You're about to die anyway, so you walk into the turret to deny the gold. Do it too soon and you just hand them a free kill. Here's the actual window, and it's different in ARAM.
League of Legends Guide
The Execution Timer
Updated August 2026
It happens most in ARAM. Someone takes a hit, waits what feels like long enough, then throws themselves at the enemy turret to deny the kill gold. About half the time it doesn't work and the enemy simply gets a free kill instead.
The reason is that the window is longer than most players assume, and it isn't the same on both maps.
If an enemy champion has damaged or affected you within that window, whatever kills you afterwards still credits them with the kill. Turret, minion, monster, it doesn't matter. Only once the timer has fully expired does the death count as an execution and deny the gold.
ARAM is the longer one, which is exactly backwards from how people play it. The Howling Abyss gives you 20 seconds, not 15, and ARAM is precisely where players attempt this most often and where staying untouched for twenty full seconds is hardest. If you're going to try it, count higher than you think.
The Same Timer Runs Assists
That window governs assists too. Anyone who contributed to your death within the same period gets credited when you die. Contribute longer ago than that and they get nothing.
So it's one mechanic, not two: how recently an enemy champion touched you decides both whether your death is a kill or an execution, and who on their team gets paid for it.
Using It
Count from the last hit, not the last fight
A stray poke, a damage-over-time tick or a slow landing on you all restart the clock. The fight ending is not the same as the timer starting.
Walking in early is worse than dying normally
You give them the kill gold anyway and you arrive at the turret sooner, so you also lose the time you might have spent doing something useful.
It's rarely worth the wait
Standing around for fifteen or twenty seconds to deny a few hundred gold usually costs more in lost farm or a missed fight than the denial is worth.
Where it genuinely pays
When you're already dead regardless, already out of the fight, and the enemy carry is one kill from a large bounty. That's a real decision rather than a habit.
For any term used here, the League of Legends Terms Glossary covers it.
This is certainly helpful, I've seen tons of people screw up executions :3
ReplyDeleteI always thought it's 12 seconds.
ReplyDeleteBecause the "in combat" usually means: "receive or deal damage" (even when the damage is shielded/blocked/dodged/parried) within 2 seconds.
If the champion "buffs" the allied champion and that champion deal damage, it's counted as "assisted" within those seconds too.
And 10 seconds is from the execution normal of Turrent/NeutralMonster/Minions.
Assists should have 13 off advantage too, it makes me mad when i'm the supp/tank, i die in order to kill a super feed riven and my team only kills her 1~2 seconds after and i don't recive an assist.
ReplyDelete