Overlay · League of Legends · Windows

Enemy cooldowns,
read off the screen.

A free summoner spell timer for League of Legends. The program reads the match chat, recognises what the enemy team has used — Flash, Teleport, Heal, ultimates — and shows the enemy team at the side of your screen, every spell greyed and counting down while it is down. No key to press, nothing to configure mid-game, and it stays asleep in ARAM and Arena.

DownloadWindows · 99 MB · free How to install it →

Install: None
Processor: ≈ 0.2 %
Languages: EN / FR

Locked, the bar lets clicks through: it cannot steal focus in the middle of a fight.

overlay preview 12:31

3:41

1:26

0:24

READY

(12:31) Darius used Flash ← the line the game writes

One portrait per spell on cooldown — it enters on the left at cast, reaches the right when the spell is back READY stays 5 s, then the row disappears

Fair play

It reads your screen and your scoreboard. Nothing else.

Flashwatch never touches League of Legends' memory or files. It reads the chat you are looking at, and the data feed the game itself publishes on your PC for companion apps — the same information as the scoreboard — and does the arithmetic you would otherwise do in your head.

Nothing injected, nothing sent

No injection, no memory reading, no game file touched, no keystroke or click sent, no connection to the game servers. The only thing it asks the game for is the read-only feed Riot provides for apps like this one, on your own machine.

No information you did not have

Every timer starts from a line the game itself printed in your own chat, and its length from what the scoreboard shows: the enemy's boots, runes and level. Nothing is revealed — it counts down what you could have counted yourself.

Nothing you cannot check

The source is public and the executable is built from it by an automated workflow you can inspect. The debug tab shows every line it read, as it read it.

Flashwatch is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Riot Games, and nothing here is a statement on Riot's behalf. What is described above is what the program does — and you can verify all of it in the source. The exhaustive list is in what it does, what it does not.

Three things, done on their own

An enemy cooldown tracker you start before playing and then forget about. It detects the match, finds the chat, and hides itself once you are out of game.

01 · READING

It reads your screen, nothing else

A capture of the chat area every 200 ms, then text recognition. No access to the game: only the pixels you can already see.

02 · TIMERS

It starts from the game's own announcement

“Darius used Flash”: the game only writes that line for the opposing team. The cooldown is computed from it, in English as in French.

03 · DISPLAY

Invisible out of game

The bar does not exist on your desktop or in the client: it appears with the game screen and leaves with it. Click-through, free to move and resize.

Installed in three minutes

One file, nothing to install, no administrator rights. Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.

Download the file

A single .exe, 99 MB — no Python, no installer, no dependencies.

Put it in its own folder (say Documents\Flashwatch\): it creates an assets folder next to itself for its settings.

Get past the Windows warning

Double-click. Windows shows “Windows protected your PC” because the program is not signed.

Click More info, then Run anyway. That is the price of a signing certificate, not a sign that the file is dubious.

Look for the icon, not a window

Nothing opens on screen: the program lives in the notification area, bottom right of the taskbar, sometimes under the ^ arrow.

Double-click the icon to open the settings. Right-click → Quit to close it.

Internet is required on first launch — the program downloads champion portraits and spell icons (about 9 MB) from Riot's public data servers. After that it works offline.

Download Flashwatch.exe99 MB · Windows 10/11 64-bit

Setup: two things are mandatory

The rest works out of the box. These two do not — and without them you will see nothing.

The first launch walks you through it

You do not have to find any of this on your own. On the very first run a full-window guide opens and takes you through it in order — and it ends on proof rather than on a promise: one button reads a real game frame that ships with the program and starts the timers it finds in it.

1Client language 2Welcome 3Borderless window 4Pick a display 5Place it 6The proof 7All set — skippable, and reopenable at any time from the settings

Client language mandatory: If your League is in French, open Settings → Client language and pick Français. The program looks for the chat wording in that language: set to English against a French client, it will detect nothing at all. The change takes effect immediately. The setup guide on the first run asks you this, along with the two below.
Borderless windowed mandatory: In League's video options, set Borderless. In exclusive fullscreen, Windows forbids any overlay from drawing — that is not a limitation of this program.
Chat area if nothing shows up: The chat is found automatically, whatever your resolution. If timers never start, open Troubleshooting → Frame the chat: a frame appears around the area being read, you drag it onto your chat and you see live what it reads underneath. Apply saves it.
Game clock area recommended: Same idea, framed on the match timer at the top of the screen. Once applied, the program reads the game clock directly: an announcement read two seconds late no longer costs any accuracy.
Comfort to taste: Three displays to choose from, each draggable anywhere and keeping its own position — they are shown just below. Plus sounds when a spell comes back, a warning a few seconds before, and sorting by role.

Three ways to read the same thing

The same three cooldowns, drawn three ways. There is no right answer — it depends on your screen, your role and what you look at mid-fight — so all three ship and you switch whenever you like.

default
Chrono track

A hairline along the top of the screen. Each portrait enters on the left at cast and reaches the right as the spell comes back, so **where** it sits already answers “is anyone nearly back?” before you read a single number. Can be stood on its end, down a side of the screen.

Fixed cards

The track is clever, but a moving thing has to be found before it can be read. Here each portrait **stays put** and the ring around it closes instead — the same sweep the game draws on your own cooldowns, so it is read rather than learned.

Compact rows

One line per champion: portrait, spell, time left, and a gauge underneath. The most legible of the three and the tallest — the trade. The gauge is what makes it more than a table: it answers “nearly back?” without you having to know every cooldown by heart.

Green, amber, redFar off, halfway, about to land — then green again once it is up. One meaning per colour, the same in all three.

Anywhere on screenUnlock, drag, resize from the corner. Each display remembers its own place, so trying one never loses another's.

Dark, light, neonPlus opacity and scale. The light one is the only one that stays legible over a bright game as well as a dark one.

Out of the wayLocked, it lets every click through and can never steal focus. It can also stay hidden until a game is actually running.

Where the timers come from

From a sentence the game writes itself, and only ever writes for the opposing team. Nothing is guessed: with no announcement, the bar stays empty.

In game, this is the line to read — and the game never shows
it for your own team:

  (12:04) Darius used Flash
  │       │           │
  │       │           └─ the spell
  │       └─ the champion, an enemy by construction
  └─ the match clock

  Also accepted: Darius has used Flash   ·   FR: Darius a utilisé Saut éclair

The cooldown comes from the game's table (Flash: 300 s, 246 s
with Cosmic Insight, assumed by default). The match clock corrects
the reading delay: a line read two seconds late costs nothing.

To check the program works, press Test: it reads a real
game frame that ships with it, from the search for the chat down
to the timers, and needs no match running.

  Wait Darius Flash - 245 sec.

This form is accepted too, and typing it in chat is the way to
check that your own screen is being read: the game never
writes that sentence, and it carries a remaining time.

Every cooldown the program counts from, straight out of its own table — the big number is the spell's own, the green one is the same spell with Cosmic Insight, which is assumed by default and switchable in the settings.

A ping counts tooA spell named without being announced as cast — what a ping writes — starts a timer as well, but a ? is drawn beside the countdown. Being wrong there costs a question mark, never a wrong time presented as fact.

Ultimates, if you want themThe same line exists for ultimates. Off or on per your taste, and the cooldown follows the champion's rank and your ability-haste assumptions.

The clock, not the wall clockFrame the match timer once and announcements are dated by the game itself, so a line read two seconds late costs nothing at all.

It updates itselfNew versions are offered in the window, downloaded and swapped in place — one program stays one file, and your settings come with it.

Capture

200 ms

Recognition

Chat area

Once set

Left alone

New match

Reset

A timer once set is never modified: the same line read again, a line revealed by scrolling back through the chat, or a misread timestamp can no longer shift a running countdown. Only an announcement implying clearly more time is treated as a new cast.

What it does, what it does not

The program behaves like someone watching your screen and your scoreboard over your shoulder, and counting in their head.

Never

No injection into League of Legends
No reading of the game's memory
No game file modified
No automated keyboard or mouse action
No connection to the game servers

Only

A screenshot of the chat area
Text recognition, run locally
Countdowns computed on your machine
A transparent window over the game
A one-off download of the public icons
The game's local, read-only data feed: mode, clock, the scoreboard

Every version

Every published version stays downloadable, with its notes. If a new one causes trouble, the previous one is right below it.

Loading versions…

Frequently asked

Windows says the file is dangerous, is that normal?

Yes. An executable without a signing certificate triggers SmartScreen (“Windows protected your PC”), and sometimes a browser warning on download. Some antivirus products also flag programs packaged this way on principle: if yours deletes the file, you have to allow it explicitly. Signing the program would mean paying for a certificate.

Nothing shows up during my match.

In order: is League in borderless windowed? Does the program's language match your client's? Has an enemy actually used a summoner spell yet — with no announcement, the bar stays deliberately empty. If all of that is fine, press Test on the home page: it reads a real game frame that ships with the program, so a pass means everything but the capture of your own screen works. If it passes and your match still shows nothing, open Troubleshooting → Frame the chat and look at what the area really reads.

Is it heavy on resources?

No. Idle, the loop costs about 0.2 % of one core: the chat area image is compared from one capture to the next, and text recognition only runs when something changed. A few percent during an active read, on a single core.

Can I run it twice?

The program handles it: the second copy tells you and bows out, rather than reading the same chat twice and drawing two bars. Since nothing appears for the first two or three seconds, one double-click too many is easily done.

Where are my settings?

In an assets folder created next to the executable: settings, cached icons and the flashwatch.log file. The program is portable — move the folder and you keep everything. If the location is read-only, it falls back to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Flashwatch.

Is it just a Flash timer?

No — it is a timer for every summoner spell. Flash is the one everybody counts, so it is the one people ask about, but Teleport, Heal, Ignite, Exhaust, Barrier, Cleanse, Ghost and Smite are tracked exactly the same way, from the same announcement, with the cooldown the game gives each of them. Ultimates too, if you want them.

What about enemy ultimates?

Tracked too, but marked with a ~: their cooldown depends on rank and ability haste, neither of which is visible on screen. The rank is inferred from the match clock, and the estimate is replaced by the exact value if a line states a remaining time.

Does it work at 1440p, 4K, on two monitors?

Yes. No coordinate is hardcoded: the chat area is recognised by its content, not its position, which covers resolutions, HUD scales and windowed mode. The bar goes wherever you want on any monitor.

Ready

One file. Three minutes.

Windows 10/11 64-bit · no installation · free

Download Flashwatch.exe99 MB Re-read the install steps

Enemy cooldowns,read off the screen.