"One of our major projects for the rest of the year is eradicating smurfing and alt-account abuse" says Riot Levin

On Wednesday, the Director of Product at Riot Games, Drew Levin, spoke following the release of the development blog in anticipation of the third segment of the League of Legends season, highlighting the game's next major initiative: combating smurfing and alt account abuse. He stated, "We’re going after account selling & sharing, boosting, and duo boosting starting in the patch 25.18, with more to come later this year. Legit alts safe." This issue is prevalent across nearly all skill levels in the game and significantly diminishes the player experience.

Drew defined smurfing as people who try to trick the skill evaluation and matchmaking systems in order to get into lobbies they don’t belong in. This includes buying accounts that have already been played on by others. If someone creates an alt to off-role and play alone, it’s Riot’s responsibility to place them correctly. He also clarified that accounts which are bought, shared, or boosted will be banned. The purpose behind all this is to ensure that players stay on the accounts they actually played on, so their skill evaluation remains accurate and matchmaking results in fairer, more balanced lobbies.

Drew Levin also addressed the financial aspect of this decision: "We will for sure lose money and monthly actives from the choice to crack down on smurfing." While many players thought Riot would never tackle this issue, the publisher is choosing to focus on the long-term future of the game. Riot firmly believes that even if revenues drop in the short term—since people buying skins and other content on their smurfs will no longer be able to do so—the move will solve problems in the long run, attract more players, and retain them by offering a better, smurf-free experience.

Riot is also planning to introduce a new experience for new players during the tutorial, planning to send them to Brawl Mode before Summoner’s Rift in September. All these decisions and initiatives share a single goal: improving the new player experience and preventing them from being discouraged by a game that is already complex and difficult for beginners to grasp.