TL;DR

• To set clear expectations around penalties, we’re releasing an LCS Penalty Index for minor offenses.
• To create global consistency and set clear expectations around penalties, regional league officials are jointly releasing a Global Penalty Index to make penalties for major offenses in all global leagues more predictable, transparent, and consistent.
• This Global Penalty Index was developed collaboratively, has been agreed to by all regional leagues, and applies to all professional and semi-professional Riot-sanctioned leagues.
• Below are links to each index and how they work.

In another post (URL), we discussed changes we’re making to the way we approach discipline in the LCS and globally – including the LCS and Global Penalty Indexes. Read on for an in-depth look at how both indexes will work.

LCS Penalty Index

This covers more day-to-day and less severe offenses than the Global Penalty Index (GPI). This is a regional penalty index that only applies to EU LCS and NA LCS. Each region will develop its own penalty index.

Global Penalty Index 

The [Global Penalty Index](link) is a list of major offenses, which are offenses warranting a suspension of 3 or more competitive months, and associated penalties that applies to all professional and semi-professional leagues worldwide. For the purposes of the GPI, a semi-professional league is any league that provides an opportunity to qualify to a professional league (like the Challenger Series in NA and EU), or the qualifiers thereof (like the qualifiers for NA CS). The GPI penalty ranges have been mutually agreed-upon by all regional leagues so that similar offenses will be treated with consistency across all competitive regions, with minor differences being the result of regional context. Suspensions will also be honored globally – a suspension made in one region will be recognized in all regions.

Notes on Terminology

Before we dive into some of the reasoning behind penalties, here’s a guide to some of the terminology we use within the index. The below example is for one type of offense, Elo boosting, that can serve as a reference as you read through this terminology:

Offense: Elo boosting

Description: Assuming control of another player’s account for the purpose of increasing their ranked queue rating(s) in exchange for personal gain (e.g. favors, money, services with a material value, etc.).

Typical & Minimum Suspension Time: 3 Competitive Months

Maximum Suspension Time: 20 Competitive Months

Limitation Period: 12 Calendar Months

Typical & Minimum Suspension Time

“Typical” cases of a particular offense will receive a penalty from this column. We set the minimum according to what we think will be the most common, “standard” instance of a particular offense. This is why the typical and the minimum penalty are equivalent – the most common cases of an offense will receive the minimum penalty unless circumstances dictate otherwise. For example, most Elo boosting cases involving pros concern 1 or a few accounts, and this will likely be the case going forward. Common cases such as an instance of Elo boosting one account will carry a suspension of 3 competitive months.

Competitive Months

Competitive months include January through October and exclude November and December. We want suspensions to be meaningful and relatively equal irrespective of when they are applied. For the vast majority of players there’s no official competitive activity for them to participate in during November and December, so those months are excluded so that suspensions toward the end of the competitive season are as meaningful as those that start early in the season.

Maximum Suspension Time

This is the maximum penalty for an extreme and first-time instance of an offense. We expect that these instances will be very uncommon. For example, a player running a site that sells botted accounts would tend toward the maximum of a 10 competitive month suspension, as opposed to someone who sold a handful of botted accounts, who would receive the typical and minimum 5 competitive month suspension.

Limitation Period

The limitation period is how long an offense is still punishable. A limitation period starts when the offense is committed, and ends after a period of time specified by the limitation period. For example, if an offense with a 1 year limitation period was committed on June 15, 2015, it is a punishable offense so long as it is reported, discovered, or opened for investigation before June 16, 2016. If an offense is part of a series of similar offenses (such as being toxic in game over a several week timeframe), the limitation period begins with the date of the last offense, and all offenses in that series are punishable.

The duration of an offense may include all actions related to that offense. For example, if someone Elo boosted on June 15, 2015 and didn’t collect payment until June 20, 2015, a limitation period of 1 year would be dated from June 20, 2015 and applicable to the original instance of Elo boosting.

How we made the Global Penalty Index

How did we decide each penalty?

The penalties listed in the GPI were determined from a combination of factors:

Impact: This is how harmful an offense is to the league, teams, or players.

Deterrence: Some offenses may score lower on impact than others on the competitive ecosystem, but still are harmful enough to the League of Legends ecosystem that a significant deterrent is necessary – for example, Elo boosting. By making penalties clear, the GPI is designed to act as a deterrent from offenses players or teams may consider minor but that are harmful to the league.

The GPI will be reevaluated at the start of each season and tuned to more appropriately reflect the current global and regional ecosystems. With its introduction, we hope to achieve more clarity and transparency around the disciplinary process.

FAQs

What are “aggravating” or “extenuating” circumstances and why can they lead to modification of Minimum or Maximum Suspension Terms for a particular instance of an offense?

Examples of extenuating circumstances include a player confessing a misdeed without prompting by league officials or a player being under duress when committing an offense.

Aggravating circumstances include repeated instances of a major offense (such as being caught Elo boosting once and then doing so again after being punished). Since aggravating and extenuating circumstances are exceedingly rare, they are basically “exceptions to the rule” that require more discretion. Acknowledging these circumstances means that league officials can use common sense and flexibility in complicated cases.

Why are some of the Maximum Suspensions Indefinite?

Some categories of offenses have a wide range of severity and impact. Cheating is always serious, which is why even throwing a single game carries a 10 competitive month suspension. However, several premeditated instances of match fixing between two parties would have a much larger impact and would warrant an indefinite suspension.

Why is attempted match fixing treated the same as actual match fixing?

Due to the complex nature of a game of League of Legends, there are many circumstances where it is difficult to conclusively determine whether match fixing actually occurred or someone just had a poor performance. As a result, rather than make a distinction that is often unenforceable, we’ll rely on there being an overwhelming amount of evidence that credible plans were made to fix a match, rather than conclusive evidence that it occurred.

Who are “team affiliates” when it comes to tampering or poaching? Who else might this offense apply to?

This includes sponsors, owners, managers, or people doing business on the behalf of the team, even in an unofficial capacity. Players are also included, but have a lighter penalty for tampering with other players. This is because whereas owners, managers, and similar parties are empowered to make roster changes and are involved in the operations of the team, players do not typically have the same role as those parties or degree of responsibility when it comes to rosters or operations. For more information about this penalty, check out the [Global Rules section of lolesports.com](http://www.lolesports.com/en_US/na-lcs/na_2016_spring/about).

Conclusion

The and LCS Global Penalty Indexes will be reevaluated at the start of each season and tuned to more appropriately reflect the current global and regional ecosystems. With its introduction, we hope to achieve more clarity and transparency around the disciplinary process.