After many and many years of waiting, Riot Games finally added replays to League of Legends in Season 7. Since then, it has been an irreplaceable part of every players’ improvement process. In order not to fall behind competition, but rather beat it and become one of the best you’ll have to watch yours, but other players replays as well. Here’s a guide on how to watch replays in LoL.
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Why are League of Legends replays important?
Whether you are a rookie, or a veteran of the game, there are still many things for you to learn. LoL isn’t one of the easier games to learn, and it can put you in a vicious cycle of procrastination. Playing many games is not necessarily going to make you a better player. Majority of the time, we play the game on autopilot. Our habits don’t change from game to game, and if you have bad habits in the first place, they’re going to stay bad.
Watching your own game, or someone else’s might give you an idea on what you’re doing wrong. Also, you might learn some new tricks, or combos that will help you get higher MMR much faster than you usually would.
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How to download replays?
In order to watch a desired replay, you will first have to download it. There are two ways to do it. First, you could download it directly from the post game lobby like shown on the picture below. Once the download finishes, you’ll be able to play it using the same button.
Now onto the second method. If you’d like to watch one of your previous games you can access them through the Match History on your profile. Like in the first step, just download the game and play it straight from the client. Furthermore, this way you can also download anyone else’s replays as well. It is worth noting though that replays become inaccessible once new patch rolls out. Also, you can’t watch replays of players that aren’t on the same server as you.
Where are LoL replays saved?
If you chose standard option when you were installing League of Legends, by default your Replay folder be located in Documents. It should look something like this:
/Documents/League of Legends/Replays
Highlights are saved in the same folder LoL folder, but in the subfolder “Highlights”.
If you don’t want League to be saving your replays, or highlights there, you can chance its destination through the client. In the settings navigate to “Replays” tab, and edit your desired location.
Why can’t I open a replay?
There are several reasons why your League of Legends replays might not be working. Firstly, you should check if they expired due to the new patch. This is the most common issue when it comes to replays. On the other hand, file might have not downloaded properly. Simply delete it from the Replay folder and download it again.
Bear in mind that Match History stores only last 20 games. After that your replays will be lost. If you’d like to keep access to them, try recording them using some 3rd party software such as OBS. Also, if you’re interested only in small part of the game, or your pentakill make it a highlight using the Record tool.
How to watch replays from other servers
If you want to watch a replay from someone that is not playing on the same server as you, you’ll have to go to some extra lengths. Easiest way to do it is to go to a website that provides such information such as LeagueOfGraphs. Go to desired summoner’s profile, and simply press on replay below the game. If there is no replay it means you’re out of luck. You can press “Record” in the top right corner so the future games will be recorded.
Second way to do it is by creating a new account on the new server. This can be quite a complicated process that will require you to have multiple e-mail addresses and to keep track of all the accounts. Although it’s going to work for most of the servers, there are some that are an exception. For example, you will not be able to create an account on Korean server so your only solution is to watch it through 3rd party websites.
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What are Highlights?
Highlights are small parts of the game that you recorded from League replays. They’re accessible from your profile under “Highlights” tab, or from their folder. Unlike replays, you can share them with your friends.
How to record them?
First, you’ll have to open the replay of the game you want to make a highlight of. Then, navigate to the moment in game that you want to capture. After you have found it, press the red Record button, or a combination of keys CTRL and V. After you recorded what you wanted, stop it by doing the same method.
