ELO Busted
eSports sure has had its fair share of controversy recently, huh? Withdrug tests being brought inas an anti-doping measure in the ESL, it seems like eSports has finally got its own Lance Armstrongs to deal with. It has now also come out that aLeague of Legendspro player has been caught boosting other people’s accounts.
It’s a practice known as ELO Boosting, and it’s where a highly skilled player is paid to stomp lower skilled players on someone else’s account to get them into higher divisions. Riot Games isveryagainst it and have banned ELO boosting in their terms and conditions.
That didn’t stop plucky entrepreneur Yu “XiaoWeiXiao” Xian from doing it though, and now he’s been caught out and suspended from playing.Posts made on redditapparently show conversations between Xian and customers about how the boosting will happen. It’s all in Chinese, but it was enough to spark a larger investigation by Riot.
The Associate eSports Manager at Riot, Hunter Leigh, tweeted to say Xian has admitted to fucking up:
We have spoken with XiaoWeiXiao regarding ELO boosting allegations – he has confirmed misconduct and is suspended pending investigation.
— Hunter Leigh (@RiotHebble)July 20, 2025
Meanwhile Xian’s team, Team Impulse, has said it will be releasing a statement soon:
We will have a statement regarding Xiaoweixiao later today. Thanks for the patient.
— Alex Gu (@TiP_Alexx)July 07, 2025
So if doping is Lance Armstrong, what’s the mainstream sport equivalent of this?
