After years of leniency, it seems that developer Riot Games is finally cracking down on League of Legends boosting and smurfing, as suggested by multiple accounts held by popular pro Doublelift now being suspended.
Former professional players seeking a career in content creation is nothing new. It’s also fairly common for creators to perform challenge videos and streams where they attempt to rank up within certain conditions, with “unranked to challenger” being one of the more common setups. Former pro player Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng attempted a similar challenge, but with one major misstep.
The creator didn’t actually level the accounts he was using for such challenges, which breaks the League of Legends terms of service. With a popular personality in the League community facing such consequences, the looming question is whether this means Riot will be now stricter in implementing these rules.
Doublelift had his LoL accounts temporarily suspended for the purchase and utilization of a boosted account.
The streamer was attempting a challenge in which he climbed from unranked to the challenger rank, the game’s highest ranking. While this has been done many times before, Doublelift opted to buy a boosted account from a third-party source instead of leveling a new account himself. This resulted in him getting a call from a Riot Games representative who informed him that all of his League of Legends accounts would be suspended starting October 2, 2025.
I Got Banned By Riot Games
The duration of the suspension isn’t being made public through official sources, but it seems it will last for just three days. Doublelift stated this was his hope, and a Riot Games representative has also previously said that a three-day penalty is standard for a first-time offense.
Doublelift stated that he knew he was “playing with fire,” but also doubled down on his decision to buy an account, saying that he didn’t want to level a new account by playing normal games. He still accepted the punishment, saying that he shouldn’t have bought an account in the first place. The streamer will now apparently treat this suspension period as a brief vacation. He also said that he’ll avoid buying accounts in the future, but did allude to there being multiple other creators who buy such League of Legends accounts without any consequences.
While smurfing isn’t specifically a bannable offense in League of Legends, buying an account from a separate source and playing on that is.
According to the League of Legends terms of service, buying someone else’s account effectively means that the buyer is boosting that account. The original owner is susceptible to punishment for having their account boosted, while the buyer is treated as a booster and can also face consequences.
According to the League of Legends Principal QA Engineer Drew Levin, boosting brings with it three strikes.
All of this is part of Riot’s attempt to crack down on boosting. With this particular practice being so prevalent and Doublelift being such a popular figure in the League community despite previous run-ins with Riot, LoL fans are hoping that this is a sign Riot is finally taking seriously its treatment of the problem.
League of Legends isn’t the only game to see this treatment, as Valorant players are also facing stricter consequences for boosting and smurfing.
Feature image credit: Doublelift (X/Twitter)
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