Riot Games continues to make it clear that they are taking policing League of Legends from toxic players of all skill levels very seriously. The latest patch includes mention of a new ‘Restricted Chat Mode’ for toxic players wherein they are only permitted to send a certain number of in-game messages until they’ve played several consecutive games without being reported.
The Pros have gotten a new reminder they are being watched as well.
Riot has given 14-day account suspensions to seven different players and one coach for participating in the practice of ELO-boosting. The suspended players represent professional teams including Curse and compLexity. For those not in the know, ELO-boosting is where a person plays someone else’s account for an extended period of time with the specific intention of boosting the player’s Ranked rating.
The League of Legends community has been generally mixed on the practice, given the importance that Ranked standing can have in trying to get noticed for a team and the random nature of solo-queue, but Riot has no doubts about the practice. As far as they are concerned it is cheating and will be handled accordingly.
The punished players also had their rewards from Season 2 revoked permanently to make it clear that the suspension is not the limit of punishment for ELO-boosting. Hopefully they can take the hint and recognize that this isn’t a punishment so much as a warning. This is the first official word and action on ELO-boosting, so I expect they’ve been deliberately lenient to establish a precedent. The next players punished for it can likely expect something far more severe.
Riot may have decided that ELO-boosting is cheating, but that is at least something that could conceivably be argued one way or the other. The crime that the manager of Good Game University is accused of (with evidence) is notably less defensible. Sam ‘Hexo’ Buchard has received a “first and final” warning from Riot Games for engaging in DDOS attacks against his opponents.
The practice of forcing your opponent to disconnect from an online game is hardly new, but the kind of money involved in professional League of Legends makes it an entirely more vile thing to be a part of. That Buchard was so blatant as to make his recorded attack on a player actively streaming is noteworthy, as is that he is the current player in the North American LCS with the highest harassment score.
Show your support for Riot’s actions to help keep its professional players professional. Most of these players are sponsored, so making it clear this kind of behavior is unacceptable to the fans will force change as those sponsors pull out to avoid having their own reputations ruined. Let’s make League of Legends a community worthy of being the most-played game on the planet.
