Possible routing issue affecting League of Legends BR match connections (VPN routing works)

[Pedro92]

From Canada, I can launch the League of Legends client normally, but I’m unable to connect to matches on the Brazilian server. When a match starts, the game transitions to a black screen and never completes the connection. This happens consistently, at all times, and has been ongoing for over six months.

The key observation is that the issue is immediately resolved when I route traffic through a Canadian VPN endpoint (NordVPN). With the VPN enabled, matches load and play normally. Without the VPN, match connections consistently fail.

Additional context:

• In the past, traceroutes showed traffic being routed through the United States and India before failing

• Riot Games appears to host its match infrastructure on AWS, which uses dynamic IP addressing and load balancing, so destination IPs change per session

• Because of this, I’m unable to provide fixed destination IPs or consistent traceroute results

Based on the consistent behavior and the VPN workaround, this appears to be a routing or peering issue affecting the path from Bell’s network to Riot Games’ AWS-hosted Brazilian match servers, rather than a client-side issue.

I’d appreciate any insight from the Bell team on:

• Whether this could be related to Bell’s international routing or upstream providers

• If there is a recommended escalation path for review by a network or peering team

• Any additional information that would help with investigation

Thank you for your time and assistance.

[Vanadiel]

What region is your Riot account for league of legends?

[Pedro92]

My account is from BR region

[dks]

If your account is from the BR region yet your originating IP is not, it might be useful to know if the BR server restricts non-BR IPs. Does the server do geolocation filtering? 

[Vanadiel]

Riot accounts are region locked.

See here 

Keep in mind that you can only change your shard or Region of Residence to match your physical location, so be extra careful when playing from a VPN.

So if your physical location is Canada, and your account region is Brazil, you cannot use the Brazil server as your physical location does not match Brazil, it matches Canada.

When you use a VPN and pick a Brazilian VPN server, your geographical region will be Brazil as per the Brazilian VPN server address, and then if your account is also from the Brazilian region it will work.

It's not a routing issue, it's a region lock issue with Riot games region locking based on the following regions:

• Southeast Asia/Asia-Pacific (AP)
• Europe (EU)
• Korea (KR)
• Brazil (BR)
• Latin America (LATAM)
• North America (NA)

[Pedro92]

No, they dont do geolocation filtering. They do allow me to play from anywhere. I use VPN from Canada to Canada, it just reroutes it.

[Pedro92]

They have different servers that you can choose from. But you can do for any. They SUGGEST you to get the one closest to you, but I am in Brazilian server because I used to live there and I play from here. Their support never had an issue with that either. They do NOT have a Region Lock, they have different regional servers and that is it, like many massive games online do to keep pings lower for those in that region.

The link you sent mention they having other servers and talk about LAG, not interruption of service or region lock.

EDIT: I would like to add one thing: I am talking about service not working AT ALL without a VPN from Canada TO Canada for a reroute. I have been troubleshooting this forever and have never had this issue before with Rogers, for example. It's a Bell thing. Another thing to point its not about the lag, I have never had a problem with having the lag for playing from afar, I dont care about it. The issue here and being reported is fully not being able to access a server DUE to a bad route. There is no Region Lock, there is nothing of the sorts. I have talked to Riot, I have expressed all of that information in the topics and also shared other people having similar issues with North America server too. I don't get WHY you guys keep pushing things that makes no sense at all for this issue. I know you want to help but this is being the opposite.

[dks]

Perhaps I am not being clear. No provider has control over routing once the packets leave their network. The traceroutes posted seem to suggest the issue is beyond Bell's network and thus not in their control. That may not make sense, but it is the best and most reasonable theory I can offer at the moment. 

[Pcoelho]

Riot Accounts are region based, NOT region locked, if it was the case the base client, chat and other services wouldn't connect, what happens is only when the match start, only with BELL, STARTED happening in the last 6 months and when you activate VPN they start working again, so it has nothing related to the game (where made multiple tests to check those conditions) it's NOT City based Since with the other user lives in Toronto and i live in Québec, so the only remaining option is BELL itself, so it is the provider part that has to check what's happening since its the provider who makes the connection between the server of the game and the user.

[Vanadiel]

I will play it tonight, on a Bell connection.

According to their own documentation they employ region control of some sorts. I will try the NA server and Brazilian server tonight, to see what happens. If it's indeed a routing issue, I would experience the same issue as you are experiencing.

Sounds region locked to me, but I am going to try it myself just to make sure.

https://support-leagueoflegends.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201751684-League-of-Legends-Regional...

An account created for a particular region won't be able to log in to the website or game client intended for other regions.

[Pedro92]

How it works is:

You create an account for whatever region you want. And you can request to transfer to another region. They are the shards you mentioned earlier. Before, they would allow you to in game transfer to any region, but since people would do that to take advantage of regional pricing (buy skins for cheaper) by transferring to poorer countries, they have changed to Region of Residence so as long as you were able to create your account there, you can stay even if you move (because you might wanna to keep playing with your friends despite moving abroad). And this is why it's not region locked.

Regional pricing is a common practice for the game industry to keep it a fair price for countries where people has less buying power, meaning they can spend less on stuff that is not the basics (rent, food, utilities, etc). And as this has propagated through the industry, many people started to take advantage of those prices (Steam, for example). The solution for all has been you either create an account when in that country, or use methods to prove you are from there like id, phone number, etc. This also forces you to behave according to local law, like if you make an account on a Korean game using a Korean phone number, it means you are under their law (where below certain age can only play as much per day, or maximum spend allowed in online gaming, etc). But yeh, regional pricing is something Riot practices.

Go ahead and give it a shot, but the issue is a route to their services, and it's just the matches, the client opens just fine. And this affects their League of Legends, Valorant and Teamfight Tactics. And I can say it's not only on PC, but my phone can't play Teamfight Tactics either on the Brazilian server. But what I do is connect through a VPN, still in Canada, and it just works.

[Vanadiel]

I just tried it on a bell fibe connection.

Created account Brazil region

Brazilian server without VPN does not work.

Brazilian server with VPN Brazil works.

Registering a new account, this time region NA, no issues without a VPN. Did not try with a VPN because it's working without it.

When it does not work, you get a black screen and after some time it will popup a box stating it cannot connect to the server.

[Pedro92]

Did you try using VPN to Canada for Brazil server as I do? Because it works with a Canadian VPN.

[Vanadiel]

No, since NA to NA worked without a VPN it's confirmation the game server/software works fine on a Bell connection. So it's not some port blocking by Bell or some other issue related to Bell. It's possible there is a routing issue with the Brazil server, or some other issue.

But that issue would be outside of the Bell network. It's for sure not an issue with the Bell home hub as I do not use a home hub, so that is ruled out as a possibility.

The route to the Brazil server seems to be ok also based on traceroute, as it's reachable.

Could be a configuration issue with one of the routing points, or some issue with the way Riot deals with regions and accounts.

I am leaning towards regions/accounts as that seems to be the logical conclusion from my testing. If you are using a Canadian VPN address and it works, you could try a traceroute from there and see what path it takes. Maybe it will shed some light on this situation.

[Pedro92]

Doesnt really matter if you lean towards regions/accounts since I have both showed the Valorant NA servers having the same issue in another post and that it wasnt Brazililian VPN but Canadian VPN to make it work. I dont play the NA server to say if that would have ever happened to me as well. Also, the NA AWS servers will be different from BR AWS servers either way. The fact that it DOES work with a VPN in Canada should speak volumes here. And yes, I can try tracerouting those, but I am waiting on the callback from Bell themselves that they mentioned to me so we could test this further.

Now, considering that I mentioned that I used a Canadian VPN address on the post, and ALWAYS whenever I mentioned the VPN usage, I dont get why you didn't test it that way. That invalidates your test, since it does not portray the same scenario.

Am waiting on your answers

Another thing to note again. Rogers to Brazilian server works. Canadian VPN to Brazilian server works. Issue is Bell service. I have stated that again and again.

[Vanadiel]

I understand what you are saying, but NA is working for me using Bell service.

If the issue is with Bell, why would NA work and Brazil not? It's the same software...

That is why I mentioned it's very well possible there is some issue between Bell and the Brazil server that is not present between Bell and the NA server. But that to me would indicate an issue out of Bell's control as it would be outside the Bell network.

I am interested to find out what it is actually as it's a rather odd problem to have.