There has been a long history with Riot’s Recruit-a-Friend system. Some people have had success obtaining the riches it provides, but it has started to have a negative impact on regular League of Legends players. Botting and using programs that go against the Summoner’s Code have turned the Recruit-a-Friend program into a money-making business. As of now botters create a sellable account, refer many other botting accounts, earn RP (which is normally purchased with real money) by leveling each bot account to 10, and sell the account that got the referral rewards.
Along with these rewards, it was possible to earn the very rare Gray Warwick and Medieval Twitch skins, both of which require an incredible amount of successful Recruit-a-Friend accounts to be made.
Because the number of botter exploits have increased, Riot is looking to change the system to something simpler. For every Recruit-a-Friend account that reaches level 10, the recruiting account will earn 1000 IP. Then, when you successfully recruit 3 players you will earn the Grey Warwick skin and after 5 players you will earn the Medieval Twitch skin. The rewards end after 5 successful new accounts have been created.
This is a great move by Riot, as this will shut down a big chunk of the League of Legends botting business. The change will also allow regular players a better chance at unlocking these skins as these two skins were previously set to unlock at 25 and 50 referrals.
These changes haven’t gone live yet, but Riot intends to get the new Recruit-a-Friend system active soon.
