Riot announced some major changes to combat toxicity in LoL, but players believe that there is one issue that hasn't been tackled at all and want Riot to finally do something about smurf accounts.
Riot recently revealed some plans for the future of LoL, outlining ways to combat toxicity in League of Legends. While they've added new features to help players from noticing toxic behavior, as well as in-game report features, there is still a lot to be done.
Riot will be banning players that consistently exhibit disruptive behavior will be locked out of solo queue, an initiative that has been tried before. However, many players believe that smurf accounts and alt accounts are another issue Riot has to look into.
Alt Accounts Are A Real Issue in League of Legends
Smurf accounts, or alt accounts, are a real problem in League of Legends. With players playing on smurf accounts they do not care for their behavior and start acting out when they play. The fact that much higher players then play with lower ranked players – or vice versa – doesn't help either.
In my experience, the vast majority of game ruining behavior comes from someone who is not playing on their main account.
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The problem with players using an alt account is that they do not care for their own behavior since none of the penalties will be applied to their main account. So, players can act as awful as they want, berate other players or just run it down when a single problem arises without any real repercussions, because even if the alt account is banned or locked out of queue, then they just go back to their main.
It's also way too easy to create new accounts in League of Legends. There is no way to trace a second account back to the main account. As long as someone has multiple email addresses they can create a new account.
Many players also buy new, already level 30, accounts for nothing more than pocket change. Because of the ease of access to alt accounts for players, they'll obviously use them to either play way above or way below their elo, which results in an awful game state.
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Players Suggest Adding Phone Number To Accounts
One player on Reddit suggested that everyone with a League account should also have to add in their phone number. While there are burner phone numbers, it'll be much harder to get a fake number for a one-time use than to make a new fake email.
By adding a phone number to every account, players could have all their accounts linked through the phone number. If someone acts out on one account, then every account with the same phone number will be punished.
While Riot have stated that they are working on fighting against botted accounts, there hasn't been much information on what systems are being put into place.