Gaming

Riot Games Just Removed 296,416 Accounts in Its Biggest Ranked Cleanup Ever

By Omar aka Crypt0 · Sep 21, 2026

Riot Games announced on September 17 that Vanguard's Anti-Boost system has actioned 296,416 accounts across League of Legends and Valorant for rank manipulation since late 2025, the largest fair play sweep in the company's history. The studio's public service post put it in the house style, declaring boosting, smurfing and hitchhiking all cheating, and reporting 296,416 rent a rank customers served and counting.

The system is more surgical than the headline number suggests. Anti-Boost flags accounts gaining a significant chunk of ranked points from a higher rated player logging in and performing far above the account owner's usual level. Riot sorts the cast into three roles, the booster who plays the account, the boostee who receives the unearned climb, and the hitchhiker who queues alongside and rides the inflated rank upward. Penalties scale with the role, improperly earned ranks and rewards get reverted, temporary suspensions start at three days and escalate for repeat offenses, and purchased accounts whose ownership history cannot be verified can be removed permanently. Riot also drew a line many players asked for, a self made alternate account you created and leveled yourself is fine, and around 9 percent of daily ranked accounts are secondary accounts, roughly half of them mostly harmless alternates.

The enforcement wave caught some famous names. Trainwreckstv learned on a Kick livestream that his League account had been hit after Ranked Flex queues with Tyler1, Trick2g and Yassuo, and told viewers he was genuinely confused, saying the friends he queues with simply are pro players he has known for years. Trick2g posted a video appeal to Drew Levin, League's Head of Business and Director of Product Management, insisting the sessions were friendly games, one friend, a multi season Challenger player placed into Gold after Flex placements, was unable to queue with the group, so the masters level players hopped onto alternate accounts until he climbed high enough for everyone to rejoin on their mains. Levin's first reply was a late night one liner telling Trick2g he had just described the definition of boosting, and the streamer countered that the account switching was about playing together with a friend.

Then came the part that lifts this story above a routine enforcement wave. On September 18, Levin publicly apologized to Trick2g for what he called an off the cuff and incurious reply, said the team was in touch with the affected streamers directly, held the stance on smurfing unchanged, and admitted the company could have been clearer on the question players keep asking, how do I know when it is okay to play with friends. He promised clearer official guidance on official channels. Riot is also accelerating multi factor authentication and TPM 2.0 hardware requirements to make account sharing and disposable setups harder at the source.

Ranked players get the two sided win, cleaner ladders, and a Riot executive admitting the rules need plain language. Fair play works best when everyone can read the rulebook.

Sources

• Sportskeeda: streamers caught in the League boosting wave
• Dot Esports: Riot anti boost action on 296K accounts

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