#Games_Have_Nothing_To_Do_With_Politics. We need your support. Please up-vote to un-ban LOL in Syria

Kítty·Jun 23, 2019·3 votes·1,633 views

Personally, League of Legends has been a great part of my life. since I was a 2nd year dentistry student to my working career years later. and throughout my travels afterwards. And It is still connecting me with my friends who are scattered across the globe now (Germany, England, UAE, Russia, Netherlands..).

I have been playing league for 8 years now and it means a great deal to me just like it does to you and to so many people here in Syria too. People who woke up one day to find themselves banned from playing their favorite game. And for a reason they have no influence on. A political conflict between USA and Iran (Drone, Sanctions, more other reasons idk about..).

So why us the players? Why should we be targeted and affected?? What does politics have to do with a game??

And why Syria? since it is a political conflict between USA and Iran? What does have to do with the Syrian people (the players)? Is banning a game a solution? would it hurt a political party somehow?? or would it hurt the their economy of Iran in some way??

First, this is Syria not Iran. 2nd LOL is a free to play game in its core. so if Riot Games wants to comply with the US government ban on Iran, common sense would be to ban the financial transactions only (purchasing RP) in Iran. but banning the whole game in both Syria and Iran? well that is careless and very saddening :/ ..

PS: The game still works on VPN, but ping is 200+ and spiky. And paid VPN is Unfortunately quite expensive here.

11 Comments

ModThe DjinnJun 23, 20198 votes

As I've stated in other threads, this is not a Riot Games policy, but rather a restriction placed due to current US laws and regulations that Riot -- as a US company -- is required to follow. This unfortunately impacts the players, Riot, and everyone who enjoys League in that area, and I think we'll all hopeful that the political problems that caused this (which, as per board rules, are not acceptable discussion here) are resolved in such a way that everyone in that area can have access to League again.

This is not an appropriate place to discuss how Riot can/should handle the situation, as none of us here are international legal experts and, if anyone here actually does happen to be, these boards are still not the correct place for that discussion.

KíttyJun 23, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Djinn,realm=NA,application-id=yrc23zHg,discussion-id=36rh2yki,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2019-06-23T15:30:42.540+0000)

As I've stated in other threads, this is not a Riot Games policy, but rather a restriction placed due to current US laws and regulations that Riot -- as a US company -- is required to follow. This unfortunately impacts the players, Riot, and everyone who enjoys League in that area, and I think we'll all hopeful that the political problems that caused this (which, as per board rules, are not acceptable discussion here) are resolved in such a way that everyone in that area can have access to League again.

This is not an appropriate place to discuss how Riot can/should handle the situation, as none of us here are international legal experts and, if anyone here actually does happen to be, these boards are still not the correct place for that discussion.

Keep in mind. the only recently banned website/game is League of Legends . so it seems that either all other US companies are not following the new US laws and regulations or that Riot is actually over-following them/ over-doing it for some reason.

This is **not politics **that's on the table of discussion here. it is our access to the game (affected by politics).

Plus, I thought boards is the place to actually reach out to Rioters and discuss things that matter with them publicly.

And plz when you say "area" specify countries cuz ironically Iran and Syria don't share borders and have some unbanned countries in between (Iraq, east Turkey, Kuwait).

This discussion seem to be pointless cuz if Riot really cared about us they wouldn't have done it that way at least (a full ban). but we players are the collateral damage of a country that isn't even a part of the current conflict. and none cares..

Whats more funny/saddening is the community downvoting it. carelessly. how selfish and ignorant that feels!

Please close this post for comments. Thanks

#Unsatisfied

BeersteinJun 23, 20193 votes

Riot has no power here, there's no reason to involve Riot in this discussion at all.

I suggest a paid VPN, good ones should work as well as not having one, and in some cases even better. I've seen both gaming and education companies that have this issue.

Anyone in these countries should strongly consider using a VPN anyway. Should they HAVE to is a different discussion entirely. But again, it boils down to its honestly not Riots fault.

PyrosanJun 23, 20193 votes

Riot didn't decide the ban, it's a US embargo they've put on and since Riot is US based, they follow US laws.

KíttyJun 23, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Riot didn't decide the ban, it's a US embargo they've put on and since Riot is US based, they follow US laws.

And according to that. sooner or later Google, Facebook, Youtube, DOTA2, ...............etc and all those US games and websites will be banned too? What an efficient strategy to win conflict.

BeersteinJun 23, 20191 votes

{quoted}

And according to that. sooner or later Google, Facebook, Youtube, DOTA2, ...............etc and all those US games and websites will be banned too? What an efficient strategy to win conflict.

That doesn't make it Riots fault. I won't get into the politics of it, as it doesn't belong here, so again, I'm not sure what you're looking to get out of this discussion as all that's left is politics, which last I checked, aren't allowed here.

KíttyJun 23, 20191 votes

{quoted}

That doesn't make it Riots fault. I won't get into the politics of it, as it doesn't belong here, so again, I'm not sure what you're looking to get out of this discussion as all that's left is politics, which last I checked, aren't allowed here.

Following the new US rules, US companies are prohibited from having any financial transactions with Iran. Does Iran include Syria? and does financial transactions include a free to play game? Following the US rules Riot should ban Purchasing RP in Iran. not ban the whole game in Syria and Iran. is that illogical to you?

KíttyJun 23, 20191 votes

To clarify, The US laws are against Iran not Syria.

bronze smurf69Jun 23, 20191 votes

IIRC, there's a political conflict not just between Iran and US, but also Syria and US. I don't know if that's true, but it would make sense why that happened.

Also, can you speak Arabic here?

Power MacJun 24, 20191 votes

{quoted}

IIRC, there's a political conflict not just between Iran and US, but also Syria and US. I don't know if that's true, but it would make sense why that happened.

Also, can you speak Arabic here?

Because U.S. sanctions allegedly apply not only to Iran but other areas of the Middle East too. For example, an oil embargo has been recently enforced on Syria. That's probably the reason why Syria was caught in the middle. Nonetheless, it's quite likely Syrian players will get whitelisted soon, same for Iranians if both countries manage to avoid any escalation following the recent international incidents.

play4fun2004Sep 2, 20191 votes

the exact same thing happened to me i live in hama and i share the same problem plz tell me if u found a way to play it with a proper ping and thank you