Riot moves to stamp out League duo abuse after patch 16.1 — what it means for ranked play

Riot moves to stamp out duo abuse in League of Legends after patch 16.1

This caught my attention because early-season queue chaos is where League’s matchmaking problems feel the worst: you log on for fresh content and get stomped in dozens of games because a small number of players are exploiting duoing and MMR quirks. Riot’s move in patch 16.1 is a clear attempt to lean hard on that problem before the season properly settles in.

Key takeaways

• Riot has temporarily disallowed duo queue up to Grandmaster (even if you have Grandmaster MMR) after the season MMR reset.
• Duo penalties have been increased to better reflect the competitive advantage of queuing with a consistent partner.
• Riot plans further matchmaking improvements (autofill fixes, an MMR-vs-rank indicator) but delayed some changes to avoid shipping risky updates at season start.
• Riot will try to re-enable some higher-rank duoing soon (Challenger with Grandmaster, Grandmaster with Masters) and is pursuing additional sanctions for de-ranking and illicit account sharing.

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Publisher|Riot Games
Release Date|Patch 16.1 (season-start update)
Category|Matchmaking / Ranked systems
Platform|PC
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What Riot changed and why it matters

Following the season MMR reset, Riot’s creative director Matt “Phroxzon” Leung‑Harrison acknowledged the reset amplified early-season imbalances and opened the door to duo abuse. To blunt that, Riot pushed an immediate restriction: players cannot duo up to Grandmaster, even if their MMR sits at Grandmaster levels. Riot also increased the duo penalty “to be much closer to how much extra power duos get when they duo.”

That combination is blunt but effective: stop the high-ranked duos from stacking games while making the matchmaking system treat duos as more powerful (and thus harder to match advantageously). Phroxzon admits an earlier message from him was inaccurate and that Riot aims to re-enable certain high-rank duo pairings quickly, but the temporary restriction is designed to stop the most obvious exploits fast.

Deeper context – MMR resets, LP inflation and why +30LP lasts

Phroxzon explained that the start‑of‑season MMR reset is intentionally “reasonably hard” to give new entrants opportunity and reshape early matchmaking. The side effect: teams can look visually lopsided while the hidden MMR hasn’t normalized. Riot plans an in-client indicator to show when a player’s MMR is much higher than their displayed rank, which should help reduce confusion about “why this Bronze player is destroying us.”

He also pointed out a predictable but important trend: the top players keep getting incrementally better relative to the player base. That drives higher peak LP and is why +30LP wins have stubbornly persisted this season. It’s not a bug so much as a shifting skill ceiling – and Riot’s adjustments are trying to manage the player experience while that ceiling moves.

Why I think this is the right call – with caveats

Short-term: this is a reasonable, pragmatic response. Disallowing duos to Grandmaster removes the simplest exploit vector and buys Riot time to roll out smarter matching and detection. Raising duo penalties aligns matchmaking more closely with reality: coordinated pairs are disproportionately more reliable than four random teammates.

But it’s a blunt instrument. League is social — many players want to duo at high ranks. Temporarily blocking duos risks alienating legitimate partners and could increase queue times for certain brackets. Riot needs to follow this with targeted solutions: better detection of illicit account sharing and de‑ranking rings, smarter duo-matching that accounts for historical pair performance, and the promised autofill improvements so role distribution feels fairer.

What this means for you

• If you’re duoing into Grandmaster or below, expect to be blocked for now — plan to play solo or with a wider group until Riot relaxes the rule.
• If you keep a regular duo partner, the increased duo penalty will make your team’s effective advantage reflected more strongly in matchmaking (you may see some “wonky” games where multiple duos line up).
• Watch for the upcoming MMR indicator — it should reduce early-season confusion about mismatched visible ranks.
• If you’ve had games ruined by suspected de‑ranking or account sharing, Riot claims it is increasing sanctions; keep reporting clear abuse cases.

TL;DR

Riot’s temporary ban on duos up to Grandmaster and the tougher duo penalties are a forceful, sensible response to early-season imbalance caused by the MMR reset and exploitative behavior. It’s a short-term fix that protects the broader player base — but it’ll need follow-up: smarter duo matching, autofill improvements, clearer MMR indicators and stricter enforcement against account abuse to make ranked feel fair and social again.

My view: applaud the decisive action, but keep the pressure on Riot to replace blunt restrictions with nuanced systems that let friends play together without letting bad actors distort the ladder.