Riot standardises penalties for pro LoL players

Twisted Fate, League of Legends

Until now, Riot has dealt with every high-profile infraction of League of Legends' rules case by case, but such room for interpretation doesn't befit a game that aspires to be an international sport. Now the devs are imposing two penalty indices and a penalty tracker to standardise punishments for rule breakers.

There are far too many scenarios and accompanying punishments to list, but they fall into two broad camps: the League of Legends Champion Series pentalty index and the global penalty index.

League of Legends Wembley 1

The LCS index is for minor slip-ups that warrant a suspension of under three months—things like "unauthorized communication during a pause", which earns anything from a slapped wrist to a forfeit, or "signing a starter after the relevant roster declaration deadline", with fines starting from $1,000.

The global index is for when you've really messed up, including offences like "extreme misconduct" and "cheating in professional play". Unsurprisingly, there are lifetime bans involved.

League of Legends

There's a ring of the NFL's strict financial deterrents about the system, but Riot is keen to stress that it's not about to start fining players for the fun of it.

"To be clear, our intent in streamlining our disciplinary process isn’t to penalize more frequently," the announcement reads. "Instead, we hope that clearer communication about league discipline sets expectations, disincentivizes misconduct, and educates teams and players."

To that end, the penalty tracker will enable any member of the public to see exactly what fines and punishments have been levied by Riot at any point, so we'll quickly spot any instances of "Fined: $100k. Offense: Looked at me funny."

League Of Legends World Championship 2014

Embracing the bureaucracy that accompanies running a sport, Riot has also put competitors one step closer to a players' union. The LCS Pro Player Panel, made up of a delegate from each big-time team, is to be invited to meet Riot more often to discuss concerns and improve communication between players and devs.

It's hard to spin rule-setting and committee meetings into glitzy news, but these sort of standards will be vital as the money and public interest in League continues of swell.

Latest in MOBA
Seekers of Skyveil screenshot
Seekers of Skyveil, the MOBA—extraction shooter mashup, is shutting down less than a month after release: ‘We have no choice but to bring this short journey to an end’
League of Legends promo image - huge dude in a huge suit of armor holding a huge axe
Riot walks back unpopular League of Legends changes: Hextech Chests are coming back, and the Blue Essence cost for new champions will be cut in half
A triptych of views from Deadlock's improved map, showing a suspension bridge backlit by a setting sun, a triumphal arch with buildings in the background, and a leafy park overlooked by distant skyscrapers.
Deadlock gets a massive map overhaul that shrinks its map from four lanes to three: 'This has a large range of accompanying map-wide changes'
Three monsters holding clubs in Dota 2.
As a lapsed 4,500 hour veteran of Dota 2, the big new Wandering Waters update has lured me back—but despite the changes, the game still feels stuck in its ways
Sahn-Uzal Mordekaiser revealed in silhouette against a white moon and a blood-red sky.
League of Legends is getting a hotly anticipated skin for its lich necromancer Mordekaiser, but fans' joy has been 'obliterated' because it's 'stuck in a $200 fomo gacha store'
Smite 2 art
Hi-Rez will only be giving 'minor updates' to Smite and Paladins now it's laying off around 70 employees, but don't worry, Smite 2 is the 'primary focus of the newly streamlined operations'
Latest in News
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened