The rules around hours played are stricter than the community assumes, and the exceptions are narrower.

Short answer

The safe route is the slow one. Every shortcut here is a terms-of-service problem.

Linked accounts inherit restrictions from each other more often than people expect. Name changes and cooldowns are enforced per-account, not per-game. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over.

Doing it through official channels

Region locks on accounts are harder to undo than region locks on purchases. Bought and shared accounts are recoverable by the original owner, which is exactly how those stories end. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. Appeals work when there is a genuine mistake, and only then.

Support responds slowly and correctly, which is still faster than a wrong fix. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. Two-factor authentication is the single change that prevents most account problems.

What the rules actually say

Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work.

  • Enable two-factor authentication before anything else.
  • Never buy, sell or share an account.
  • If a menu path does not exist for you, your build is older or newer than the one described.
  • Use the official support form rather than a forum thread.

Why shortcuts end badly

If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. League of Legends is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look.

Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing.

Limits and cooldowns

It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why. Everything below is framed around the current state of League of Legends rather than a launch-week impression.

Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it.

If the account is already restricted

Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over.

Where people go wrong

  • Rushing the last step, which is usually the one with the actual requirement in it.
  • Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.
  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
  • Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.

League FAQ

Is this still accurate after the latest League of Legends update?

The method is; individual numbers may not be. If a value on your screen differs, trust the screen and keep the sequence.

Does this work the same on console and PC?

The logic is identical. Menu paths and button prompts differ, and any real difference is flagged above.

How long does support take?

Days rather than hours in most cases. The queue is real, and following up resets your place in it.

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

That is the whole of it — if something here stops matching League of Legends, the game changed, not the method.