PSA: You are at risk of being banned for MMR boosting even if you've never done it. Here's proof.
Please read through the post before immediately assuming this is just some shitty booster crying about a ban. It's not.
Yesterday, after a Normal game with a friend, I received a pop-up message saying my account was banned and that the client was going to exit. I had immediately assumed it was because I'd recently had a game with an Irelia that locked in the traditional troll Summoner Spells and I chose to tell her that she was an immature piece of shit as she sat in the fountain. Okay, fair enough.
I went ahead and checked my email and was extremely surprised to see "MMR Boosting Suspension". I was even more surprised to see that I was being hit with more than just a wrongful ban. The email claimed that bans of this type come with a two-week ban, yet my actual email informing me of the ban shows that I've been banned for just one week. That, in combination with the fact that I'm being banned for something I've never done, has me pretty convinced that someone didn't exactly have their shit together when I was banned.
I'll stop here just to throw out my performances in previous seasons:
- Season 2: Bronze
- Season 3: Gold
- Season 4: Platinum
I'm Platinum IV at the time of my ban. That just looks like basic progression, yeah?
Feel free to look through my OP.gg and LolKing. Go as far back as necessary. Let me know if you find anything that looks even remotely suspicious. I'm really confident that you won't, because there is nothing. It's just me grinding League.
Knowing that I've not done anything wrong, I begin to consider what I could have done to make it appear as if I have. Well, I've played a couple games at a friend's house. I've recently redone my entire Runes and Masteries (simply because you can't change their positioning yet). I had to use WTFast for a few days because my ISP was affected by the Chicago move. That's all that comes to mind.
Playing lawyer for myself, I go ahead and look through all of the League documents on MMR boosting:
The second link is especially discouraging, as it reads: > Keep in mind that we are committed to not punishing anyone unless we have 100% certainty that MMR Boosting is occurring.
Whaaat? How arrogant is that? I can immediately say that's a completely false claim. They're literally telling you upfront that they make no mistakes in banning people for this? They do.
However, the area above that claims that you can legitimately play at another location (which I'm assuming means using WTFast is also fine). That absolves me from just about everything that comes to mind.
Taking a glance at their process of detection, it seems like they make the claim that this is all done manually. It just says that they look at your own previous performance and compare patterns in it to those that have boosted. It's apparently checked numerous times.
Again, I will be shocked and amazed if anyone can point out an abnormality in my performance history: http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=Craig
The closest thing that might cross even the biggest skeptic's mind would be my placement matches, where I duo'd with a friend for all 10 games and we played super aggressive bottom lanes. We'd play stuff like Syndra or Riven support, and I think I finished 8-2 or 9-1. But, I've had higher win streaks than 8 or 9 before. There's no way they use that as their criteria for flagging someone as a booster. And, like I said, I'm Platinum IV right now. I was Platinum last season. Does that ring any alarms to you?
I went ahead and submitted a support ticket last night. This morning, to no surprise at all, I received a response with a copy-and-paste answer going no further than essentially just saying that they're right and I'm wrong. That's helpful!
So, I'm here sitting and thinking to myself again, "What could I have possibly done?" It comes to mind that I have a friend who was banned in Season 4 for this reason. I regularly play Normal and ARAM games with her. Does that, for whatever reason, have anything to do with it? Am I guilty by association? Can I not be friends with someone who was accused and banned for that before? I'm literally trying to pin guilt on myself at this point and it's still not making any sense.
TL;DR: I've never been banned before. I even set my little "good behavior" icon before this ban. I've done nothing but support the game and grind hard. I've probably got in between 1000-1500 total Ranked games. My progression from Season 2 to Season 5 has been a steady Bronze to Platinum. I have never boosted my MMR and I was banned for it.
Riot makes an arrogant claim that they are 100% certain that they are correct. They aren't. This is the advice I can give you:
- Don't ever play at a friend's house.
- Don't make major changes to your Runes or Masteries.
- Get rid of any of your friends who have been banned for MMR boosting before.
Your performance history does not matter. Check mine. There is nothing abnormal. There is no huge climb. There are no strange champions. It's just me playing League of Legends.
I have to assume I was banned for one of the above three things, which Riot's pages even claim are perfectly legal and allowed. You are at risk if you do those things, because that's all I ever did. Thanks for reading.
