Riot's Terms of Service, last changed December 1 2024, say you cannot share your account or login credentials with anyone, and section 7 also bars playing on another person's account to boost its rank. The published penalty ladder runs three days for a first offence, fourteen days for a second, and a permanent ban for a third, with ranked rewards revoked and LP and MMR gains reversed. Since Patch 25.23 on November 19 2025, penalties link across every account Riot is confident belongs to the same player.
The rule is one sentence long
There is no ambiguity to hide behind. Riot's Terms of Service say, in plain words, that you cannot share your account or login credentials with anyone. The same document bars playing on another person's account or engaging in activity intended to boost an account's status or rank. A friend borrowing your account for a few ranked games is account sharing under that rule, even when no cheats are involved and nobody is paid.
Riot's own support pages say the account owner is fully responsible for whatever happens on the account. If the friend gets the account flagged, the ban lands on you, and appeals do not accept that someone else was playing. That responsibility rule is the whole enforcement model: Riot does not need to prove you were at the keyboard, only that the account was used in a way the rules forbid.
Related reading on this site: Home and AFK Farming: When Idle Players Are Bots, Not Bad Teammates cover the neighbouring problems in more depth.
The penalty ladder
Riot publishes the schedule, and it escalates fast. A first boosting offence draws a three-day suspension. A second draws fourteen days. A third is a permanent ban. Riot Support separately lists 14 to 180 day suspensions by severity and frequency for the booster and the boosted account, with a permanent ban for a second offence in its anti-boost guidance. The two descriptions differ in the details, but the direction is the same: the second offence is where accounts die.
The penalties go beyond the suspension. Riot lists honor reduction, exclusion from current-season ranked rewards or revocation of rewards already received, and reversal of LP and MMR gains attributed to boosting. And the scale of enforcement is not small. Riot said its Anti-Boost system had acted against 296,416 League and Valorant accounts for rank manipulation since late 2025. This is an automated system running at volume, not a human reviewing edge cases.
Penalty linking follows you to your alt
Since Patch 25.23 on November 19 2025, Riot links every penalty across all accounts it is confident belong to the same player, from queue delays and chat restrictions up to suspensions and bans. Making a fresh account to dodge a chat restriction can get the restriction copied to the new account. The alt is not a clean start anymore, and that is the point: the system now treats the player, not the account, as the unit of enforcement.
Riot says a shared IP address alone does not trigger a link, so playing at an internet cafe or on a family PC does not tie your account to strangers. The link comes from the pattern: login locations, gameplay shifts, and the conduct itself. Riot identifies boosting when another person plays ranked on an account to raise its MMR, and it does not publish its detection thresholds. If you lend the login, you are betting that the system cannot see what it is built to see.
What actually gets detected
Detection leans on signals players can feel but cannot see. IP address changes and login location differences are the obvious ones. Gameplay pattern shifts are the quieter ones: a sudden change in champion pool, mechanics, or decision-making that does not match the account's history. Riot's detection also watches for accounts bought or used with no real owner, which it bans permanently, and for purchased and botted accounts, which it began banning in September 2025 with Patch 25.18.
The practical rule is simple and it is the only one that works. Never share the login, and never play ranked on an account you did not create and level yourself. Riot permits multiple accounts when players create and level them themselves, play placements to the best of their ability, and do not manipulate ranked play. Duo boosting, where you play on your own account alongside a higher-ranked player, stays inside the game's own duo rules. The piloted order, where someone else signs in and plays for you, is the one that ends accounts.
Frequently asked questions
Is account sharing against Riot's rules?
Yes. Riot's Terms of Service, last changed December 1 2024, say you cannot share your account or login credentials with anyone, and section 7 bars playing on another person's account to boost its rank.
What happens the first time Riot catches boosting?
The published schedule starts with a three-day suspension, then fourteen days for a second offence, then a permanent ban. Riot also reverses LP and MMR gains and can revoke ranked rewards.
Can a ban on one account affect my other accounts?
Yes. Since Patch 25.23 on November 19 2025, Riot links penalties across every account it is confident belongs to the same player, including suspensions and bans.
Is duo boosting treated the same as account sharing?
No. Duo boosting means you play on your own account in a party with a higher-ranked player, so you never share a login. A piloted order, where someone else signs in and plays your account, is account sharing and breaks the rules.