?
Garena caught Lilballz playing ranked on a friend's account and suspended him from participating in Garena-sponsored events for a year. In response, he announced his retirement from competitive play.
It is well-known that Riot and its constituents do not endorse "Elo boosting" or the practice of playing in ranked queues on a lower tier account to increase a player's ranking in a cheating way. So when Azubu TPA Alex 'Lilballz' Sung, jungler for the Season 2 world champions, Taipei Assassins, was suspected of said action, Garena, official distributor of League of Legends in Taiwan, went on to investigate. When the suspicions were confirmed by staff, Lilballz did not deny that he had played on a lower ranked account, saying that he played on his friend's account to avoid longer queue times.
Garena staff decided to suspend Lilballz from participating in Garena-sponsored tournaments such as the Garena Premier League for an entire year. Despite this sentence draining the player's source of income, Lilballz stated that he supported Garena's decision.
In regard to the punishment, I have no complaints. I also think that this is the punishment I deserve and I should move on forward. Therefore, I officially announce that I'm retiring from being a LoL pro player.
—Lilballz, 2013
In addition, Lilballz announced that he would be retiring as a professional League of Legends player for the Taipei Assassins, but would remain as a coach for both the Azubu Taipei Assassins and the Azubu Taipei Snipers.
The punishment of a highly skilled and internationally renowned player like Lilballz sets a clear message regarding Riot's and Garena's stance on the practice of Elo boosting. They consider the offense very serious and Lilballz's support of Garena's decision allows them and other League of Legends distributors set a standard for how any reports might be dealt with in the future.
Source: Garena, Reddit summary
