Pro League of Legends player suspended for ELO boosting in exchange for money

League of Legends pro Yu “XiaoWeiXiao” Xian - a member of Team Impulse - has been suspended from the ongoing North American League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) for ELO boosting other players' accounts for some quick cash.

ELO boosting is basically the process whereby a much higher-level player plays on someone else's low-level account to increase their rank in League of Legends' league system. This is often done in exchange for money and is viewed as a very dishonest practice. Riot Games has gone so far as to forbid such actions in their terms of service. ELO boosting can land an offending player a permanent account ban (or a suspension from competitive play, in the case of professional players).

Rumours regarding Xian's participation in the heinous act were first spotted on the League of Legends subreddit yesterday. The thread contains the translated conversation between two players making an ELO boosting deal. There are also screenshots available that show the original text. After some digging, Xian was identified as the one doing the boosting. League of Legends players make pretty good detectives, it seems.

Riot approached Xian on the matter, who then confirmed his misconduct.

We have spoken with XiaoWeiXiao regarding ELO boosting allegations - he has confirmed misconduct and is suspended pending investigation. — Hunter Leigh (@RiotHebble) July 22, 2015

Perhaps the most interesting find was that the email address linked to the PayPal account that Xian was using belongs to his team leader, Alex Gu. Gu released the following statement earlier today about when the actual statement will be released:

We will have a statement regarding Xiaoweixiao later today. Thanks for the patient. — Alex Gu (@TiP_Alexx) July 22, 2015

In regards to the PayPal account, Gu denied that he had anything to do with Xian's entrepreneurial exploits.

@josephcouture this PayPal is used mostly for xwx's donation money, and it's since last year. I had no idea what this money was for. — Alex Gu (@TiP_Alexx) July 23, 2015

Team Impulse will now be entering the finals for the North American LCS without one of their star players. We will have to see what Riot's investigation yields. This operation might run deep.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Kyle Lautenbach is a freelance writer for IGN Africa. You can follow him on Twitter as he awkwardly traverses the canals of life.