16 Oceanic Challenger Series players banned for account boosting, sharing or bad behavior

On Thursday, Riot released an official competitive ruling issuing punishments to 16 players in the Oceanic Challenger Series, the region’s second-tier League of Legends league.

The findings that led to the bans, according to the official Riot statement, were discovered during regular inspections made during a competitive season. These findings included the banning of three players for Negative Behavior, and three for Account Sharing. The punishment for these actions is a two week ban from competitive play.

The vast majority of the players, 11 in total, were banned for Account Boosting. Account Boosting, or playing on another person’s account to increase its rank, has resulted in bans for many other players in leagues around the world. However, this is the first case of such a widespread ban that affects so many people. The punishments for Account Boosting in this case vary from a ban of one split, to the entire 2017 competitive season.

With 16 players banned, the league loses around 40 percent of its players almost overnight. In the competitive ruling, Riot said it is “working with the teams affected to ensure they can continue to compete in the OCS, and are reviewing our roster deadlines for future competitions.”

The Oceanic Challenger Series is made up of eight teams vying for qualification into the Oceanic Pro League, the region’s top-flight League of Legends competition.