Riot Games, the developer which created the popular PC game, League of Legends, have discovered a new threat against them. They recently won a $10 million lawsuit against a scripting site, LeagueSharp. This site was accused and found guilty for giving players hacking tools that allowed them to boost their rank in League of Legends. As a player of the game, I understand the seriousness of this offense. People spend hours on hours a day in order to rank up, only sometimes successful. With players being given the power to rank up almost instantly, the game becomes unfair to those who worked their b-u-t-t-s off just to level up one rank. Luckily, Riot rooted out the problem in this case. They hope to do the same with another site, DivineSmurfs, who’re also threatening the cyber security of their popular game’s community.
On Friday, Riot filed a lawsuit against DivineSmurfs, a website that sells League of Legends accounts. They accuse Zachary Kaufman of operating the site. Riot claims that Kaufman and others involved have been selling accounts that were previously stolen. Therefore, if a player is caught using this stolen account, then they’re to blame. It’s not like the victim of the crime will forget about their stolen account. With Riot backing their claim that their account has been stolen, the original owners manage to reclaim their property. This whole mess leaves the unaware (maybe they’re aware in some situations) buyer with no new account, a loss of money, and the blame that they stole the account.
Riot in no way condones the sale of accounts in the first place. But, if the account is stolen, then the consequences could be more severe than if they weren’t stolen. With more players getting better and better, the option for them to sell their accounts becomes more viable. Theft besides the point, selling accounts is just as bad using hacking tools to increase one’s rank almost instantly. They both are against Riot’s policies, both give players a shortcut to ranking up, and both create an imbalance within the game.
The ranking system is set up the way it is for a reason. If people are skipping the necessary steps so that they can play at higher levels, then the system put in place loses all of this reason. For example, if a player that should be in the Bronze tier is playing in the Platinum tier, then their teammates will be the ones to suffer–as one’s rank, within this system, should be determined by skill, teamwork, and persistence. At the end of the day, with this going on, some players that deserve to be at a higher rank will never get there.
The final verdict for the case against DivineSmurfs will most likely take months to reach. The fact that Riot is taking disciplinary measures to protecting the balance and security of their game is very reassuring, though. The case may take a while to sort itself out, but that’s okay. Just knowing that these crimes are being dealt with by Riot ensures that LoL players that play the game by the rules are getting the justice they deserve. Where’s Garen with a Demacian catch-phrase when you need him?
Most of the time he spends writing, reading (anything from comics to classic literature), playing video games, and wondering when the next Elder Scrolls title will be released. Hopefully soon…
