When the game is over before it started.
Now I know what everyone says, "if you are toxic, you will find toxic players." I also know that there are a million of posts just like this one, but hear me out please. I would get into a game of solo queue and more times than not I find myself being stuck with people who say "ignoring last pick, jungling anyway" or "I'm going mid, i'll duo mid, I don't care." Now, this is most likely luck (or lack there of) the draw. I used to get into these games so much, and I looked up reasons why, coming to the same conclusion, it must be my attitude. This is true, I was very toxic in season 4. I made it a mission to act better in game, respecting fellow summoners, and being kind to opponents. I took a break from solo queue to work on my attitude, and mostly I just found teammates who fed, which I didn't make a big deal of, because everyone has bad games, but I am not gonna lie, finding these teammates felt a bit frequent, but I strengthened my resolve to not be toxic, I let it go, and also gave the struggling teammates tips and stuff. I got along with a lot of my teammates in normals, and when season 5 came, I decided to go for gold, and play solo queue again. I did reasonably well, finding occasional unskilled teammates like in normals, which once again, happens. But as of late I find sooooo many of the toxic people mention at the beginning. I read a statistic that said that League of Legends (https://www.vg247.com/2015/07/09/only-2-of-league-of-legends-matches-include-abuse-says-riot/) More specifically, verbal abuse, which I'm sorry but i just do not believe that. So many games I find 2 teammates arguing and a lot of stuff is said. I remain neutral and try to resolve these conflicts, but to no avail, as they turn on me. Look, I know no game is perfect, and you aren't always going to see eye to eye with your fellow summoners, but I feel that the community is more toxic than Riot is leading on. I love to play league, and it just sucks when people bring the game down, sometimes even before playing it. In order to avoid these people and waste 20 minutes, if not, more because of duo queue trolling, I am forced to dodge, losing lp and preventing me from playing for a while, which honestly, sucks. It really sucks. Like I said, I know that no game is perfect, but I have a few suggestions to help with the problems I have been talking about.
- Make a queue type for only solo players. I'm sure many people may not agree, but it is so much worse when there are 2 people queued up, one gets mad, and the other backs him/her up. Now there are 2 toxic players, and a much less likely chance you will win.
- Make a queue type that is similar to team builder, but for ranked. When I play normals with my friends, I will use team builder over blind pick, 9 times out of 10. When people choose who is on their team, they won't find people who autolock a different roll. This makes the pre-game much smoother and with hope, less toxic. I think the style of this queue type would be like this: you only pick your role. That's it. Just like team builder minus the champion. Once you find a team with your preferred composition, you search as a team, and from there it becomes draft pick. Now everyone has their preferred roles as you get into picks and bans.
- Be more harsh with the reporting system, and maybe add in a report option in the pre-game lobby. I feel like a lot of people that get reported get no repercussions. When I was toxic in season 4, I never got chat restricted, suspended, or banned. And i'm not going to lie, i really feel like I should have been, looking back on some of the things I have said.
- Make an option to be exempt from the lobby, basically dodge with no penalties, if a player is reported by at least 2 other people, although this will only work is my third suggestion is implemented.
TLDR: Basically, in my opinion there is more Riot can do to improve the behaviors of some of the players. The beginning is probably very similar to a lot of posts, but I hope they at least take my suggestions in the second paragraph into consideration. I love to play League, and it just sucks when other people's behavior ruins a game. Thanks for reading!