Boards›Player Behavior

Does Riot Not Care about Boosting?

EmptyBoxes·10/23/2019, 7:03:45 PM·1 votes·4,160 views

I reported someone for getting and giving boosts on their account for 3 years. I sent in tons of proof. They got a 14 day ban. Then, they did it again next year. Again, I reported them. After 2 months, I decide to check to see if they're still playing. Yep.

(If you're wondering how they were also giving boosts, the person boosting them would use their account to duo with someone else and carry them, cause the booster was clearly way higher level than high gold/low plat, especially as it took them only 3-4 days to hit plat promos.)

Why wouldn't Riot want to perma ban someone who is clearly breaking their TOS over and over, with clear indication that they're never going to change? I just don't get why they don't prioritize this sort of thing. Just about every other company simply perma bans these kinds of players and moves on with their lives.

This player is, at best, silver IV. However, they were boosted to gold I and were about to hit plat before they were hit with the second 14 day ban (Though, I'm only assuming they got another 14 day ban, since Riot doesn't inform you if they were punished or not). Then, the cherry on top, seeing how they were 14 day banned over two months ago on August, that probably means they'll still get their end of season rewards. Unless there's an exception to bans due to boosting? Or if that's changed? If not, how is that fair, Riot? These end of season rewards are supposed to be for the honorable and for those who have worked hard to reach their ranks.

I'm really disappointed. However, I'll still be reporting them again when they inevitable get boosted again, now that it's the end of the season. Who knows; maybe 3rd time is the lucky charm and they'll finally be perma banned.

16 Comments

rujitra10/23/2019, 7:10:02 PM2 votes

You can't "give boosts" on your own account. That's literally just you playing on your account.

Furthermore, boosting requires that a player other than the account owner is playing ranked games on the account. It does NOT include any form of duo queue. Period.

Furthermore, you say they got a "second 14 day ban" - that's not how it works. If they got a 14 day ban for boosting originally, then their next boosting punishment would be a permanent, irrevocable suspension. Period. There is no "cooldown" time - you get one warning on an account, and even 5 years later another offense is a permanent ban.

This means that you are not correct in that they were banned twice for boosting if it was 14 days each time. They may have been punished for some other behavior that was identified - be it chat, griefing, etc. And this is more likely - because you cannot, at all, through public data, determine if it's two separate people playing on an account. There's many reasons that players may do things like change summoner spells - as one example when I am not at my desktop but want to play, I cannot use the "program" buttons as my summoner spells, so I will put flash on F - but I'll use a mouse button or a pinky button on my keyboard if I'm on my desktop.

Point being you have no way to know they're boosted or not, and Riot will not punish them just because you have "proof" (that isn't really proof, since proof would have to be IP logs and digital biometric data such as keypresses/mouse movements - things only Riot has).

Summoner SpeII10/23/2019, 7:04:42 PM1 votes

i mean it could just be smurfing and duo with a friend, i do that sometimes

Kei14310/23/2019, 8:45:31 PM1 votes

So I asked that question about duo queue to Riot support a while back.

Their answer was that it's not against their TOS to play with friends who is of higher ranking than yourself.

What Riot prohibits is "intentional inflation of other's rankings for the purpose of personal gains".

So pretty much a grey area, and needs to be reviewed on a case by case basis. A dude can play with his diamond buddy, but once the diamond buddy asks the bronzie to pay for his lunch, that's when it will be boosting.

You'd have to be able to prove the buddy asked for lunch, which is the hardest part.

Summoner SpeII10/23/2019, 8:57:03 PM1 votes

so how did you know it was a booster, and not someone who came back to their main after gaining practice on a smurf? did they suddenly have 90% winrate and swap summoner keys? im curious on what evidence you have, evidence that is hard enough to warrant a ban

ShyImagoghnar10/23/2019, 9:25:46 PM1 votes

As long as it's not account sharing, no, they don't.

Bans for account sharing, like scripting and botting, come out in waves to make it harder to discern what triggers the system, so they won't be banned right away

FioraWillCarry10/24/2019, 10:29:04 PM1 votes

Hate to break it to you, that's not boosting. If they were banned, it was probably for something inconsequential in chat. We all know how Riot loves to pretend they are the final authority on what people should and shouldn't be allowed to say.

What these people were doing is totally acceptable. They were simply duoing.