Headliner Rules for Patch 14.3 and Frameroll Bug

The Headliner mechanic has undergone a lot of changes since the start of Set 10. Initially it was a lot more restrictive, so this guide will cover the current state of everything you need to know about Headliners.

While Riot has fixed some bugs surrounding this mechanic, there are still lots of different ways to give yourself an advantage. One of these methods is called the Frameroll and will be covered at the end of this guide.

The most basic rules for Headliners are:

• If you don't have a Headliner, you will receive one in every shop
• If you have a Headliner, then you will see a new one every 4 shops
• You have to sell your current Headliner to buy a new one from the shop
• There must be 3 copies remaining in the pool for a champion to be able to show up as a headliner

These rules have remained consistent throughout the entire Set and you can expect them to stay this way for the rest of Set 10.

Initially when the Set went live Riot decided to add a new rule to make it more difficult for players to find 3 Star units. This was known as the Halfway rule, which prevented a Headliner from showing up if too many units were taken out of the champion pool.

However this ended up being too frustrating for players so it was changed. The new rule works like this:

• If you have more than four copies of a 4-cost or three copies of a 5-cost, you can’t see the headliner. 1/2/3 costs have no limitation.

So in short, it is possible to buy 6 Mordekaiser and find a Mordekaiser Headliner to finish upgrading him to 3 Star. However for Tier 4 and Tier 5 units this won't work, so you actually have to be careful about not collecting too many of a specific Tier 4/5 unit if you're still looking for that particular Headliner.

If you skip a Headliner, then the next time the same unit appears as a Headliner, it will have a different trait amplified. So if you skip an Executioner Twitch then the next time you roll him as a Headliner he will be a Punk Twitch.

Units with three traits like Gnar will always roll a 50-50 between the two traits that weren’t selected the last time. So if your first Headliner Gnar is Mosher then the next time you see Gnar it will be a 50-50 between Pentakill and Superfan. Assuming you find a Gnar Superfan Headliner and you roll past him, then the next Gnar will now have a 50-50 chance between Pentakill and Mosher.

In short:

• Units will alternate their Headliner traits
• But you can't guarantee a specific trait for a unit with three traits.

While this is the intended rule set, unfortunately this is not working properly and it's possible for the same traits on a Headliner to repeat themselves.

There also other rules in place that will influence your roll down. For example, every time you skip past a Headliner trait, then you won't see the same trait again in the next four shops.

For example if you're Level 6 and skip past Twitch with Executioner as his Headliner then it is not possible to find Samira or Vex with Executioner as their Headliner in the next four shops. Only in the fifth shop would it be possible for the Executioner trait to roll again.

While this is the intended rule set, this is not working properly and you can see the same traits back to back

Similar to traits, there is also a rule in place that prevents units from appearing in quick succession. The amount of shops required to lift this rule is different depending on the Tier level of your unit:

• Tier 1/2/3 -> Can't appear in next 7 Shops
• Tier 4 -> Can't appear in next 5 Shops
• Tier 5 -> Can't appear in next 4 Shops

So if you have a Country Katarina Headliner and skip past her, you will have to roll at least 8 times to have a chance at seeing her again. If you end up finding a random Crowd Diver Headliner, then the previous trait rule can end up increasing the amount of required shops.

Keep in mind that this is not a guarantee to find a specific Headliner, this is just a case of "Is it even possible for the unit to appear".

In previous patches Players could circumvent these protection rules by buying and selling specific Headliners in their shop to reach their desired Headliner faster. This interaction does not work anymore, selling a Headliner will now act the same as if you're skipping a Headliner and will only end up costing you 1 gold.

If you've played a lot of games during either Patch 14.1 or 14.2 then you might've encountered games where the aforementioned rules didn’t apply. Initially there was a bug that caused skipping a Headliner to not only lockout a specific trait, but also any unit who was part of that trait.

For example skipping a Bruiser Olaf ended up locking you out from seeing any Tahm, Gragas or Sett for several shops. This was not intended and has been fixed.

There was also a Bug in Patch 14.2 that caused the lockout mechanic for traits to not function at all. This is not fixed yet, you can currently see units repeat their traits instead of alternating between them.

Something Riot didn’t manage to fix in Patch 14.3 is the so-called Frameroll Bug. This bug allows you to bypass the following rule:

• If you have a Headliner, then you will see a new one every 4 shops

This is how it works: Assuming you currently have a Headliner you are restricted to only see a new Headliner every 4 shops. However there is a very specific time frame where you can roll and receive a new Headliner in your shop.

This will only work when you visit enemy boards, since the game will pack up your units into Orbs and have them join your little Legend when they jump into the portal. For a brief period, right before you transition from your board to the opponent’s board you can roll your shop and will always have a new Headliner option.

This method doesn’t allow you to buy a second Headliner, but it does allow you to cycle through new Headliners much cheaper. If you end up finding a useful one, you either have to lock your shop or sell your current Headliner from the Bench.

As for the time frame there is a very easy setup to guarantee this outcome every single time. If you hover your mouse towards the end of the Stage indicator at the top of your screen you can block part of the progression bar.

Once the progression bar hits your mouse you can press the roll button and you should have a new Headliner in your shop. This setup is based around a 1080p Resolution, this means you might have to adjust the setup to make it work for a different Resolution.

The time frame is around 0.5 - 1 second, which is rather forgiving, so you can also simply memorize the correct timing. Keep in mind this will only work if you visit the enemy board.