Those of you who have attended a Riftbound event at your local game store will know that Riot has a proprietary system for determining tournament match-ups and rewards that stores are required to use.
You need to sign up for this system using your Riot account, which means that any punishment active on your Riot account will extend to in-person Riftbound events. This was actually highlighted at my first Riftbound event, where the store manager warned that getting banned in League of Legends would affect your ability to play Riftbound.
Riot-Wide Bans Are In Effect
This is because of a change in Riot’s terms of service (ToS) from last year, wherein Riot mandated “Riot-wide bans” for “particularly serious violations of [its] Terms of Service.” This means that an egregious violation of the ToS could lead to a simultaneous ban in League, Valorant, 2XKO and Riftbound.
Of course, Riot can’t really enforce bans from a physical card game (outside Riot-run tournaments). A banned user could simply create a new Riot account to evade the ban, a practice that’s extremely common for dodging League of Legends bans.
Riot doesn’t yet issue IP or hardware bans, meaning a normal player can always evade bans. However, streamers and public figures who have been permanently banned can’t evade bans in the public eye.
Still, a potential scenario could arise where a player tries to sign up with their Riot account and ends up getting turned away by a store manager for in-game violations.
Riot—led by product director Drew Levin—is beginning to crack down on repeat offenders in League of Legends after over a decade of “letting things slide.”
“There is a loud, visible, and tiny minority of League players that does sh*t that we’ve let slide for a long time. Like all of you, we are tired of the bullsh*t and we are committed to making it better,” writes Levin.
In response to someone saying that rehabilitating League of Legends’ image would take a long time, Levin replied, “It’s a commitment, and one that will only happen hand-in-hand with the community.”
Brazilian streamer Yiok was perma-banned yesterday for threatening to r*pe Rioters, the first ban-on-sight order in almost a decade.
- Original Release Date
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2025
- Designer(s)
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Dave Guskin (Game Director)
