Boosting for Profit is Now a Crime in South Korea, How Will Riot Games Respond?
| Tags: CS2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch
| Author Michael 'mykL' Padilla
What Is Boosting?
Firstly, what is ‘Boosting'? Boosting is when a gamer logs into another gamer's account to play a ranked game to increase their ranking. Boosting has become a serious issue throughout major esports such as Overwatch, LoL, Dota 2 and CS:GO.
The South Korean ‘Act on the Punishment of Alternative Game Act'
The South Korean government is taking a stand on boosting and today passed a bill that makes boosting a punishable crime. The law will go into effect in 6 months. The penalty for boosting is imprisonment for up to two years or a fine of up to 20 million won. 20 million won converts to $18,000 USD, or $23,000 CAD.
The main points of the amendment passed today are as follows. The proxy game is ‘an act that interferes with the normal operation of the game by arranging or providing the service to acquire the score or performance of the game in a way that is not approved by the game related business operator.'
As the amendment passed the preliminary session, it became possible to sanction the proxy sites advertised on the portal site as well as professional proxy game companies. In the meantime, the game companies through the Terms of Use, such as suspension of the account has been only limited sanctions. However, due to the lack of legal penalties, surrogate game providers were registering as a business and actively engaged in sales activities at tens of thousands of won, to hundreds of thousands of won in online advertising.
“Most of the popular games are suffering from professional dealer game companies. It has been a cancer that hurts the esports ecosystem as well as the casual gamers as well as the general users. But now that the amendment has been passed, it will help to create a healthy esports ecosystem.” – Lee Sang-sup, South Korean Representative
What is a ‘proxy game'? Definition: “An act that interferes with the normal operation of the game by arranging or providing the service to acquire the score or performance of the game in a way that is not approved by the game related business operator.”
Riot Games Statement on Boosting
“Boosters are already suppressed within League of Legends, but this law will help us catch them even better once it’s passed.”
Riot Games has taken a stance on illegitimate boosting in the nation before. XiaoWeiXiao of League of Legends' Team Impulse got caught in a boosting scandal. With the absence of any laws prior, any punishment against boosting promoters was after a long and strenuous process. With the new law, we can anticipate that specialists will get serious about such organizations and sites.
There is no question what Riot Games stance is on boosting, but this new law has taken the punishments to the next level. It will be interesting seeing what Riot decides to do moving forward. There is one thing for sure, and that is that boosting in South Korea just got a whole lot more dangerous.
Source: sports.news.naver.com
Image Via: LoL Esports
KINGmykL is an ex-pro Overwatch player turned full-time Overwatch content creator. With insight from inside of the league, there is no one better to follow for updates surrounding the latest controversies, signings, and daily Overwatch news. Twitter @KING_mykL.