(Explained) Hard CC vs. Soft CC in League of Legends

As new Metas evolve in League of Legends, new champions are introduced with different and often disruptive abilities. The emphasis by players, whether casual or serious professionals, is to choose champions that are good in team fights because, after all, League of Legends is a team-based game. If one player on a team is snowballing, but the other side has better team coordination, sooner or later, the snowballing will stop when the players get shut down. Winning team fights is crucial for shutting down opponents that might be otherwise snowballing all over your team. The best way to win team fights is through crowd control or CC.

As you might guess, crowd control or CC refers to the ability to exert control over one or more enemy champions. This term gets confused sometimes with Area of effect damage which simply damage or an ability effect over a widespread area, and enemies get affected if they happen to be caught up in that area. On the other hand, CC is more sophisticated in many ways, and it takes a rare skill to put it to best use for your team.

There are two types of Crowd control or CC. The meaning of CC itself becomes clear when you look closely at the various examples of hard and soft CC. Hard CC is an ability that completely stops your enemies in their tracks. It’s also called Total CC. On the other hand, soft CC does not remove total control of the affected champion but removes only partial control. The various examples of hard CC are:

1. Airborne
2. Sleep
3. Stun
4. Stasis
5. Suppression
6. Suspension

Similarly, examples of soft CC are:

1. Blind
2. Cripple
3. Disarm
4. Drowsy
5. Ground
6. Polymorph
7. Root
8. Silence
9. Slow

Once you get down to these details, it can get a bit technical very quickly. You know that Polymorph might turn the enemy jungler into a cute little rabbit for a second, but the rabbit can still move about. Complete control of the champion is not removed. Similarly, you can Root an enemy champion, but that champion can still shoot and hit nearby minions. Slow, silent, and blind all have varying effects on enemy champions, but none of them completely stop the enemy champion from being able to do anything.

On the other hand, Hard CC or Total CC prevents the affected champion from being able to do anything at all. If an enemy champion is Airborne, that champion can neither use flash nor any of his or her potions or abilities and can’t rely on team-mates to recuse him from being Airborne. Once the Airborne effect is over, then, of course, you can do anything. The same is true with Stun and Suppression etc.

This is just a brief overview of these abilities. Knowing all of these beforehand lets you choose and balance your team in the best possible manner to have the greatest chances of winning each game. Ideally, you want a mix of hard and soft CC combined with a well-balanced squad of champions.