LCS Competition Rulings: NA/EU Elo-Boosters and DoS attacks

Continue reading to see which players / managers have been

Here is the NA LCS competition ruling which outs the NA LCS players / managers accused of Elo boosting. Each of them has received a 14 day ban on their account, been stripped of any season 2 ranked rewards, and have been given a final warning.

"Region: North America
Date: March 19, 2013
Subject: Elo-Boosting
Players/Coach:

• Brandon “Dontmashme” Phan

• Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black

• Samuel “Chuuper” Chu

• William “Meteos” Hartman

• ChengLong “NyJacky” Wang

• Keith “Phranq” Hunter

• Kennen “Rhux” Santos

• Jake “Xmithie” Puchero

Facts: An investigation has determined that seven LCS North American pro players (plus one team coach) have been engaged in Elo-boosting. These violations occurred as early as the middle of Season Two and some have continued until recently. 

Relevant Rules:The Summoner's Code establishes the standards of conduct for all League of Legends players and establishes the importance of exercising good sportsmanship and upholding principles of good behavior.

The League of Legends Terms of Use prohibits players from sharing, transferring, selling or trading user accounts and/or login credentials. 

Definition of Elo-Boosting: “Elo-boosting” is the repetitive and intentional act of an individual playing on someone else’s account (a “client”) for the purpose of artificially improving the client’s Elo rating. There is no minimum number of games required to be played, nor a minimum amount of Elo gain necessary to qualify as Elo-boosting. An attempt to boost Elo need not be successful in order to qualify as a rule violation.

The following also constitutes Elo-boosting:

• Playing on a less-skilled player’s account while the less-skilled player accompanies you in duo-queue games.

The following does not constitute Elo-boosting:

• Permanently transferring a high-Elo account to a less-skilled player. This is illegal, but it’s in the nature of account-sharing and/or account-selling, not account-boosting.  

Analysis: Elo-boosting damages the interests of players of all skill levels because it cheats the internal matchmaking system of League of Legends. Boosting leads to less-skilled players confronting a far superior opponent (the booster) during the boost and also leads to less-skilled clients being placed onto higher-skilled teams after the boost has been completed. 

The investigation identified seven NA pro players and a team manager who played repeatedly on the accounts of their clients and boosted their Elo ratings. The most severe cases involved players boosting hundreds of games for a client; one player boosted a client a total of nearly 900 points.

There is no way to know whether an Elo-booster performed a boost for money or other consideration, but all boosts are viewed as wrong.

The individuals who are subject to this ruling are:

Penalties: With respect to the pro players/coach named above and all of their clients, the Player Support / Player Behavior division has: 

1. Issued 14-day suspensions of their accounts, effective immediately;
2. Revoked all Season Two rewards (see http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/season-2-rewards-and-ratings-changes). 

In terms of LCS competition penalties, the pro players and coach named above are hereby given a final warning with regard to Elo-boosting. Any further infractions will result in a permanent account ban and corresponding penalties, as deemed appropriate by LCS."

Here is a short video from two of Curse's punished players, Rhux and Nyjacky, explaining their actions.



NA was not alone, several EU LCS players have also received punishments for Elo Boosting:

"Region: Europe
Date: March 19, 2013
Subject: Elo-Boosting
Players:

• Viktor “Cowtard” Stymne

• Jon “Jimbz“ Mangas Cayetano

• Dan “NeeGodBro” Van Vo

• Rim-Ramon “Nono” Amanieu

• Jérémy “ViRtU4l “ Petit

• Bora “YellOwStaR” Kim

An investigation has determined that six LCS European pro players have been engaged in Elo-boosting. These violations occurred as early as the middle of Season Two and some have continued until recently. 

Relevant Rules:The Summoner's Code establishes the standards of conduct for all League of Legends players and establishes the importance of exercising good sportsmanship and upholding principles of good behavior.

The League of Legends Terms of Use prohibits players from sharing, transferring, selling or trading user accounts and/or login credentials. 

Definition of Elo-Boosting: “Elo-boosting” is the repetitive and intentional act of an individual playing on someone else’s account (a “client”) for the purpose of artificially improving the client’s Elo rating. There is no minimum number of games required to be played, nor a minimum amount of Elo gain necessary to qualify as Elo-boosting. An attempt to boost Elo need not be successful in order to qualify as a rule violation.

The following also constitutes Elo-boosting:

• Playing on a less-skilled player’s account while the less-skilled player accompanies you in duo-queue games.

The following does not constitute Elo-boosting:

• Permanently transferring a high-Elo account to a less-skilled player. This is illegal, but it’s in the nature of account-sharing and/or account-selling, not account-boosting.

Analysis: Elo-boosting damages the interests of players of all skill levels because it cheats the internal matchmaking system of League of Legends. Boosting leads to less-skilled players confronting a far superior opponent (the booster) during the boost and also leads to less-skilled clients being placed onto higher-skilled teams after the boost has been completed. 

The EU investigation identified seven pro players who played repeatedly on the accounts of their clients and boosted their Elo ratings. The most severe cases involved players boosting more than 100 games for individual client. Two different EU pros each lifted the Elo ratings of individual clients more than 800 points each.

There is no way to know whether an Elo-booster performed a boost for money or other consideration, but all boosts are viewed as wrong. The individuals who are subject to this ruling are:

Penalties: With respect to the pro players named above and all of their clients, the Player Support / Player Behavior division has: 

1. Issued 14-day suspensions of their accounts, effective immediately;
2. Revoked all Season Two rewards (see http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/news/season-2-rewards-and-ratings-changes).

In terms of LCS competition penalties, the pro players named above are hereby given a final warning with regard to Elo-boosting. Any further infractions will result in a permanent account ban and corresponding penalties, as deemed appropriate by LCS."

Furthermore, Good Game University's general manager Hexo has been penalized for allegedly Denial of Service attacks against another player.

"Region: North America
Date: March 19, 2013
Subject: Denial of Service Attacks
GM: Sam “Hexo” Bouchard 

Facts: In light of recent evidence regarding denial of service (DoS) attacks on players on the North American server, we investigated allegations that Good Game University (GGU) General Manager Sam “Hexo” Bouchard has engaged in this prohibited behavior.

An example:

• In a game last month, Hexo posted a message in all-chat implying that he was exploiting software to determine the IP address of a particular opponent, Robert “RobertXLee” Lee.

• Fourteen seconds later, a teammate of Hexo responded with the chat message, “Hit it.”

• A few seconds later, RobertXLee suffered a DoS attack which disconnected him from the game.

• After repeatedly attempting to reconnect to the game, RobertXLee eventually was able to rejoin the game in progress, where he was prejudiced by a noticeable disadvantage in creep score and experience.

• RobertXLee streamed the game live.

• A video excerpt of the incident can be seen here; a longer excerpt can be seen here (at 9:07:28).

• Screenshots are below.

For context on Hexo’s usual in-game behavior, his harassment rating is currently the worst of all LCS North American managers and players (including both starters and reserve players). No other North American pro player or manager has a higher harassment score. 

Definition of “DoS Attack”: A DoS attack (or a distributed denial-of-service (DDos) attack, which is a particular type of DoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer unavailable to its intended user. The tactics vary, but generally consist of the interruption of services of a host connected to the internet. 

In general terms, DoS attacks are implemented by either forcing a targeted computer to reset, consuming its resources so that it can no longer provide its intended service, or obstructing the communication media between the intended users and the victim so that they can no longer communicate adequately. 

Relevant Rules:The Summoner's Code establishes the standards of behavior for all League of Legends players.

The League of Legends Terms of Use prohibits players from harassing, threatening or hacking/interfering with other players in the game.

Analysis: There is very strong circumstantial evidence that Hexo has engaged in DoS activity against one or more LoL players. We will continue to monitor the situation and investigate allegations into this behavior, using all available internal and external data. 

Any DoS activity represents a blatant and willful disregard of the letter and spirit of the Summoner’s Code and the League of Legends Terms of Use. Intentionally disconnecting a competitor from a game is the very definition of unsportsmanlike behavior and unfair play.

As an LCS team General Manager, Hexo has a responsibility to lead by example; the creation of even the appearance of being a DoS attacker is grossly inappropriate.

Ruling: Hexo has violated the Summoner’s Code and the League of Legends Terms of Use by implicitly threatening to launch a DoS attack on another LoL player and may be guilty of the much more serious infraction of engaging in DoS attacks.

Penalties:Hexo is hereby given a first and final warning regarding the issuance of threats of DoS attacks or the actual launching of DoS attacks. Any future such actions, or any confirmed past or future DoS attacks will result in a permanent account ban and corresponding competition penalties, as deemed appropriate by LCS."