Riot Games is setting up for a huge League of Legends crackdown, with “soft-inting” clearly being in the developers’ sights and Vanguard-backed hardware bans being very likely.

Over the years, Riot’s definition of “soft-inting” has been vague compared to the LoL community, where most League players would say anyone not attempting to win ⁠— but not actively feeding — could fall under the term. Stealing jungle camps and creeps, deliberately missing skillshots, and running around without joining fights could all easily fall under the umbrella for most.

In a post made on X, Game director Pu Liu put League players across servers on notice regarding “soft-inting”, where the MOBA boss declared open season on the toxic offense. Riot sees it as "one of the largest problems in the game” and is quite eager to completely get rid of it.

Liu asked the question to the fandom on 9th July: Should any soft-inting players face account-level suspensions, or should the League team use its Vanguard blocking systems to issue harsher, more permanent bans at a hardware level?

And in reply, many suggested the system should start with a warning before upgrading to hardware bans, while others came back with more questions than answers, especially regarding “the separation between soft-inting and genuinely having a bad game.” Though many leaned towards Vanguard-backed hardware bans, there was no clear option for how Riot should treat these offenders today.

The crackdown will be carried out by League’s newly implemented Vanguard system, which is designed to ping offenders automatically. The League development team will hunt down and mark flagged players using the kernel-level software. Once these players are identified, they’ll face suspensions—though any ban may well be in the hands of the playerbase.

Jarif is a contributor at The Daily Esports.