Aphromoo and Others Suspended for Boosting Accounts

While the number of boosters has dropped dramatically since Season 2 after several suspensions and bans were issued, Riot's taken further steps to address the issue. In a recent red post by bitingpig, it appears that Aphromoo along with 6 other LCS North American pros have been suspended for 2 weeks for Elo boosting. Check out the details below:

 Wall of Shame 

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.

Source