Boards›Gameplay

Ranked Restrictions - A Horrible Experience for Draft Normals

OmegaKraid·1/6/2015, 1:17:24 AM·43 votes·5,214 views

So, I wanted to write this for a while now. Been waiting for a while since it started to see if it was just an influx of toxicity at first. I've continually waited through Christmas when I know Riot wouldn't see this.

But please, can we do something different for Ranked Restrictions? No, I'm not a rank restricted player. I'm not arguing either for those who have been ranked restricted or not but I don't actually like to play rank much. But I do like playing Draft Normals. However, due to recent events I've migrated to Team Builder when I'm not playing with friends. I've also turned off All Chat, which saddens me for I cannot say GG WP in game anymore or when I remember to do it: GLHF.

I've gotten into many a games in Draft Normals where we have had a Rank Restricted player. They don't say anything first and seem to act like a normal human being. However it starts when I do something: Like say I miss a Lee Sin Q on a Zed that my Nidalee is begging me to gank. A second Q miss later as well as the fact we actually KILL Zed AND give Nidalee the kill, she starts flaming about how I'm useless. Ok, seems normal so far for your average toxic player right?

She then goes and says "I Troll now", goes bot and tries to give enemy bot kills. Stands still Mid to let Zed poke her. Talks about how if I am ever queued with her again, she'll just troll me, I'm banned from Jungling etc etc etc. Typical stuff I guess.

But it's post game. It's always post game where it seems to happen. Whether it's our team like the example above or the enemy team. They state the only reason they're playing Normal Draft is so they can get through their Ranked Restriction. They insult everyone. They throw games at the slightest touch, insult everyones rank and claim that they're not at fault for being Ranked Restricted.

The fact that players by the way have to WIN Draft Pick is a problem in itself. Many of them WILL AFK or Troll if the game they're in is a losing one.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Ranked Restriction is the sole cause of negative attitude in Draft Normals. However it has increased exponentially since the Ranked Restriction has come in.

"Just ignore them! Mute them, report them, get going." Here's the other problem: I can control what I say and do. I cannot control others. As Riot has stated in the past, if someone who is negative starts becoming negative to another player, other players may end up becoming negative hence why they coined the term "Toxic" for this sort of behaviour. The amount of times I've had to tell players to simply "Block them, don't worry we all have bad games" only for it to spread to other people is absurd.

Please, I know Rank Restrictions are something that is definitely needed. But all it has done is punish Normal Draft. Riot, you guys have stated time and time again that Rank is THE worse when it comes to player behaviour. Do not simply change it to Normal Draft. The fact I've had several of these players in one day in Draft Normals actually really puts me off wanting to play League of Legends.

I want to put out something in the 'Ranked Restricted FAQ'

Q: Won't these players just feed, troll, and AFK their way through the games? A: Players have to win a certain number of games to lift the restrictions, so this would work against them. Also we'll reassess players as they near completion of their ranked restriction games. If we still see a pattern of negative behavior, the restrictions will be reinforced.

What stops these players from Trolling and AFKing in games in Normal Draft if they're in the middle of losing games? Well apparently more Rank Restrictions. Well, ok there's Chat Restrictions and eventually a suspension, but by then the damage done to Normal Draft has already been done far more.

What you have done Riot is caused, what is in your words, a 'Toxic' cycle: You've got some of the worse from Rank and put them into Rank Restriction. This will inevitably cause frustration to that player which can end up affecting an entire game(s). If they lose, they'll be incredibly more frustrated since it'll take these players longer to reach their goal of playing rank again which leads to more 'toxic' behaviour. The thing that holds them back? More Ranked Restrictions. So even if the players end up winning their matches, if they are deemed negative and end up with more Rank Restrictions, they'll be even MORE frustrated so they are more likely to end up trolling/AFKing games in the first place which means you're punishing more of your Draft Normal players.

I'm no behaviour expert. I usually stay pretty mannered in games. But your experiment is punishing a lot of decent and by your standing 'neutral players', just to appease some of the negative attitudes in League.** I don't know a fix either**, but just by putting them into Draft Mode cannot be a viable solution. It's been three months, I hope some of that data has shown that.

40 Comments

ValyrianBlade1/6/2015, 1:26:05 AM8 votes

Upvoted before I even read the post, and after reading I completely agree.

I've had way more bad experiences in normal Draft lately than I ever had. Admittedly people aren't actually telling me they are restricted, so it could be due to it being the end of season (I've played less than a year), but it's probably both.

MPendragon1/6/2015, 8:15:31 AM3 votes

I quote an individual whom I played with today.

"One more game."

I'm a smart guy, it took me all of three quarters of a second to understand what he was talking about. He had one game left on ranked restriction. Yet this guy is harassing everyone on the team, and making their game less enjoyable. Later on when he had made enough of a impact through negative behavior, I said to him.

"Let's extend that ranked restriction for you, shall we?"

I understand your frustration, I really do. I think what we need to do is truly solve the problem of WHY people are being toxic.

Heroes of Newerth, used to be a really good game, it was actually top-tier in the moba gaming industry, UNTIL it's toxicity got out of control, now nobody plays it. I prophesize if Riot doesn't do something quick, the toxicity will get out of control to the point where League of Legends becomes an obsolete game.

OryxWild1/6/2015, 6:33:51 AM3 votes

Good solution - create a literal "Prisoner's Island"!

All ranked restricted players can only play one mod - "Prisoner's Island". It's like Draft Normals, but you can only play Teemo, Shaco, Singed, Heimer, Yorick, and a few other selected champions.

J/k. Anyway for reals, create a Prisoner's Island, totally identical to Draft Normals but the only available mode for ranked restricted players. Perhaps the high qeue times would make them think twice about toxic behavior...

I don't imagine other players would play there, although I suppose it could be a safe haven for all the trolls out there, if they wanted to just "troll around..."

SmokingPuffin1/6/2015, 1:22:36 AM2 votes

Please, I know Rank Restrictions are something that is definitely needed. But all it has done is punish Normal Draft. Riot, you guys have stated time and time again that Rank is THE worse when it comes to player behaviour. Do not simply change it to Normal Draft. The fact I've had several of these players in one day in Draft Normals actually really puts me off wanting to play League of Legends.

I agree that ranked restrictions increase toxicity in normal draft. However, it seems like the alternatives are worse. Specifically, this plan is better than time bans because we know that toxic ranked players will start new accounts and be mean to new players, which is the worst thing possible from Riot's perspective.

Do you have an alternative proposal?

GigglesO1/6/2015, 11:00:41 AM2 votes

Honestly I just got out of being ranked restricted... I complain in a different way now. My complains are more shhh... Stop talking... and things like: Tell us if you don't have smite next time you want to take dragon. Don't go in 1v4 as a pure damage dealer. Buy wards if you want them I can only place so many. Why is my lane the only one pushing. Call your mias.

Before the restriction they were more, wow are you useless, stop being such trash, why do you have to miss all of your skill shots as ezreal... Come on hit something.

Leti the Yeti1/6/2015, 1:36:11 AM2 votes

so thats why my draft pick always sucks and blind pick has been strangely better ;l

SanKakU1/6/2015, 5:30:24 AM2 votes

By what you're telling us, I'm surprised these Rank Restricted players haven't been banned yet. I got banned for 2 weeks a while ago and I haven't been like them. The only times I got angry with people was when they were going AFK for no reason.

MakersF1/6/2015, 9:24:48 PM1 votes

I only play draft normal, and never experienced this kind of problems. I (and my premade) have kind of a high mmr in normal though, so probably this happens way more often if your mmr is lower, as I guess this person lose more and thus are at the start of the "ladder". And I know it gets hard to raise once you are matched with these people (this is the reason i quitted ranked: i was getting toxic players that prevented me from enjoying the game.)

OmegaKraid1/10/2015, 1:26:04 AM1 votes

So an update: I did some Draft Normals today.

One of my games was against a Ranked Restricted player who won and got off their rank restriction. They were insufferable post-game. Not flaming or anything, but just being downright annoying. They mentioned it in game as well and it literally was just this over and over and over.

Plus more of the usual trolls. Played Shaco, had players who said I'd be useless and end up stealing my Jungle because they assume they can no longer win and go in three versus one against people with the buffs they've taken from me followed by them asking them to report me. I'm sorry, but this behaviour has definitely been super increased since Ranked Restriction. Hell, I can't believe I just posted about someone who won about it just basically being a very bad winner about it.

Riot, I really would like to know any data about toxicity recently and such like in Normal Drafts, specifically for both NA and EUW. Because ever since November, I swear I've not had to report someone every other game. In the last case with the Shaco game, I reported two people. i don't know if it's due to Rank Restrictions or not, but I would really like to see what the numbers at this point. Plus, as I'm about to show, my EUW experience is far harsher and nastier than my NA experience, despite the fact that players who go into the game with me KNOW I'll be at 170 ping when playing and are more sympathetic.

But let me add a bit more to this: on my NA account when playing with another Gold, Master and Platinum player, our games were so much nicer. Not just because we only had one man who we let take the role they would want in pick select, but our opponents have been of a nicer caliber also. (Well.. except one rage quitting Diamond V Shaco.) So it seems that a higher MMR in Normal IS a lot better and mannered than average MMR. Hell, rather than reports, I've been added by a ton of Platinum + higher players on NA. Also no: When playing with this group we had several games where while on a level 22 account, they were all 30s with many a normal games won.

CarryingEbola1/23/2015, 4:00:27 AM1 votes

Excellent post; I agree, draft norms are unplayable. Just played 3 straight and had afks in all 3. Additionally, I can't help but assume that the players that are actually on ranked restrictions only become more toxic from this system. It's basically become a "prisoner's island" where all of the toxic players are relegated to and they make each other lose and become more toxic. The problem is that draft norms are the best non-custom way to practice. Why not force them into customs or non-draft norms? Why take something serious and completely ruin it?

ScrumpyWheat7/4/2015, 11:24:02 AM1 votes

as of late it kinda increased. before it was oke but the last couple of weeks when im duoq with a friend normal draft. it seems that always the other 3 players are ranked restricted. its just too dem much. Riot please fix it because this makes me wanna quite league again..

ImHerVoice1/6/2015, 8:06:11 AM1 votes

what do you do to get ranked restricted? I mean I've played AP janna support and carried and dont get ranked restrictions in 2.4kmmr What do you even do? I honestly don't know/ I thought it was just trolling got you it. But I've played a million off meta rage inducing things in solo queue with leb support or nid support and never recieve warnings or anything. I guess you have to just suck really bad or something.

Essorance1/6/2015, 1:26:26 PM1 votes

Riot thought it would be a good idea to throw the most toxic of the toxic into a quarantined island. Unfortunately for them, that 'quarantined island' was actually a large and perfectly functioning community.

I'd say I'm surprised but then again it was Lyte's idea so this kind of thing was to expected.

iamthegoatofwar1/6/2015, 3:54:12 PM1 votes

You know I thought of one hell of a way we could fix this. You Could force them to play in a special restricted Que that's only visable to them. Also It locks out all of the other ques like teambuilder aram ect. also you can't play with friends while ranked restricted. Probably sounds harsh but idc.

Kowe The Ewok1/6/2015, 3:54:18 PM1 votes

Since I am usually playing with 2 friends or more I find myself more often in Normal Drafts than in Rankeds. The flood of toxic players in normal is astonishing.... Not each of them has a ranked restriktion, but a significant amount even mentions it. To quote a guy I met yesterday (after he died 1on1 three times): "f+ck you suckers im only here to get my restriction off goign afk now wont win anyway"

Llanite1/6/2015, 7:06:21 PM1 votes

Nothing can be done. They will eventually settle somewhere. Ranked restriction? They go normal draft. Normal draft restriction? They go normal blind. Normal blind restriction? They make new account and start over.

GnomeDigest1/6/2015, 8:13:39 PM1 votes

Riot will never admit that their new approach is causing significant problems. They will throw out some Riot patented grabbed out of thin air statistics saying something like, "Only .001% of draft normals are being negatively impacted by this while while toxicity in Ranked has plummeted. Overall this has been great for everyone and our system is just as awesome as we thought it would be. The fact that you think you are experiencing a worse time is probably just how the mind remembers negative experiences more, blah. blah, another fake statistic, more blah blah, get used to it its not going away but i am sure we have more brilliant ideas to add to this soon (tm)".