LogInStream-sniping and promoting account boosting might also put you on the naughty list.
League of Legends and Valorant developer Riot Games has seemingly chosen a radical approach to combating the "toxic" elements of its community, introducing a new Terms of Service clause that allows the company to ban players for things they do outside of its games.
Riot Games
Unveiled as part of Riot's "off-platform conduct" initiative, the clause in question could land you on the naughty list for saying or doing things prohibited by the developer's ToS – even if they don't happen directly in VAL or LoL but simply have the games in the background, such as on streams or in YouTube videos. According to the updated Terms of Service, Riot now treats violations that occur while broadcasting or creating content about its games as if they happened in-game, with penalties including restrictions on Riot accounts and suspension of Partner Program privileges for those in the program.
"Though we aren't going to proactively monitor everything that happens across social media, it is now within our rights to issue penalties in-game when that content is brought to our attention," Riot wrote. "As an example, if a creator uses hateful slurs about an opposing player or teammate on their stream, but not in game over chat or voice comms, we can still issue a penalty as if that behavior occurred in-game."
Furthermore, content that promotes breaking Riot's Terms of Service, whether formally or casually, can now also be penalized, seemingly covering both objectively unfun activities like account boosting or buying and selling accounts, but also applies to everything else in the ToS, which includes several provisions that can raise some eyebrows, such as Section 9.2, which allows Riot to run programs on your device even when you're not using Riot Services, or Section 16.18, which prevents users from filing class-action lawsuits against the company.
In cases of "seriously egregious violations," Riot now reserves the right to ban players across all of their games to ensure that offenders "don't just take that bad attitude into another Riot game and create negative experiences elsewhere."
Credit where credit is due, the new ToS also introduces a genuinely positive update in the form of penalties for stream-sniping, a practice that Riot Games described as "one of the most negative and discussed experiences within [its] creator community."
"While this issue isn't new, building a policy and penalty system around stream sniping is new for us," the developer wrote in its statement. "We are still in the early testing phases and, as of now, only a limited group of English-speaking VAL creators are taking part in testing out our systems and processes before we roll it out globally and across our games. As soon as we're ready to go full-speed, we'll come back and let you know."
The new rules come into effect next month, on January 3, 2025, and until then, creators have time to "adjust their content" to comply with the updated Terms of Service. You can read Riot's statement outlining the new rules here and check out the ToS over here.
So, what's your take on the Terms of Service updates? Is the boldness of Riot's move to start penalizing players for "off-platform conduct" justified, given it's the League of Legends community we're talking about, or is it a slippery slope with Riot overstepping into areas that shouldn't be their concern? Tell us in the comments!
Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.