I got banned from League a long time ago

Gather ‘round, children. I am going to tell you a tale about the time I was temporarily banned from League of Legends. Yes, I, who leads a League news website, was banned before. Sit, sit. Let’s talk.

It was a long time ago, at the end of season 4. I had just started playing League that year, shortly before Vel’Koz was released. I was young and bad, but I just liked playing with my friends, who were all high bronze or low silver at the time. They persuaded me to play a couple ranked games, but after doing poorly, I quit ranked.

In college, I had a friend named John. John was very good at League. He was a low Diamond Ahri main and he was a force to be reckoned with. One day, John asked if he could use my League account to smurf on. I saw no problem with this. I didn’t know it was against the rules and my friends used to account share, too.

He hopped on my account and did some serious damage. I was a sad Amumu and Soraka main, but he was on my account going 24/1/3 as Ahri and Zed in the mid lane, building both a Sword of the Occult and a Mejai’s Soulstealer. It was very obviously not me. He quickly hit gold and then abandoned my account to go look for another to play on.

Preseason started, rewards rolled out and I got Victorious Morgana. Neat!

It’s now winter break and I’m back at my parents place. They’re on vacation. I’m playing on my shitty HP laptop with my friends late at night in my living room. After a successful Master Yi game, the post-game results screen pops up with a notification. “Your account has been temporarily suspended.” Oh.

I scrambled to my e-mail to see why and a huge banner at the top says “MMR Boosting.” Oh no. I was banned because I obviously got boosted. I was extremely frustrated at first, but ... I knew I deserved it. Ignorance does not get you innocence, after all. My rewards were taken and I was banned for two weeks.

I was the sacrificial lamb. None of my other friends who had gotten obviously boosted in the past were banned or penalized ever. But they all saw me get punished and immediately stopped getting boosted. I’d like to believe that Riot knew they could use me as an example, but that’s probably not true.

In the two weeks I was banned, my friends and I played Toontown. We played intensely. I was shocked that they jumped into Toontown with me. This was true friendship. These kids had more friends that they could have played League with to replace me, but instead ... they joined in with me on Toontown. Except Vihar. Vihar did not play Toontown with us. He’s too good for sweet pie throwing and robot smashing, I guess.

I can’t remember the specific reason why I picked this fan-rebooted version of the classic Disney MMO to begin with, but it was probably one of the only games other than League that my laptop could run smoothly.

It was awesome. I got close to endgame Toontown, which is a thing. Also don’t @ me if you see me still playing Toontown on Discord. Thanks.

Anyway, the moral of this story is a lesson most of you guys already know. Don’t get boosted. Don’t participate in boosting. At the time, I didn’t realize how serious ranked was and how many people this affected. Now I’m smarter! Now I can hit gold by myself by duoing!