New Riot Games policy can get LoL & Valorant streamers banned for their sponsors
Melissa Andres/Riot GamesRiot Games has updated its global terms of service and the new changes have huge ramifications for streamers of their most popular titles like LoL and Valorant. Moving forward, anyone caught promoting boosting services, or anything related, can be banned entirely.
Whenever you boot up a title with online functionality, in order to access multiplayer, you first have to agree to the game’s terms of service. While we all fly through these, often without a second thought, just to get to the action as soon as possible, they can hold some serious weight.
In most instances, the usual damaging actions like cheating are prohibited and punishable under law. We’ve seen countless cheating service providers slapped with multi-million dollar fines over the years. In other cases, the fine print is what might get you.
Publishing giant Riot Games has just updated its own global terms of service, a blanket approach to cover all of its titles including TFT, LoL, Valorant, and more. Among the changes, content creators have come into focus as those promoting the ‘wrong’ things are now being targeted. Here’s what it all means.
Liu YiCun/Riot GamesRiot Games targets content creators in new policy changes
Four changes from the terms of service update were highlighted in a November 27 blog post. One reaffirms how stream sniping is “explicitly against our rules” and players caught tracking down others “may be penalized.”
Another explains how behavior outside of a game, yet still connected to Riot’s IP, can be impacted too. So for instance, if Riot’s games are “the background of content produced,” then said content can be subject to punishment if it violates terms of service.
However, the most crucial adjustment has to do with boosting, and the promotion of boosting. For as long as multiplayer games have been around, boosting has been right alongside it. In short, boosting is when you give someone else your account in order for them to boost your rank or your experience level.
Boosting has long been a direct violation of Riot’s terms of service, but now, it goes deeper. “Content that promotes breaking our terms of service, specifically sponsorships for and content around boosting services, is now subject to penalty,” the blog outlined.
Effectively, if any streamer or content creator is promoting a boosting service, or even just a service in which to purchase accounts, whether their own or through a third party sponsoring their content, then Riot is within its rights to ban them from its games.
“This can happen formally through sponsored posts on social media accounts, videos, streams, or just in casual conversation that occurs during the course of content.”
Content creators sticking to LoL or Valorant, for instance, will need to be far more careful in what they’re promoting, or even just discussing when sitting in front of the camera.