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There are some things I hate in online videogames. Cheaters are the obvious one, smurfs are another, but boosting is a real pet peeve. While relatively commonplace in League of Legends, Riot confirmed in its recent dev diary that it’s bringing down the hammer on boosted accounts coming into Season 3, specifically with patch 25.18. One booster, however, has taken to X (formerly Twitter) to criticize Riot’s plans to clamp down, earning themselves a particularly scathing response from head of product Drew Levin that may go down in history as one of the spiciest game dev replies.
As discussed in its League of Legends Season 3 preview, Riot has lumped boosting (where a high level player plays on a low level account to improve its MMR) in with “rank manipulation,” which it stresses is “explicitly against [its] terms of service.” If you’re caught boosting, it warns that you’ll be met with an “immediate ban,” and those who ‘hitchhike’ (high level players who are paid to escort lower level accounts up the MMR ladder) will face similar punishments.
While Riot says that Vanguard, the MOBA’s anti-cheat system, and the new option to report players for rank manipulation has helped the developer fine-tune its approach to boosters, League of Legends patch 25.18 is the first major step in cracking down on the issue.
In response to this, Levin reposted Riot’s official dev blog with the caption “one of our big projects for the rest of the year is killing smurfing and alt account abuse. We’re going after account selling and sharing, boosting, and duo boosting starting in 25.18, with more to come later this year. Legit alts [will be] safe.”
One player, replying to the post, writes “my main income is boosting / coaching but I make off coaching only maybe 15% of what I make from boosting over a month, what I do after? Just chill at McDonalds?”
Levin replies: “Bro you do understand that you have built a business off of ruining other peoples’ games right? I have no desire to preserve that at the expense of whatever lobbies you’re boosting accounts through.” The player, known as ‘SCS,’ then responds: “So what? Tyrans [sic] are everywhere and I don’t consider boosters like any of them. Tbh boosters should get respected in low elo, anywhere unranked to Master, since you lane against one better than you x100 and you see what better players do differently than you who are stuck.”
Levin’s reply is simple: a repost of SCS’s admission that they’re boosting, with a link to McDonald’s career site. You’ll need more than aloe vera for that burn, buddy – maybe a strawberry milkshake with extra ice will help.
While Levin’s response is a bit of fun, it also suggests to me that Riot actually gives a shit – it’s no secret that it’s been a tough year for the game (from missing hextech chests to AI Wild Rift trailers), and seeing this level of assertiveness and personality helps to remind players that there are actual people working on this game. Plus, honestly, I love a bit of savagery in the morning.
League of Legends’ new boosting detection systems arrive with patch 25.18, currently slated for Wednesday, September 10. If you’re making your money through boosting, I suggest seeking other means of employment before then.
In the meantime, check out our list of the best LoL champions for beginners if you want to, y’know, actually play the game and get better. Alternatively, if you’re more worried about looking good than playing good (same, don’t worry), we have a rundown of the current League of Legends Mythic shop rotation.
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