Riot does not document an IP ban for League of Legends. Its penalties sit on your account, on the accounts Riot links to you and on your PC's hardware. That is why a new IP address, a VPN or a proxy does not lift a ban. It is also why a new account can be banned too. We read 14 Riot documents on 11 October 2026, from the Terms of Service to the support articles on bans. None of them describes an IP ban.
What players call an IP ban is usually one of three things. It can be a hardware ID ban, which shows as error VAN 152, or penalty linking across accounts. Or it is a Vanguard check or a connection problem that only looks like a ban. The table sorts them by what you see.
Which ban do you have?
| What you see | What it is | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A ban notice with a reason, when you log in | An account suspension or a permanent ban | Read the reason; appeal only if it is wrong |
| Error VAN 152 | A hardware ID ban on the PC | One support ticket per affected account |
| A new account banned soon after you start it | Penalty linking, or a hardware ban on the PC | Check for VAN 152; deal with the first penalty |
| Chat or ranked limits, or queue delays | Restrictions: the account still logs in | Wait until they end |
| VAN: RESTRICTION, with or without a number | Not a ban: Vanguard needs a Windows setting | Follow Riot's fix for that code |
| No connection while a VPN or proxy is on | Not a ban: a connection problem | Turn the VPN or proxy off |
Riot shows the reason for an account ban itself: "You'll be given the reason for your ban when you try to log in". Restrictions are milder. They "prevent/delay you from starting a new game while still allowing you to log in".
Does Riot ban IP addresses?
Not in anything Riot publishes. Its Terms of Service were last modified on 1 December 2024. They list "temporary bans, account suspension or termination and deletion, hardware bans". Content removal, progress resets, chat limits and queue restrictions follow. An IP ban is not on the list.
We checked the rest of Riot's documents as well. We counted every mention of IP addresses, VPNs, proxies and hardware bans in 14 of them, about 23,000 words in all.
No document describes an IP ban. Hardware bans appear in three. VPNs and proxies appear in one, the connection guide, which tells players not to use them. IP addresses come up once, in Riot's Account Penalties and Enforcement FAQ of 6 October 2025. Asked about internet cafes and shared household computers, Riot answers: "No, we're not just flagging accounts that share the same IP addresses". It adds that it checks several signals before it links accounts.
So an IP address is at most one signal among several for Riot. It is not a penalty of its own.
Why does a new IP, VPN or proxy not lift a ban?
Because nothing about the ban depends on the address you connect from.
- An account ban sits on the account. Riot describes a ban as "a penalty where you're unable to access your account for a set period of time". A new address leads to the same banned account.
- Linked accounts share the ban. Riot has linked penalties since 19 November 2025, patch 25.23: "All penalties (queue delays, account suspensions, account bans, chat restrictions, etc.) will be linked across all accounts that we are confident are yours". It links accounts only "in cases where we are extremely certain".
- A hardware ban sits on the PC. Riot has then "banned the physical components of that computer rather than just banning an account". Its VAN 152 page says that "changing your connection" won't remove the restriction.
- A VPN or proxy brings new problems. Riot's connection guide says: "Please make sure that you are not using a VPN or a Proxy to connect to a League of Legends server, as they can cause a number of connection issues which will be impossible to resolve!"
Trying to get around a ban also breaks the rules. Riot's Terms forbid "otherwise circumventing any technological measure" that controls access to its games. On a hardware-banned PC, a second account is banned for a set period. Riot explains why: "the system assumes that the account is attempting to circumvent the original ban". Some pages that rank for this search sell proxies or new IP addresses as the way around. By Riot's own documents, that route leads to another ban.
What does error VAN 152 mean?
It means your PC has a hardware ID ban. The message reads: "A review detected that action of an account playing on this device violated the User Rules (Section 7) of our Terms of Service". It ends with "Error Code: VAN 152".
Riot hands out a hardware ID ban for serious cases. These include extreme aggression or intentional feeding across many permanently banned accounts, a verifiable threat of harm, or the use of cheating or scripting tools. Riot says reinstalling Riot Vanguard, reinstalling the game, changing your connection or restarting your PC won't remove it. Deleting the account that caused it does not help either.
Removal is possible, "but never guaranteed". You submit a support request and ask for a re-evaluation, with one ticket per affected account. A ban for a verifiable threat of harm is not reconsidered. While the ban stands, Riot's advice is plain: "If you suspect a computer has an HWID ban, it's best not to try to log in with any account".
Is it a ban at all?
Two errors look like bans and are not.
VAN: RESTRICTION. It means "Vanguard currently requires a Windows update or security setting change before your game can launch". The number after it names the setting. Code 1 and code 4 concern Secure Boot, code 3 the drive the game is installed on, and code 5 Memory Integrity. Fix the setting, and the game launches.
A connection that fails behind a VPN or proxy. That is the connection problem Riot warns about, not a penalty. Turn the VPN or proxy off before you look further.
How do you get a League of Legends ban lifted?
Work through these in order. The first step tells you which of the others applies.
- Read the reason. Riot shows it when you log in. For error VAN 152, go to the section above.
- If someone else used your account, recover the account first. Riot says you are "fully responsible for all activity made on your account", so recovery comes before any appeal.
- If the ban came from a payment dispute, such as a chargeback, contact Riot's Player Support. Riot says these cases vary and are handled by its billing specialists.
- If you believe the penalty is wrong, submit a support request and choose "Discuss a Personal Suspension, Ban, or Restriction". Riot's FAQ is blunt about the odds: "Correctly assigned penalties are never overturned".
- For a hardware ban, ask for a re-evaluation, one ticket per affected account, and stay off that PC meanwhile.
- Otherwise, wait. Riot says most temporary suspensions "can be measured in days or weeks". A permanent ban "restricts you from logging into League of Legends forever". Riot adds: "Permabans are almost never removed".
A bought account is no way out either. Riot says buying and selling accounts is against its Terms, "so we will almost certainly ban that account".
What if you share a PC or a network with a banned player?
A shared network is not the problem. Riot says it is "not just flagging accounts that share the same IP addresses". A home connection, a dorm or an internet cafe does not tie your account to someone else's ban by itself.
A shared PC is different. If that PC has a hardware ID ban, any account that logs in on it is restricted there and banned for a set period. Ask before you play on a computer that someone else was banned on. Our pages on proxies for League of Legends and proxies for Riot Games cover what Riot allows beyond bans.
What this page could not check
- We did not log in to League of Legends, take a penalty or test Riot's detection. How Riot links accounts comes from its own documents, which mention several signals without listing them.
- We read Riot's English pages only.
- Reddit refused our server, so two threads that rank for this search were not read. Two other ranking pages sat behind a JavaScript challenge.
- Riot does not say whether it ever blocks addresses at the network level, for example during an attack. This page says only that none of its penalty documents describes an IP ban.
- Riot changes its penalty rules by patch, and its articles carry 2026 dates. We will read the 14 documents again by 11 January 2027.
Sources
- Riot Games, Terms of Service, last modified 1 December 2024, read 11 October 2026: Riot Games.
- Riot Games Support, Understanding Hardware ID (HWID) Bans, 31 May 2026: Riot support.
- Riot Games Support, Error VAN 152, 16 July 2026: Riot support.
- Riot Games Support, League of Legends Suspension and Ban FAQ, 2 June 2026: Riot support.
- Riot Games Support, My Account is Suspended, 31 May 2026: Riot support.
- Riot Games Support, Understanding Different Ban Types FAQs, 2 May 2024: Riot support.
- Riot Games Support, Error VAN: RESTRICTION and codes 1, 3, 4 and 5, March to July 2026: Riot support.
- Riot Games Support, Basic Connections Troubleshooting Guide, 2 June 2026: Riot support.
- Riot Games, Account Penalties and Enforcement FAQ, 6 October 2025: League of Legends.
- Our own review of 14 Riot documents, fetched on our server on 11 October 2026.
