Does Riot Officially Allow Smurf Accounts in League of Legends?

As a long-time League player and content creator, this question around Riot‘s smurf policy comes up often. There‘s confusion between what‘s openly permitted, and what actually ruins the competitive integrity of ranked matchmaking.

After digging into the data and Riot‘s actions more deeply, I‘ll cut through the grey areas and share the truth on smurfs in League.

Riot Publicly Permits Secondary Accounts

Riot‘s official stance in their Terms of Service is clear – players are free to create additional accounts:

"Players are allowed to create more than one account, but electronic transfers of assets and attributes between accounts are not permitted."

And Riot support articles reaffirm multiple accounts are fine as long as progression is earned distinctly per account:

"We do not have a limitation on how many accounts you can have, but do require that each account uniquely progress."

So in plain English, smurfing itself does not violate any policy.

However, Riot cautions how smurfs should and shouldn‘t be utilized…

Smurfing Etiquette Advised by Riot

While secondary accounts are clearly allowed, Riot discourages smurfing if intentionally used to pubstomp lower elo players.

As Riot support explains:

"We don’t endorse intentionally ruining the game for others, including by smurfing, boosting, or cheating."

And Riot CEO Nicolo Laurent tweeted a similar stance:

"Smurfing to learn new things: fine with me. Smurfing to destroy new players: not cool."

So Riot seems to draw the line when smurfs deliberately bully inexperienced opponents.

Though without access to ban data, it‘s tough to gauge how consistently Riot enforces punishments…

Evidence of Ongoing Smurf Abuse

While Riot claims @RiotZieglerW toxicity around smurfs has lowered:

"Incidence of matches with potential smurfs ruining games has dropped roughly 50%…"

A quick browse of League‘s forums paints a different picture – smurf complaints remain rampant:

And according to various player reports, high ban rates are from bots – not necessarily toxic smurfs.

So are smurf crackdowns as effective as Riot insists? Or are loopholes allowing players to still cheat competitive matchmaking at scale?

In my opinion, the ongoing outcry signals Riot‘s smurf detections require significant improvements. Competitive integrity suffers every day smurfs bypass consequences to ravage others‘ ranked climb.

Why the Smurf Problem Persists

Now you might ask – if smurfing ruins games, why do so many high elo players still do it?

Below I‘ll cover the main motivations behind smurfing, even against Riot‘s guidance:

Carrying Viewers & Friends

Gaming personalities often smurf while streaming to pubstomp and entertain viewers. Some even take this further by boosting subscribers and friends‘ ranks using smurfs.

Relief from Ranked Anxiety

For many, ranked becomes more about protecting LP than having fun. Smurfs offer escape from the intense pressure to maintain their peak rating.

Stomping Noobs

Unfortunately, the allure of crushing inexperienced players remains alluring for fragile egos, despite Riot and the community frowning upon such behavior.

Skirting Ranked Bans

If punished on their main account, toxic players often take their misbehavior to alts. Some even dodge bans by alternating which smurf to play each season.

So in summary – incentives still exist for creating torrents of smurf accounts that undermine ranked integrity.

And while Riot claims to prioritize this issue, substantial gaps seem to remain around detection and punishments.

It‘s past time all players receive equal protections from disruptive smurfs – because competitive integrity should be non-negotiable, period.

Final Verdict: Yes, With Major Caveats

So to answer plainly:

• Yes, Riot‘s Terms of Service technically permit smurf accounts
• But abusing them to manipulate ranked matchmaking violates player guidance
• And sadly, enormous smurfing issues continue plaguing ranked legitimacy

In concept, Riot agrees secondary accounts are acceptable, unless intentionally used maliciously. But in practice, those distinctions appear unclear.

Urgent work remains to close loopholes enabling equal competitive protections regardless of skill level. Only then will all summoners stand a fair chance to climb based on merit alone.

I‘ll continue monitoring Riot‘s progress here and sharing updates with my fellow passionate players. Because at the end of the day, we all just want to enjoy League without underlying exploits threatening ranked integrity.