Riot Games has introduced significant anti-boosting enforcement in League of Legends Patch 25.18, targeting purchased accounts and boosting services with immediate effect.
The developer confirmed it has begun rolling out bans for purchased and botted accounts, with boosting and hitchhiking violations to follow throughout the patch cycle. The enforcement will be implemented gradually to ensure Riot’s Player Support team can handle appeals efficiently.
“League is a game that’s at its best and highest quality when both teams have a fair shot at winning,” Riot stated in the patch notes. “But that doesn’t happen when there are people out there who purposefully make games they’re in worse by griefing, inting, smurfing, or verbally abusing others.”
The company emphasised its confidence in detection system accuracy whilst encouraging wrongfully banned players to contact support services.
Major Champion Nerfs
Patch 25.18 delivers substantial nerfs to several champions dominating professional play. Qiyana received comprehensive reductions to base attack damage (66 to 64), armour growth (4.7 to 4.5), and passive damage scaling (30% to 25% bonus AD).
Yunara, described as ‘the strongest marksman in the game’ by Riot, faced significant nerfs including base health reduction from 600 to 575 and movement speed duration changes on her E ability.
Annie saw her W-first-max strategy targeted with damage decreases, whilst Azir’s attack speed growth dropped from 5.5% to 5.0% to address his professional dominance.
Professional play influenced several other adjustments, with Aurora and Galio receiving damage reductions to their core abilities. The changes specifically target ‘pro specific advantage,’ according to Riot’s balance philosophy.
Game Tracking Improvements
Following community responses to jungle timers and death recap changes in patch 25.17, Riot implemented several quality-of-life improvements. Death recap received visual polish and gained repositioning functionality, whilst jungle camp timers now provide information 10 seconds before respawn for basic camps and 60 seconds for buff camps.
The updated system maintains consistency with previous functionality after initial community concerns about immediate timer visibility.
ARAM and Arena
ARAM will permanently feature map rotations between Butcher’s Bridge and Koeshin’s Crossing, with each map having equal appearance probability. The free-to-play champion pool expanded to include the last five weeks of Summoner’s Rift rotations, typically providing over 95 champions per game.
Arena’s extended run prompted anti-AFK detection customisation, with players receiving warnings after 70 seconds of inactivity and automatic disconnection after 300 seconds. The mode also removed the 20 movement speed bonus for ranged champions to address power level concerns.
Doom Bots Introduces Veigar’s Curse Trial
The second Doom Bots trial, Veigar’s Curse, raises the level cap to 30 for both players and bots whilst providing 100% bonus experience. Players can purchase Veigar’s Talisman of Ascension for matching experience gains, with the item transforming at maximum level.
Lee Sin received the most significant Doom Bot adjustments, with Q cooldown increases and damage reductions addressing community concerns about his dominance in the mode.
Clash Returns with Summoner’s Rift Cup
The Summoner’s Rift Cup returns this patch, with registration opening on September 9th at 11:00 AM local time. Tournament matches are scheduled for September 13th and 14th between 4-7 PM local time across all regions.
Your Shop also makes its return until October 7th, featuring the possibility of Legendary skins appearing in discounted offerings for the first time.
