League player reportedly banned for Smite top strategy as Riot claims it’s ‘trolling’

The enchanter Smite top strategy has taken League of Legends Season 12 by storm, but some within Riot still believe the meta playstyle is akin to trolling. A Diamond-ranked EUW player received a 14-day ban for using the strategy with champions like Yuumi and Maokai, with their support ticket being knocked back.

While Smite top was originally unconventional in League of Legends, it’s taking solo queue by storm across the world. Janna, Zilean, Karma ⁠— even champions like Yuumi ⁠— have been taking over the top lane by taking Smite, roaming early, and snowballing the rest of the map.

Riot is pulling out stops in patch 12.4 to nerf the strategy by targeting support items and Objective Bounties. However, one player claims they’ve been banned for abusing the tech, and Riot support won’t lift their ban because they were ‘trolling.’

Player ‘saidenhide’, who goes by ‘Yuumi Top OhTeeP’ on EUW, has sat in high Diamond in Season 12 using the strategy on a number of champions, including Yuumi, Nami, Zilean, and Maokai. They boast a 56% win rate in Diamond 1 with 300 games played.

However, they were hit with a 14 day ban after a particularly bad game on Maokai where they went 1/7/1 and lost in 20 minutes.

A Riot support agent claimed “it was evident [their gameplay] was helping the enemy team.”

“You left the top lane and stayed around the drake only to avoid gaining XP and gold for the rest of the match,” they said. However, as explained by former LCS pro Samson ‘Lourlo’ Jackson to Dexerto, this is the backbone of the strategy.

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Saidenhide disputed the ban by saying the strategy is popular, even if they’re using unconventional champions.

“While I’m not maximizing Gold and XP efficiency, I’m trying to win every single game by impacting other lanes more and having a more positive impact on the game than the enemy toplaner,” they said.

“I’m very scared that I’m going to get my account permanently suspended in the future if this two week ban doesn’t get lifted and I continue playing this strategy.

“This feels very unfair to me, I’m getting banned for one single admittedly bad game that I’ve played where we all fell behind and my strategy didn’t work.”

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It comes after the rise of the strategy in pro play, with top laners across the world playing a plethora of enchanters top lane with Smite. There has even been one game of Smite Poppy top, with AXIZ player Yoshiki ‘YellowYoshi’ Fujimoto taking in the LJL (1/3/10 with a win, also taking the Runesteel Spaulders support item).

Riot is yet to lift Saidenhide’s ban, which was manually applied.