Riot cracks down on Wild Rift match-fixing, those found "win trading" permanently banned

Riot Games has also put competitive integrity at the forefront of their gaming and esport visions and just because their latest title, League of Legends: Wild Rift, is a mobile one doesn't mean that is going to change with the company announcing today those found to be match-fixing or "win trading" in the game will be banned.

Win trading is a form of match-fixing that sees players co-ordinate with others on the opposite team, while one team or player will throw the game the other side benefits by increasing their standing on the regional leaderboards. It's an issue only really prevalent at higher ELOs, where the server population is smaller and the rewards are greater.

From today, accounts that have the "highest win trading activity" are permanently banned, their Ranked Season 1 rewards stripped and their accounts reset to Iron IV.

Less serious offenders will be banned for seven days and given a warning, also with their Season 1 rewards removed and their ranks reset. Those from this group found to continue manipulating matches will be permanently banned.

The Glorious Tryndamere skin was rewarded to those that ended Season 1 with a rank of Gold or higher. (Picture: Riot Games)

For Riot Games this is just the beginning of keeping Wild Rift a competitively healthy game, Wild Rift's Communications Lead, Ben Forbes explains:

"We know that, much like other forms of cheating, win trading is a constant arms race and that we won’t catch everyone each time in a ban wave. We’re working on some systemic changes to combat this, and will have more to share a bit later."

What system that is currently in place wasn't revealed in the announcement, perhaps an attempt to keep ahead in the "arms race", but Forbes also states that at the moment it is given players more leeway than it will in the future to prevent any false-positives.

• Read more: Wild Rift Balance Framework: How Riot handles champion updates

Riot Games clearly sees Wild Rift's success as a competitive game as integral to its success outright and it's clear that it has big plans for it as an esport with the green shoots of that emerging in various regions.