps you tell whether the delay starts right on your end, at your internet provider, or deep along the route close to Riot’s servers.
Sometimes, yes. A router that has run for a long time without a restart can gradually slow down even without visible dropouts. If you’re not sure what’s causing the lag, it’s one of the quickest steps worth trying.
Information verified on 23 August 2026. If lag or ping keeps the game from launching at all, first check the most common LoL launch errors and how the Vanguard anti-cheat works. How to download and install the game is covered in the download and installation guide. Where Riot runs its servers and which language to choose is covered in the article language, EUNE and servers. You’ll find the whole hub in the League of Legends section.