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If a boards Rioter could take a look at this, we all have questions about why these MMR bans occur.

Weathered··3 votes·448 views

Simply put, why are there so many sudden accounts of bans for MMR boosting? Most, if not all of the recent posts on the board (i have so far seen 5) claim to be innocent, where most of them have proof that they did not MMR boost. I also have noticed that they all were banned for the same time and the same date, although some of the bans are unclear because some emails say banned till October 8th, but some say two weeks (October 12th) in the same ban. I understand Riot's concern for this activity, as i do not agree with MMR boosting either, but it seems like there is some sort of mistake in the new instant feedback system. On top of that, each of the ban threads claim they all got a copy paste response to their ticket, explaining that their ban was personally handled and extensively throughout, which it seems they weren't. Complaints about unfair bans isnt uncommon on the forums, but the pattern of these almost identical bans about MMR boosting of all things in troubling. Troubling to the point that I'm afraid to play ranked and climb the MMR ladder, for fear that my account might get banned.

Can someone from Riot please give an explanation, preferably detailed, on what is happening? Are these bans fair and I don't have to worry? Is there a problem with the Instant Feedback System? Did someone just try to make up a story to get unbanned, then everyone followed up? Am i at risk to get banned if I try to play ranked right now? Thank you for reading and please respond.

Thank you -SlayerTay6 (if you could privately msg me about this, my IGN is the same as my name)

11 Comments

Daen3 votes

Have you seen this comment, by any chance? Keyru pretty comprehensively outlined why the punishment was warranted on that particular thread, which happened to be the most detailed and most heavily upvoted discussion on the topic.

This is somewhat new territory for us, these sweeping MMR boosting bans, so it's definitely understandable that there are lots of questions. The bans were definitely fair and you shouldn't have to worry, Riot checks through MMR boost cases very extensively.

Weathered1 votes

Thank you I will take a look

Daen1 votes

No problem! As a general rule Riot is very reluctant to ban people unless they are pretty damn sure, so it's a constant struggle between them not being able to divulge specifics about the systems they use and wanting to make sure people have the right information.

It's pretty easy for misinformation to spread when that clarity isn't necessarily able to be had, so it comes down to consistency and trust moving forward (imo).

Weathered1 votes

I was just concerned because i recently picked up LeeSin , and didn't want it to look like i all of a sudden played a ranked game as a good Lee sin player, because he is mostly a high elo pick. I played like 10 games with him in normals prior tho so i think ill be ok for suspicion. (im silver 2)

Zielmann1 votes

Two things I can guarantee:

  1. Riot has information available on all the games you've played, not just ranked
  2. Riot won't ban players for stuff like this without being 100% sure, which would include looking at all available information

Practicing a champion in normals to get good with them before ranked is what you're supposed to do. It won't be a problem.

Daen1 votes

Picking up a new champion is not cause for suspicion, don't worry about it! I'm not sure what the specific methods Riot uses are, but they were able to identify that both the OP and his duo partner were being boosted.

Zielmann1 votes

Just to add to this, the MMR suspensions appear to be following the trend of anybody else who goes to the forums for any suspension of any sort. Some people, like the OP in that popular thread, are smart enough to be able to put together reasonable-sounding arguments for them having not boosted.

Thing is, though, nobody truly has proof. It's incredibly difficult to prove something when you don't know what you're proving against (we don't, and shouldn't, know all the details Riot looks at to flag accounts as potentially being boosted). The 'proof' they give is really just their word.

In all these cases, the people complaining are probably doing it more because they thought they had done their boosting in such a way that they could go undetected. Pointing back to that popular thread, the OP was boosted through his promos to ensure he placed fairly high, but really no more than that. He knew he could get to plat, as he was plat the season before, but didn't want to work that hard to get there. And the easiest way to do that is to have really good placement matches. Then he took back over on his own and climbed from his false placements up to his actual level.

Now, as to why the sudden influx of boosting bans? It's because as the end of the season nears, Riot seems to double-down on catching these people. They want to make sure ranked rewards are doled out to only those who deserve it. They did this same push last year, too. And from a detection standpoint, the more data they have, the better. So they can only be more sure that these bans are accurate when they have as many games as possible to evaluate a player's real play patterns, compared to play patterns when they were boosting.

Daen1 votes

Agreed on all counts. The tricky part of this stuff, from my perspective, is that these types of threads are damaging. People latch on to things like this because they are dramatic and interesting, which is awesome, but when it's entirely based on incorrect information it can spiral out of control pretty quickly.

In that particular thread example, Keyru's response's biggest benefit was that it showed correct information to everyone else, not just the OP. The OP might have been mistaken, sure, but it's the hundreds of people following that thread and wondering "hmm this seems legit, maybe Riot's wrong" that really benefit from her response.

Zielmann1 votes

They've gotten pretty good at handling situations like that, unfortunately. Giving enough info to prove the OP wrong to everybody, but not enough to give hints to people looking for ways to get around being detected.

I often follow those threads myself, and hope for Riot responses, more to see how their defense gets taken apart than anything else. I'll entertain the notion that maybe, somehow, they'll be that one player who gets lucky and has the punishment overturned. But I also realize the chances of that are almost zero :P

And it's always fun to see if the OP returns to those threads after being proven a liar.

Daen1 votes

They've gotten pretty good at handling situations like that, unfortunately

?

Overall, I agree. I don't think it's particularly healthy for us to be gloating about a player being "proven wrong" or whatever, but at the same time it's necessary sometimes to make sure people understand these systems are accurate. In this particular case there were lots of threads from different people talking about it, so there was a lot of potential for doubt.

Riot stepping in basically gives all the people that are interested in truth rather than sensationalism a concrete comment they can reference, and that helps to minimize the "omg look at this there's no Riot response it's a conspiracy" sorts of conversations.

Zielmann1 votes

It's unfortunate that they've had to get good at handling such situations :P

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