Namely it’s the fact there is a certain “level” of play that is expected by Riot beyond simply not just running it down. As far as I know, at no point was Thebausffs literally running it down pre-reformed Tyler1 style and yet he was/is banned on multiple accounts for having streaks of games with a large number of deaths and most of the bans have not been repealed. Yes, he is “inting” in the figurative and broadly used sense today, but he was never literally intentionally playing to lose the game nor does he flame his teammates in game. Riot has also stated on multiple occassions that you can’t be banned for playing off-meta(AP irelia).

That also begs the question, if an iron IV player was to emulate his style and have similiar games with similiar kdas, would he also be permanently banned? Or would Riot just pass that off as the player simply being bad?