Play League of Legends on Mac OS X

League of Legends is currently one of the most popular games around. The refined DOTA-clone in the absence of a better MOBA game dominates the scene. Unfortunately for Mac users Riot games has still not given us an official client to enjoy it. The company announced last year that it would launch a mac client but, alas, has not done so. The summer went by, fall went by and still nothing. During the summer though, Riot proceeded with a mac client beta testing for the North American server. It used Transgaming's Cider Technology for the client, meaning that it used a Mac Wrapper around the Windows client. For unknown reasons this did not have a happy ending with an official release. The good news is that we can use this Beta client to play on either, the NA or EU, server with a bit of fiddling. Forget all about the bootcamp crap or virtual machine crap. This is the real deal. Launch, play and enjoy LOL right from your Mac's Desktop as a native Mac OS X application.

Here is how:

• Download the beta client. You can download the beta client from a torrent (you are going to need a torrent client to download this, like μtorrent). Don't worry, it is perfectly legal(it's a free game after all). Also you can download via the rapidshare link provided by boompje(for specific instruction for the boompje link check here).
• Make sure that you have set your primary Mac Language as US English (System Preferences-> Language and Text) or it will crash during install.
• Install the game using one of the aforementioned methods.
• In some cases the application will close immediately after trying to open. If this happen do what is suggested here on page 18 by user felixjet
• Open your Application folder and Right-Click on LOL application. Select "Show Package Contents"
• Download the cracked LolLauncher.exe and replace the one found in Contents --> Resources --> Transgaming --> c_drive --> rads --> projects-> lol_launcher-> releases->0.0.0.xx->deploy.
• ONLY if you are planning to play on the NA Server: let the game update. Other wise if you are planning to play on the EU servers launch it and let it update AFTER you have configured everything else below.
• Go to : Contents -> Resources -> transgaming -> c_drive -> rads -> Projects -> lol_air_client_config_na -> releases -> 0.0.0.1 -> deploy
• Open the "lol.properties" file with you text editor.
• Replace the text inside the file

For the European Server the contents of the file should look like this:

host=prod.eu.lol.riotgames.com

xmpp_server_url=chat.eu.lol.riotgames.com

lobbyLandingURL=http://www.leagueoflegends.com/pvpnet_landing

ladderURL=http://www.leagueoflegends.com/ladders

storyPageURL=http://www.leagueoflegends.com/story

lq_uri=https://lq.eu.lol.riotgames.com/login-queue/rest/queue

For the North American server the contents of the file should look like this:

host=beta.lol.riotgames.com

xmpp_server_url=chat.na.lol.riotgames.com

lobbyLandingURL=http://www.leagueoflegends.com/pvpnet_landing

ladderURL=http://www.leagueoflegends.com/ladders

storyPageURL=http://www.leagueoflegends.com/story

lq_uri=https://lq.na.lol.riotgames.com/login-queue/rest/queue

• Save the file.
• ONLY If you are planning to play on the European server: Go to Contents --> Resources --> Transgaming --> c_drive --> rads --> system and open the "system.cfg" file.
• Replace the "Region = NA" with "Region = EU".
• Save the file.
• You can now switch your Language Preferences back to normal.
• Enjoy the game.

UPDATE: I no longer answer questions in the comments section regarding this as I have stopped playing LoL and moved on to Dota 2. You are of course welcome to use the comments section to ask a question since another user might be able to answer to you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did you make this?

No, I did not make this. I simply found the mac beta client and got it to work on my mac(Early 2008 Macbook Pro). This is a guide of what I did to make it work. It might not be the same for you.

Are you affiliated in any way with Riot Games? Do you get anything for it?

No, I am not affiliated and I do not gain anything from it. I am simply a gamer just like you.

Will this work on my Mac?
This is based on a BETA client that was never meant to be a final release for the public. Thus, it might not work for you or it might require a lot of twiking to get it to work properly.

Will this play on my G4/G5 Mac?

No, it will not. It will only play on Intel based Macs.

Will this play on Mac OSX Tiger?

No, it will not.

Will this work on Mac OSX Lion?

I personally have not tested in Lion (Only Snow Leopard) but other users have reported that it works fine.

I am in Asia. Will I be able to play with this client?

Probably not. Riot games blocks IPs coming from Asia so you will not be able to join using a European or a NA account. Garena deals with SEA region for LoL and I am not aware if they use the same configuration and what the host addresses are.

Will this play on Mac which has Intel Integrated Graphics Card?

Chances are that it will not play properly. You need a Mac with a dedicated graphics card.

I get graphical glitches/white pages/weird graphics?

Try setting all graphics options to "Low". Not "very low" or "medium". The beta client probably has some issues with some graphic cards and this is the only way to make it play properly.

I get an "$INSTALLVOLUME/installer/AdobeAIR/en-US.plist".

Try installing the game from the full client instead of the downloader/installer. Make sure you have installed adobe air first.

I have installed everything but when I click on the game launcher it seems like it is starting but then it stops and nothing happens.

In some cases the application will close immediately after trying to open. If this happen do what is suggested here on page 18 by user felixjet around the middle of the page.

I have installed everything but when I launch the application it says that the beta is over and I cannot proceed.

Riot closed the BETA so you need to use a crakced launcher for the game. Right click on the lol application and chose 'show package contents'. Download the cracked LolLauncher.exe and replace the one found in Contents --> Resources --> Transgaming --> c_drive --> rads --> projects-> lol_launcher-> releases->0.0.0.xx->deploy.

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Chrome 4 Beta available for Mac and Linux

Chrome is finally available to both Linux and Mac users. I have really enjoyed using Chrome in Windows but since i don't use Windows that often I would have really liked it to be available for the Linux and the mac platform. Google heard my geek prayers and released Chrome 4 beta.

I installed it and run to both platforms without any problems and to my delight there were ready-made packages for Ubuntu, as well as for Fedora and Suse all having 32 bit and 64 bit versions.

One noticeable difference of the two versions is that the Linux one keeps the default blueish theme while the Mac version has a metallic theme obviously to play along with the rest of the metallic theme of OSX. In addition one, hiccup is that In Ubuntu, Chrome does not follow the windows behavior set in user preferences. Thus, for example, if you have set for a window to roll-up if you double click on the titlebar it will just stay there which is kinda disappointing. I guess its still in beta and better integration will come in the near future as soon. In addition, the mac version does not support extensions for now which is a bummer since extension have some very useful stuff. in Linux version though they are enabled and ready for use.

I like Firefox but it has started to get to my nerves how painfully bloat it has become. When Firefox came out 5 years ago it was bleeding fast compared to Internet Explorer, which was one of the reasons it became the browser of choice for many people. Chrome still lacks the plugin support that Firefox enjoyes but it will come in the near future (the extensions are in beta as well). All I can say Chrome is the new Firefox.