A professional League of Legends player has been banned and stripped of his Rank 1 status after Riot Games confirmed he repeatedly engages in stream sniping to gain an unfair advantage.
The player identified as Ronaldo “Ronaldo” Betea, a mid-laner for Bulldog Esports, proudly announced on X (formerly known as Twitter) on July 29 that he has secured Rank 1 on the EUW Solo Queue ladder with 4,697 LP, leaving behind Fnatic mid-laner Vladimiros “Vladi” Kourtidis.
It is a well-known fact that the Romanian player was accused many times by community members of stream sniping his rivals by watching their live streams and obtaining some data about the champions that they use and their positions within the game. These issues were reported to Riot Games’ Drew Levin, aka Community Sheriff.
Levin responded publicly on July 31, affirming that an investigation into the matter has been initiated. “After conducting an investigation into the matter, we have concluded that you repeatedly violated our policy against stream sniping in your Rank 1 climb,” he wrote.
For such offences, Ronaldo has to pay the price through being given a two-week account suspension, loss of all LP from where he reached his position in Master 0 LP, and loss of all Ranked Rewards from the recent season just concluded. He loses almost 4,700 LP gained.
The act of stream sniping, where one watches the streamer in order to gain a game advantage, is a breach of Riot Games’ Creator Code of Conduct. This example shows that Riot Games is ready to take public action against the offender.
2026-08-02 00:02:00
