In South Korea, e-sports play a much larger role than here. Successful players have some superstar status there, tournaments are broadcast on TV in front of an audience of millions. You should keep this information in mind to understand a recent political scandal: Ryu Ho-jeong, a member of the South Korean Jeongui Party, is under public fire because she cheated in League of Legends six years ago.
League of Legends permiating into KR politics.
Ryu Ho-jeong, a Korean politician, a member of Justice Party @Kr_Justice and a candidate for national assembly, has come under controversy after it was discovered that she shared her League of Legends account (boosting) pic.twitter.com/hWqzG0F83t
– Ashley Kang ???? (@AshleyKang) March 13, 2020
The tweet comes from Ashley Kang, a Korean esports journalist who reported on the situation in English.
The allegations against Ryu
The politician has already admitted that she carried out account boosting (also known as Elo Boosting) in LoL in 2014. This means that you give other players access to your account and it is then played in a high rank. Because the service is not provided by the account owner, this violates the concept of fair competition. In Ryu's case, the account was moved from Gold 1 to Diamond 5 (corresponds to the top 2 percent of all LoL players).
Ryu is now being accused by the political opposition, but also parts of the public, not to be trustworthy and therefore unsuitable for political office. She is running for the South Korean National Assembly and was formerly the chair of an e-sports club.
By the way, developer Riot also considers account boosting to be a scam. If you are guilty, you must expect a permanent ban. Regardless, there are plenty of offers on the Internet through which you can buy the Elo Boost. In addition, Riot wants to introduce a new anti-cheat system that intervenes deeply in its own Windows system.
Elo boosting is a crime in South Korea
While in this country it would probably fall under "cheating", account boosting in South Korea is punishable. In the worst case, there is a risk of up to two years in prison or fines up to 20 million won (about 14,600 euros). Boosting is viewed there in a similar way to doping in classic sports.
A legal way to get better at the game is to hire multiplayer coaches. We dared to try it out in our Plus Report. Author Achim Fehrenbach buys a few tutoring hours in Fortnite and takes stock after a few practice units:
more on the subject
Can I become a better player through paid coaching? (Plus)
It is not only violations of the rules in LoL that give developers a headache. In order to get the notorious in-game toxicity under control, Riot even founded his own research department.
