LoL Esports Webhooks: Stop Polling Live Matches

Why polling LoL live matches burns rate limits — and how Cito LoL webhooks deliver gold swings, objectives, and live state to your app.

Author:
Cito Team

The Polling Trap

A live match center that hits /lol/live every 3–5 seconds looks fine in demos. In production it:

  • Burns your rate limit during LCS/LEC nights
  • Still lags between polls
  • Scales poorly when you track many matches

Webhooks flip the model: Cito pushes events when something changes.

What LoL Webhooks Cover

One Game Starter (and above) includes LoL-scoped live webhooks for events like:

  • Live state updates

  • Gold swings (lol.live.gold_swing)
  • Objectives (lol.live.objective)
  • Kills and related live signals

Always pre-check coverage before relying on live-state delivery:

bash
curl -H "x-api-key: cito_live_your_key" \  https://api.citoapi.com/api/v1/lol/matches/lol-match-116520394663535912/coverage

Or inspect the matrix:

bash
curl -H "x-api-key: cito_live_your_key" \  https://api.citoapi.com/api/v1/lol/coverage

Create a Webhook

  • Open Dashboard → Webhooks
  • Create webhook → set your HTTPS URL
  • Subscribe to LoL live events
  • Save the webhook secret (shown once)

    • Example subscription shape:

    JSON
    {  "events": ["lol.live.gold_swing", "lol.live.objective"],  "filters": {    "league": "LCS",    "matchId": "lol-match-115564793879469312",    "gameId": "115564793879469313",    "side": "red"  }}

    Filters let you scope by league, match, game, or side so you don't process every event globally.

    Example Payload

    JSON
    {  "id": "1c11131a-2d74-4b06-b4be-ec873861854b",  "event": "lol.live.gold_swing",  "timestamp": "2026-06-01T15:42:12.647Z",  "data": {    "matchId": "lol-match-115564793879469312",    "gameId": "115564793879469313",    "league": "LCS",    "gameTime": 1716,    "source": "vision",    "previousGoldDiff": -1900,    "goldDiff": -3300,    "swing": -1400,    "leadingSide": "red"  }}

    Use id / X-Cito-Event-Id as your dedupe key.

    Receive + Verify (Node)

    JavaScript
    import express from "express";import crypto from "crypto"; const app = express();app.use(express.raw({ type: "application/json" })); function verifySignature(rawBody, signature, secret) {  const expected = crypto    .createHmac("sha256", secret)    .update(rawBody)    .digest("hex");  return crypto.timingSafeEqual(    Buffer.from(signature || ""),    Buffer.from(expected)  );} app.post("/webhook", (req, res) => {  const signature = req.header("X-Cito-Signature") || "";  const ok = verifySignature(req.body, signature, process.env.CITO_WEBHOOK_SECRET);   if (!ok) return res.status(401).send("invalid signature");   const event = JSON.parse(req.body.toString("utf8"));  // enqueue work — respond fast  console.log(event.event, event.data?.goldDiff);  res.status(200).send("OK");});

    Confirm the exact signature header name in the webhook docs.

    Delivery + Retries

    • Up to 3 delivery attempts
    • 10s request timeout
    • X-Cito-Delivery-Attempt on retries
    • Pause / edit / test from the dashboard when failures pile up

    Polling vs Webhooks (When to Use Each)

    Use casePrefer
    Scoreboard that must update on gold/objectivesWebhooks
    One-off "is anything live?" checkGET /lol/live
    Historical match statsREST
    Building a first prototypeShort poll OK, then migrate

    Next Steps

    • Verify signature handling against the live docs
    • Add a Next.js Route Handler receiver
    • Move your match center off the poll loop
    • Upgrade to One Game Starter if you need LoL live webhooks

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