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League of Legends implements penalty system for LCS and esports

Part of becoming a legitimate sport is instituting a legislative body that enforces a vast list of guidelines. League of Legends has reached that point.

Ozzie Mejia

February 23, 2016 12:55 PM

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As League of Legends becomes more and more lucrative for those competing in esports, the temptation to cheat or otherwise bend the rules becomes much greater. To help curb some of this unseemly behavior and maintain its game's integrity, Riot Games came forward yesterday with a new penalty system.

Riot announced on the League of Legends esports website (via The Score eSports) that it would be publicly tracking infractions and violations over the course of the LCS season.

"Our goal for League of Legends esports is to showcase the highest quality of play and sportsmanship in competitive League of of Legends," states Riot's Whalen 'Magus' Rozelle. "To meet that standard, we need to establish and uphold goalposts to ensure a fair and stable ecosystem for players, teams, and the league."

While in-game violations are covered in detail, such as unauthorized communication and unauthorized headset removal, there are also several conduct penalties detailed here, as well. This includes penalties for conduct, account sharing, lying to officials, and more, with penalties reaching thousands of dollars in fines, multiple-game suspensions, and forfeits.

The long list of potential infractions can be found here and is a fascinating read, if for no other reason, than because esports truly is becoming like other professional bodies of sports. That means it's time for legislative bodies, stricter rules, and an image to maintain.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?