Hextech Crafting, Toxic Behavior, and why this is a let down
So, first off, let me preface this with I have dealt with toxic behavior in the past, and have generally made a strong showing. Everyone loses their cool sometimes, but recently I have really not had any issues because I am trying to see the game in a new light. This isn't a "I didn't deserve to be punished" thread, it's an objective look at why this is a horrible community interaction that could have really been handled way better.
So, let's first talk about toxicity. Not everything that gets reported is toxic, likewise when someone says they didn't deserve the bans they usually mean it. I know for a fact I got a couple during the automated Tribunal from games where I literally didn't talk in chat. I know this because I was testing the system, since it seemed there was suddenly a high number of chat bans (and because I logged in on an alt I had not played in a year to see I had magically gotten a chat ban from 0 games) So there are people on both sides of the fence, but really the chat ban system feels clunky already. It's terribly frustrating in game to suddenly lose the ability to communicate vital information to your team. Pings help some, but there's no pings for nice job, or buy MR, or X champion bought Y item. This generally leads players to be MORE likely to exhibit toxic behavior, since frustration + time = rage. So overall I feel like the Tribunal does a pretty good job of weeding things out for the most part, but it's by no means a perfect system.
Next, let's talk about the tribunal. The new system rollout was great, and fixed a lot of the unfair bannings issues. But... there was something lacking from that system update... something about how you are considered "reformed". This is the cause of all the frustration I find related to this. Is it a time frame? Is it X number of games? Is it both? If so how and when do you find out. None of this was addressed, because none of it was actually communicated to us. At no point were we made aware that past toxic behavior could prevent us from participating in new events (Because it's never done so before) and nothing was said to indicate anything more than playing a little after your ban would be needed to show reformed behavior. None of this was told to us and suddenly we were hit with this oddity...
Now I'm not saying it's all Riot's fault, people are toxic they should be punished. But layering additional punishment on people who have already served time and worked to improve without any indication of what they did wrong or why they were punished doesn't help correct behavior, all it does is leave your playerbase confused, frustrated, and unhappy. There is 100% NO REASON this should have ever been pushed out suddenly to these people. At this point it's not a punishment to correct bad behavior, it's just an arbitrary negative action that is affecting your players. Will it be handled in an appropriate manner? Doubtful, since the key Riot stance previously has been a "If you're toxic you aren't worth consideration" or at least that's the way I feel most posts have shown. And that's really sad because a major mistake was made here and it unjustly affected a large portion of the players. I know MANY people will probably downvote this post and say it's all on the toxic players, and that is fine. But it's kind of like getting a traffic ticket and then after paying the fine four months later you find out you don't get to participate in a new public services program because of that old ticket. Not because you did anything wrong, just because you had previously done something wrong.
It's really sad though to see such a strong showing that Riot wants to reform player behavior followed up by such a huge lapse of judgement and disappointing implementation that goes against that very core.
