Should Riot only allow accounts that are tied to a phone number in ranked? LoL fans debate

It’s a well-known fact that League of Legends is in dire need of major ranked changes. Although it’s never a pleasant feeling to have griefers on your team, players suggest an interesting solution to this problem—and it’s about locking your accounts to your phone numbers.

A discussion started by a player in a Match 9 Reddit thread stirred up many different responses from the League playerbase. According to some players, linking your account to your phone number is the key to fixing ranked. Although this move by Riot Games could fix the desperate state of ranked, the discussion sure caused an avalanche of mixed comments.

It’s nothing new that ranked in League is as chaotic as ever, and while Riot addresses these issues from time to time, it’s mostly some minor changes that almost have zero impact. While Riot is undoubtedly trying to improve the state of ranked, the door is always open to new possibilities. Perhaps implementing a new system where your account connects to your phone number is the only way forward—and many players agree with this proposal. 

“Yes they should. Every method people have to make more numbers is detectable and blockable except for buying a new phone line. Any form of hindrance is better than none and blocking phone number generating services is possible and has been done before by plenty of companies,” the top comment says in League’s subreddit. 

Even though many players believe Riot should follow the steps of other companies and implement this strategy, others disagree with this statement and suggest different ideas.

“With Vanguard I don’t think phone verifications is necessary for them to ban alt accounts. At the very best bans should be tied to any account you own, get banned on one get banned on all of them, that way the int > ban > swap acc pipeline gets patched,” another player commented in League’s subreddit.

Even though Vanguard is a great system, it’s still not enough to stop griefers and trolls from ruining ranked games. While the phone bind account strategy might seem radical, it’s still worth a shot.

We want to hear from you! Help us shape our League of Legends content by filling out a short survey.