Riot Games has suspended Peter “Doublelift” Peng for three days after the retired pro player and well-known streamer used a purchased account during his latest content series. The suspension came after Doublelift openly admitted on stream that he bought a pre-leveled account to start his “Unranked to Challenger” Top lane challenge.
Doublelift launched the series to showcase his climb from unranked to the highest tier while learning Top lane. Instead of manually leveling an account from scratch or using a Riot-provided creator account, he purchased a level 30 account from a third party. League of Legends requires players to reach level 30 before accessing ranked mode, a process that typically takes dozens of hours.
The multiple-time LCS champion explained his reasoning during the stream. He had already used up his allotment of Riot-provided accounts through the League Partner Program and didn’t want to spend time hand-leveling a fresh account. He opted to buy one instead.
Buying or selling accounts directly violates Riot’s Terms of Service. The practice undermines competitive integrity and often involves accounts leveled by bots, which can damage match quality for legitimate new players. Riot has recently taken a stronger stance on account buying and the third-party markets that fuel smurfing and rank manipulation.
The three-day suspension matches Riot’s current enforcement ladder for this specific violation. According to recent communications from Riot representatives, the penalty structure follows an escalating path: roughly three days for a first offense, two weeks for a second violation, and permanent bans for repeat offenders.
Doublelift’s case stands out because he admitted the purchase publicly while streaming. The transparency made enforcement straightforward, but the rules apply equally regardless of a player’s status or visibility.
Through the League Partner Program, Riot supplies level 30 accounts to content creators and pros for exactly this type of content. However, creators report limitations on how many accounts they can hold simultaneously. These restrictions aim to prevent abuse while still enabling legitimate content creation.
The “Unranked to Challenger” format has been popular with high-level players and streamers for years. It offers shorter queue times than grinding at Challenger rank, provides fresh content variety, and allows pros to learn new roles. The format remains perfectly legal when creators either hand-level accounts themselves or use Riot-provided accounts.
Critics have long argued that these climbs create poor experiences for lower-ranked players who face off against disguised pros during the early stages. Riot has accepted the format as part of the content ecosystem but draws a hard line at purchasing accounts to facilitate it.
What happens next
Doublelift will need to decide how to continue his Top lane series after the suspension ends. His options include requesting another creator account from Riot, manually leveling a fresh account to 30, or abandoning the specific “Unranked to Challenger” format entirely.
The suspension won’t significantly impact Doublelift’s career as a full-time content creator, but it serves as a reminder that Riot’s policies apply universally. The company has shown willingness to enforce these rules even when violations happen in full public view during streams.
