Champ Rival strategy: how to win with the clues

In Champ Rival every guess gives you seven clues, and you only have 10 attempts per round. Winning does not depend only on knowing a lot about LoL, but on choosing guesses that rule out many champions at once. These ideas are based on how the data is spread among the 173 champions in the game.

Choose your first guesses well

A good first guess is a champion that shares many frequent values with the rest. For example, 97 of the 173 champions are human, 145 use mana, 104 are male and most were released between 2009 and 2012 (108 champions). Starting with a “typical” champion clears up a lot, and starting with an unusual one wastes the attempt if everything shows red.

With your second guess, change as many columns as you can: another region, another position, another gender. That way every guess brings new clues.

How to read each clue

• Region (one per champion): green means the secret champion is from that region; rule out all the others. See the Runeterra regions guide.
• Positions and species (several values): yellow means you share some, not all. Try a champion that has only one of those positions to find out which one it is. See positions and roles.
• Resource: if “mana” shows red, the secret champion is one of the few that do not use it. See champion resources.
• Range type: 90 champions are melee and 83 are ranged; this clue splits the list almost in half.
• Release year: the arrow tells you whether the secret champion was released before or after. Use the year like a binary search: try a champion from the middle of the range and narrow it down.

Keep track of what you know

After every guess, summarise in your head what is already confirmed (for example: “female, ranged, from Ionia”) and what is ruled out. With three or four columns confirmed, the list of candidates usually shrinks to a handful of champions.

Against the clock and against another person

In games against another person the first to guess wins, so balance speed and care: a quick but uninformative guess can cost you the round. You cannot see your rival’s guesses, only how many they have made: if they are on many attempts, do not rush, they may be lost.

Practise in the Daily Champion, which has no limit on attempts, to learn how the clues are distributed. And review the full rules in How to play.