League of Legends, which we usually just call LoL, didn’t avoid getting banned.

Usually, when it comes to banning games, it’s mostly Fortnite or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which usually ends up getting off the blocking list in a short period. However, it’s not a battle royale game this time but a MOBA, namely League of Legends.

The United States of America has imposed trade sanctions on Iran, as the country is slowly drifting away from the nuclear deal it was in. This impacts the relations between the two countries elsewhere, too, as a League of Legends player from Iran, with the name „jng dif victim,” registered on the game’s forums, and then posted the following: „I woke up this morning, and I can’t play anymore. Iran is one of the big EUW League Communities. There are a lot of players here, and now, they can’t play the game.”

It’s not just Iran that got banned from League of Legends. The other country is Syria, Iran’s major ally. If you try to connect to the game from these two countries, you’ll find this error message.

„Due to U.S. laws and regulations, players in your country cannot access League of Legends at this time. Such restrictions are subject to change by the U.S. government, so if and when that happens, we look forward to having you back on the Rift.” It means the blocking wasn’t put in place by Riot Games. Their hands were tied – Donald Trump’s, the current United States president’s government has imposed it, which is why they were mentioned in the error message, too.

Dotesports thinks this ban could be avoided by using VPN services, but that might be expensive for the affected players. It’s still a question whether there are other games that also got banned but we don’t know of them yet. It’s likely that the story doesn’t end here yet.

Source: VG247