Does Riot Not Care about Boosting?

EmptyBoxes·Oct 23, 2019·1 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

rujitraOct 23, 20192 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).

EmptyBoxesOct 23, 20192 votes

No, I'm saying that, the person who was boosting them, used that person's account to duo with someone else. How do I know this? Because the rightful owner of the account is strictly a support player who only plays 3-4 champions, mainly Sona, Karma, and Lulu, with the occasional, rare, Rakan game. However, they were magically able to play every other role, on numerous champions, at a high rank level, enough to rank up within a few days, despite them only getting on to play 4-5 games every 3-4 months, and in those few games, only playing support.

That's exactly what I'm saying. That someone, other than the account owner, was playing ranked, and while they were at it, they duo'd with another person, who had been hardstuck silver the previous season, and just took them up to gold with them in those few days. It'd just be a case of smurfing, if it wasn't for the fact that they were using someone else's account to do it, and ranking up that person's account in the process.

No, I said I assumed they got another 14 day ban. I clearly noted that it was an assumption, as Riot doesn't disclose that sort of information. Then, this simply means that they weren't punished at all. Good job, Riot.

Also, yes I can know, because this person boasted to me that they were getting boosted and I screencaped that conversation. More proof was them going from solely playing Sona, to suddenly playing Tryn 13 games a row until they hit gold, then going back to playing Sona. It might not be indisputable proof, but it is pretty damning evidence.

rujitraOct 23, 20192 votes

That isn't proof of anything. You have no proof whatsoever, you have what is called circumstantial evidence.

They may very well have claimed they were getting boosted, but boosting by duoing with someone is not prohibited unless someone is logging in on the account - which you have no proof of.

I encourage you to stop trying to find issue with others and just focus on yourself, it's a much healthier attitude to have in life.

EmptyBoxesOct 23, 20192 votes

So confessions mean nothing then? Please do inform our court system of that. I'm not sure they're aware.

You're clearly missing my point, deliberately or not. The rightful owner of the account was not duoing with someone else. Someone else was playing on their account and duoing with a second person. At the very least, this is account sharing and is also against TOS. Also, there were plenty of games played on the rightful owner's account that were played by the booster alone, outside of duo. Boosting is when a person other than the rightful owner plays ranked on that person's account and elevates them to a higher, unearned, rank. I'm saying, this is what happened; they were boosted.

Why don't you take your own advice then, if that's how you feel, and stop commenting on my post?

rujitraOct 23, 20191 votes

They confessed to boosting - which is commonly used to refer to two different things - account sharing boosting and duo queue boosting. Only one of those is punishable.

Likewise, I can confess to going 80 MPH on the highway all I want. That's illegal everywhere in a few states (northeast). It's not illegal in Texas and many other southern/western states. The same confession can be confessing to a crime or not based on what it's referring to.

You do not know who was playing on the account. You have no way to know. Period. You are using circumstantial evidence to try and prove a crime has taken place. It'd be like if a shooting happened and I had evidence that Joe was there because Joe took three selfies around that area. It doesn't prove he was at the scene of the crime.

Circumstantial evidence is not proof of anything.

EmptyBoxesOct 23, 20191 votes

At the end of the day, no one has anything to go on when reporting someone for boosting. Are you implying that no one should report others for boosting, since we have no way of definite proof? Riot can look at the logs and decide for themselves, yeah, of course. However, a good 80% of this board is players venting about how they often feel that Riot has dropped the ball in terms of addressing issues in our community.

I've no idea why you felt the need to go so hard on the attack on this issue. Either way, you assume a lot of crap. The screencap was of them admitting to having someone play on their account for them. So yeah, it was the "bad," bannable offense.

In this case, the confession is being strictly limited to this game, League of Legends, of which the confession was admitting to breaking the TOS. So yeah, I've no idea where you were going with that, but your hypothetical was non-comparable and non-applicable.

Summoner SpeIIOct 23, 20191 votes

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

EmptyBoxesOct 23, 20192 votes

You're supposed to own the account to do that. This person clearly wasn't. That's the distinction that makes it boosting. Account sharing is supposedly against Riot's TOS, too.

Summoner SpeIIOct 23, 20191 votes

{quoted}

You're supposed to own the account to do that. This person clearly wasn't. That's the distinction that makes it boosting. Account sharing is supposedly against Riot's TOS, too.

i have like 9 accounts that i smurf on, and most of them were diamond last season, but ive been too lazy to rank most of them up and they have all decayed, it isn't hard for me to pull out a low elo account.

EmptyBoxesOct 23, 20191 votes

Yes, but you said it yourself, you have 9 accounts. I think that's the big point that seems to be getting lost? Someone, not the original account owner, was playing ranked for them. Smurfing =/= boosting. I mean, it can be seen as soft boosting by some, but I'm strictly talking about someone having a second person play on their account for them to get them ranked up, that's all.

Kei143Oct 23, 20191 votes

Oh I know exactly what you mean. But still Riot has to prove that they were duo boosting others, which is still the hard part.

Only obvious way is probably the booster advertises his "fully legal" ways of duo boosting after the game.

There are other ways, but it will take alot more time and investigation, and also traces back to the booster so there are other real life legal consequences.

Kei143Oct 23, 20191 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.

EmptyBoxesOct 23, 20191 votes

I know. I never disagreed with this point. I keep trying to explain, since I didn't make it clear enough, is that it's not a case of the original owner being of higher level and simply playing with their buddy. Instead, it's a booster who, while on their "client's" account, decided to duo with another person at the same time they were boosting the original owner's account. Does that make more sense? I personally view it as soft boosting, though I do understand that it's not against TOS. However, the first aspect, of having someone play ranked for you on your own account, is breaking TOS.

I was just upset that this person was doing both, and still didn't get punished for it. Not so much that they were doing the second part, but more that it was the crappy cherry on top.

Summoner SpeIIOct 23, 20191 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

ShyImagoghnarOct 23, 20191 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

FioraWillCarryOct 24, 20191 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.