League of Legends to Wipe Out Thousands of Smurf & Bought Accounts

League of Legends is gearing up for its biggest account crackdown yet, targeting smurfs, boosters, and bought accounts — with thousands set to be banned.

🎯 Why Riot Is Cracking Down

The LoL account black market has flourished for years:

• Players buy pre-leveled accounts to skip the grind.
• Boosters sell rank-climbing services.
• Smurfs dominate lower-ranked lobbies, wrecking matchmaking for casual players.

Riot says the goal is to “kill smurfing and alt account abuse” once and for all.

“We see the work of improving game quality as a systemic issue that we have to solve systemically,” the dev team explained.

🚫 What’s in Riot’s Crosshairs

In their latest Dev Update, Riot confirmed the following will face enforcement:

• Account selling
• Account sharing
• Boosting services
• Duo boosting

They reassured that legitimate alt accounts are safe, but warned that patch 25.18 will begin sweeping up offenders on September 10, 2025, with more actions later in the year. The effort will be powered by Vanguard anti-cheat tech.

🕵️ How Riot Defines Smurfing

According to Riot, smurfing means:

“People who try to trick our skill evaluation and matchmaking systems to get into lobbies they don’t belong in — including buying accounts that other people have played on.”

The crackdown will even target old offenders, with data going as far back as 2017.

💬 Riot’s Blunt Replies to Player Questions

• Permabanned player making a new account? ✔ Fine, as long as you play it yourself — but expect closer monitoring.
• Public ban list? ❌ Rejected — Riot says naming and shaming “isn’t great.”
• 15 bought alt accounts?💀 “We are almost certainly going to ban them,” said Riot’s Drew Levin.
• Boosters asking about their future? 🍔 Levin dropped them a link to the McDonald’s careers page.

📅 When It Starts

The anti-smurf purge begins with patch 25.18 on September 10, 2025. Riot calls this “another part” of their ongoing mission to clean up the game.