Riot’s September 17, 2026 Vanguard update gives League players a much clearer picture of what its Anti‑Boost system is trying to catch. The target is not simply “having a second account.” Riot is focused on hiding a player’s true skill through account sharing, purchased low-rated accounts, deliberate deranking, or using an inaccurately rated account to carry someone else. Anti‑Boost first launched privately in League in September 2025 and spent roughly a year in beta before VALORANT adopted the same approach. Riot says it has actioned exactly 296,416 accounts for rank manipulation across League and VALORANT since late last year, while noting the system is not yet operating at full strength. The practical question for normal ranked players is where Riot draws the line between a legitimate alternate account and boosting or hitchhiking that can result in rank removal and suspensions.
What Vanguard Anti‑Boost is detecting
Riot describes Anti‑Boost as a classification layer built to identify when a significant amount of an account’s ranked progress was earned by somebody else—a higher-rated player who logs into the account and performs well beyond its usual owner’s historical skill. Riot calls the receiving account/owner the boostee and the stronger player the booster. The system is not described as a single “sudden win streak” trigger. Vanguard helps Riot connect account, device and gameplay patterns that make an ownership or skill mismatch visible. Boosters also frequently queue with lower-rated players Riot calls hitchhikers, using the inaccurate account rating to pull those players upward.
What happens to the boosted account
When Vanguard determines that rating was gained through a booster, Riot says the ranked points or rewards earned by that booster can be revoked, the boosted account can be returned toward its original rating, and the account is temporarily suspended. Suspensions escalate for repeat offenses; Riot’s post says they start at three days and can become extraordinarily long for repeated behavior. If the offending account is purchased or effectively has no legitimate owner and is being used as a disposable smurf, Riot says it bans the account permanently instead of treating it as a normal owner’s account that should simply be reset. The enforcement goal is therefore not only punishing the booster—it is also removing the competitive result created by the boost.
Boosters and hitchhikers can be hit too
Riot says a known booster who develops a habit of piloting other people’s accounts can receive escalating suspensions on their own main account when Riot can associate one. Repeat hitchhikers—players who knowingly or repeatedly party with smurfs or boosters to receive an artificial climb—can lose the undeserved rank as well. The important distinction is that staying on your own account does not automatically make the arrangement safe. Paying a stronger player to queue with you from a smurf or giving a high-rated friend a lower-rated account still creates the skill mismatch Anti‑Boost is designed to find.
Does Riot now ban every alternate account? No
This is the point most likely to be oversimplified. Riot says around 9% of daily active ranked accounts in League and VALORANT are considered secondary in its measurement, but only around half of those secondaries could be considered malicious smurfs. It also says more than 70% of players have at least one alternate account even if they do not use it every month. Anti‑Boost is deliberately not aimed at an unshared alternate that its owner created and leveled personally. Riot gives examples such as practicing a new champion or strategy, protecting a personal-best rank while still getting reps, maintaining a one-trick account, using a team practice account, or climbing high rank a second time.
When an alt account becomes risky
Riot’s rule of thumb is ownership and intent: create the account yourself, level it yourself, do not share it, and do not manipulate its rating. Deliberately deranking an account, buying or borrowing a low-rated account, using an alt to bypass a penalty, or keeping an account artificially low so it can carry friends moves into the behavior Anti‑Boost is designed to punish. Riot specifically suggests ranking an alternate up before you start queueing with friends; otherwise their undeserved rank may be removed if the system determines that the group was benefiting from an artificially low-rated account.
Behaviors Riot explicitly lists as punishable
Riot’s non-exhaustive examples include sharing your account with a boosting service; paying boosters to queue with you on smurfs; giving a higher-rated friend a lower-rated account so they can queue with you; buying or borrowing a low-rated account to farm highlight clips against weaker players; intentionally losing to derank an account and then using it to boost somebody; buying a new account to bypass a chat ban or other penalty; ranking friends up while playing on accounts you do not own; and coordinated smurf stacks tied to account-selling services. Riot Support separately reminds players that rank boosting, account trading and profile sharing violate the Terms of Use and can also make account recovery much harder.
What the 296,416 figure does—and does not—mean
Riot says it has actioned exactly 296,416 accounts for rank manipulation across League and VALORANT since late last year. That is a combined figure, not a League-only ban count. It also is not a count of ordinary self-owned alt accounts: the underlying categories include boosting, shared or purchased accounts and other manipulation patterns. Riot uses the number to show that Anti‑Boost is already operating at scale, while saying it intends to increase rank-removal pressure in the coming months. You therefore should not use 296,416 to calculate a “smurf rate” for League or an individual player’s chance of enforcement.
Reports and LP refunds: useful background
League’s own 2025 development update explains how this enforcement path developed. Riot added a Rank Manipulation report category in Patch 25.13 so players could report boosting, hitchhiking and deranking, then began more direct action in Patch 25.18. Riot also said players could be informed when reports led to action and that LP refunds were part of its broader effort to compensate players for games damaged by competitive-integrity violations. The 2026 Anti‑Boost post focuses more directly on reverting illegitimate rank from boostees and hitchhikers. That does not mean every loss against a suspected smurf automatically receives LP back; the outcome depends on Riot detecting and actioning the underlying violation.
What Riot says could come next
The September update says bans alone cannot produce the match fairness Riot wants while disposable accounts remain easy to create. Riot wants stronger “proof of life” and device trust at the endpoints connecting to its servers. It specifically says players can anticipate things such as MFA restrictions or TPM 2.0 requirements on an expedited timeline, while promising more information about when those requirements become necessary and at what ranks. That last part matters: Riot has not announced that TPM 2.0 or MFA is already mandatory for every League account or every rank. Vanguard Pre‑Check is available now for players who want to check security readiness ahead of future requirements.
How to stay clearly on the safe side
Play ranked on accounts you created and control. Never give login credentials to a boosting service or a friend to climb for you. Do not buy or borrow low-rated accounts to play weaker opponents, and do not use an intentionally low alt to carry friends. If you keep a personal alternate, let its rating catch up to your real skill before using it heavily in premades. Report obvious boosting or deranking through the Rank Manipulation category instead of trying to “even the odds” with your own smurf. Finally, enable MFA and protect the email tied to your Riot account; Riot Support explicitly connects account sharing with both Terms violations and harder recovery if the account is compromised.
Anti‑Boost safety checklist
- Play ranked only on accounts you created and own.
- Never give your credentials to a boosting service or a friend to climb for you.
- Do not buy or borrow a low-rated account to farm weaker opponents.
- Do not intentionally keep an alt low so it can carry friends.
- If you use a personal alt, let its rating move toward your real skill before premade climbing.
- Do not deliberately derank or lose to prepare a boosting account.
- Use Report > Rank Manipulation for suspected boosting, hitchhiking or deranking.
- Enable MFA and secure the email attached to the account.
- Do not assume TPM 2.0 or MFA is already mandatory for every League player; Riot says details will come later.
- Use Vanguard Pre‑Check if you want to test current security readiness ahead of future restrictions.
Official sources
https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/vanguard-anti-boost | https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/dev/dev-banning-bots-boosters-and-more-in-2025/ | https://support-leagueoflegends.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402981557267-Protecting-Your-Account