Boards›Player Behavior

The sad state of toxicity in the community... on both sides.

A Cynical Asian·1/22/2018, 10:16:33 AM·19 votes·2,121 views

So, I've read some of the posts on the Player Behavior forum. And it seems to be the same pattern every time I read posts.

  • Toxicity both among regular players and so-called pillars of the community seems rampant as general. And nothing is being done to address this. Blaming teammates, targeting poorly performing players for harassment, taunting the other team through emotes and "ggez" in all-chat are rampant as usual. You want to discuss toxicity on these forums? It seems there's a condescending undercurrent among some of those who reply to other posts on this board. Confirmation bias is really bad. You got banned for toxic in-game chat? Too bad, too sad, you deserve it 100%. Never mind that you try your utmost to uphold a higher standard of behavior most games. You slipped once? You're grouped with the rest of the toxic folks. Luckily, that problem isn't too rampant on this board. For those who are supportive of reformed behavior, I thank you personally, as for the most part, I've tried my best to go above and beyond as a true pillar of the community after my own 2-week ban. Unfortunately though, there's this small, but significant minority of anti-toxicity elitists that treats anyone trying to complain about the broken report system with contempt and disdain.

  • Rito's answer to toxicity is intellectually lazy. LoL has earned its well-deserved reputation as one of the, if not the most, toxic gaming communities out there. Unfortunately, I disagree with Rito's answers to this problem, mainly the Instant Feedback system and the community outreach aspect. As a comparison, consider LoL with two other large communities, that of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) and Overwatch (OW). All three of these games feature highly competitive, team-based gameplay. However, CSGO and OW are not known to be as toxic as LoL is (although shamefully, OW seems to be catching up according to some of the videos I've seen). This is in disparity with the relatively less-moderated in-game text chat and voice chat options. Why is it that CSGO and OW are considered less toxic despite having less babysitting? I believe the answer has something to do with a deep-seated problem in LoL's community. Now, do I feel like I can answer this question adequately myself? No, I don't. That's why this board exists. However, perhaps voice chat and less moderation of the chat could help. Sure, snap at a teammate. But when you have voice chat to make up quickly and expediently and quickly plan the next move and the freedom to know that you can lash out temporarily, just this peace of mind helps to calm you down. Voice chat is much, much more personal as well. The need to lash out in the first place becomes inherently diminished when a teammate takes the reins and talks in the mic to gather the team round. "Hey, let's try this strat instead." Specific plans can be made. Anyone who tries to defuse a potential toxic situation has their potential magnified by voice chat; soothing talk in the text chat certainly helps in both LoL and CSGO and OW, but a soothing voice helps amplify the effect. Used a slur? That's not good to be honest, but if you didn't use it heavily or to specifically harass a particular player in particular (i.e. say hypothetically, LoL has voice chat and you call a man with an Asian accent a %%%%%; that would be targeted harassment), LoL has gotta let it slide in my opinion. If Rito truly cares about the player experience like they claim to, the best way isn't to automatically ban everyone for a bad word here and there. It's to tackle the bigger issues, like the casual, commonplace taunting and toxic attitudes towards other teammates that permeates the game at almost any rank and level. CSGO in particular seems to be coping quite well with toxicity despite its more lax rules. Perhaps there's something going on there.

  • The community outreach is garbage in my opinion. I've recently seem a few ads for League of Legends. "Hai, is okei 2 be nub, pls play LoL, is gud community". However, older players already cynically know the community is in no way like that at all. They come to regard Rito with more and more cynicism. Newer players get set up for disappointment. They come expecting a good time, a smooth learning curve, ample time to learn, experiment, have fun. What they get instead is a grindy experience where buying champs frequently is difficult without insane amounts of grinding, toxic teammates, smurfs at lower levels, and a frankly boring-looking selection of 450 BE champions.

  • I can't even tell anymore if the community just lacks thick skin, or if Rito is just Big Brother-level heavy-handed with their Instant Feedback system. Slurs and bad words aren't nice, we get it. Toxicity is bad, we get it. But an automated system with the authority to permaban that takes no consideration of previous behavior and context is foolish and a lazy response to the community's toxicity. Some players might just be having a bad day. Failed a test, car broke down, rainy day, who knows? "I AM INSTANT FEEDBACK SYSTEM. SYSTEM RECORDS INDICATE YOU ARE TYPiCALLY NICE PLAYER WITH CONSISTENT HONORS RECEIVED. YOU SAID BAD WORD ONE GAME BECAUSE A TEAMMATE DID BAD, HERE IS HONOR LEVEL ZERO AND A TWO-WEEK BAN FOR YOU". Gee, thanks Rito. Really makes us feel like we mean something in comparison to the daily toxic, team blaming we see in a daily basis. Especially those of us who were unfortunate enough to get a two-week ban are walking on 1 millimeter tightropes. Doesn't matter how hard you've tried to reform since your ban. Again, I relate to this personally. But I don't take flaming too well. However, I actually did create a thread a while back specifically about the Instant Feedback system and its lack of consideration of the human aspect of the game, its players. But I digress. The positive replies in that thread convinced me to get my responses to toxic teammates and flaming under control. I truly appreciate the replies. Everyone except one person was a truly big help. These days, I can say honestly I've truly tried my best to be as positive as possible. I sternly reprimand toxic teammates by saying "Stop, that's not cool."; "chill tf out dude"; "calm tf down, <insert role here> is trying their best, stop being rude to them". The most I've ever done at this point that borders toxicity is rarely calling people "damned hypocrites", and in situations where someone is feeding quite heavily (especially when they then start to berate the team), I'll occasionally just say "you're not doing that good tbh"; "you're kinda bad ngl"; "dude you're literally feeding the worst out of all of us, why are you talking". I'd hope the community would agree that it's within acceptable to objectively note that a player is doing bad, especially when such observations are made rarely and only once to avoid ruining the poorly performing player's likely negative mood any further. The system also fosters an oppressive fear among those previously banned, despite any efforts to reform. Case in point, in my last game, I was hit by a hardware check that lagged my computer severely for a good 5-10 minutes. Given its unwanted nature, I was quite angry already, especially since I had a strong lead in mid lane at the time. However, as soon as I come back, I get flamed by an Udyr who berates me for not switching lanes with him and causing him to feed and accidentally "kill-stealing". Called me a monkey and whatnot. Anyhow, after the game, combined with the flaming and the unfortunate circumstances, the cool demeanor I'd managed to try to maintain for the most part crumbled. After the flamer and most of the other players left, I ranted in some toxic language about how bad of a person he was to the final remaining person in the lobby. No slurs used, but it wasn't nice content. I'm not trying to make excuses here, as I should have tried to keep my mouth shut, and I honestly am probably worrying too much, as the person I ranted to seemed more bemused than anything and probably wouldn't report me for something I said post game, but my behavior made me deeply worried. I don't want to be permabanned by an impersonal algorithm that doesn't care about how much my already fairly decent behavior improved post-ban. And it irks me to know that I can easily permabanned without any consideration given to context. Anyway, to conclude, the Instant Feedback system ignores the human component of the system, its players, fails to address anti-competitive behavior like toxic attitudes and blaming that are not easily caught by simple filters for bad words, and creates an environment of fear among those who have been previously banned.

Big thread, I know, but I hope this gathering of all my concerns with the state of the community. Everything from behavioral elitism from a broken Instant Feedback system.

Lastly, here are some possible conclusions.

  • Allow players to more freely heat up and cool off. This prevents a consistent pattern of passive-aggressiveness, team blaming, and rage from being built up in the first place. The system needs to be more generous.

  • Voice chat will be highly helpful to not only coordinate tactics, but allow potentially toxic players to make amends with their teammates more easily. Furthermore, any pillars of the community out there who strive to deescalate situations can have their potential maximized; a soothing voice helps deescalate any potential team conflict far more than a line of text in the chat.

  • Riot needs to improve their community outreach. Older players of the game simply become more wary of the nonsense Riot peddles through its ads on YouTube ["noob-friendly game, sure"; "it's ok to be a noob"; "league has one of the best communities" (sure, it has one of the most creative in terms of original content like fanart, but it also has a notoriously toxic one)]. Newer players are misled by promises of diverse gameplay (the 450 BE selection of champions is stagnant, the weekly rotation somewhat helps but encourages unrefined gameplay without ever giving newer players a chance to truly master a champion they find fun) and a noob-friendly community (lower levels are filled with new smurf accounts smashing legitimately newer players, or they're filled with toxic teammates who haven't yet been taught a lesson by the long dick of the Instant Feedback system).

  • The Instant Feedback system is incredibly problematic. It groups more explosive, but objectively good people, with actual toxic offenders and ignores the core human aspect of the very population it seeks to police--its players.

If anyone got through all of this or saw one point in particular that stood out to them, I thank you deeply. Although I have many issues with how toxicity is handled in this community, LoL in the end is incredibly fun, and I hope other people in here are willing to share constructive discourse (destroy my argument by all means as long as it helps the community). I, for one, look forward to similarly excellent answers like those of a previous thread I created. Thanks for reading.

EDIT (1/22/18): Wow, I feel honored to have gotten so many replies on this post. Here are a few clarifications:

  • Of course voice chat shouldn't be mandatory. Wanna voice_enable 0 that nonsense? Go for it. Don't have a mic? You're cool. I'm just stating it could be a good method to mediate conflicts and encourage better teamwork.

  • I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but permabans should never be automatic. All IFS cases that may result in a permaban should be reviewed by admins on an individual basis. Of course, if the admins are just as overly stringent as the IFS system, though, that'll save none but the most blatant false positives.

33 Comments

EL HAMSTERO1/22/2018, 7:02:34 PM5 votes

the gaming community is not different than the community of cs or ow. the difference is the gameplay mechanics. and that is where the toxicity comes from.

imagine if in overwatch every time the other team killed one of your teammates their damage and defense would increase. and again on the next kill and again until there is no possible way you can even fight them. that is how it works in LoL. i think you would see a big increase in toxicity if this was how overwatch was done.

now imagine instead of a 15 min game being stuck in the game for 40 mins. your frustration has much longer to ramp up. much more of your free time is wasted.

the community is not more toxic. the game itself is much more toxic.

Ayanami3rd1/22/2018, 1:28:40 PM4 votes

Allow players to more freely heat up and cool off. This prevents a consistent pattern of passive-aggressiveness, team blaming, and rage from being built up in the first place. The system needs to be more generous.

No. I don't know what your age is (no offense), but when I was young I was taught that swearwords and "toxicity" were a no-go in communication. It might sound square, but I'm all in for good manners.

Voice chat will be highly helpful to not only coordinate tactics, but allow potentially toxic players to make amends with their teammates more easily. Furthermore, any pillars of the community out there who strive to deescalate situations can have their potential maximized; a soothing voice helps deescalate any potential team conflict far more than a line of text in the chat.

Oh my God, please no mandatory voice chat. People playing music, people trolling, screaming, bablling around in foreign languages nobody understands. That would be horrible. Of course, an optional voice chat would be fine. Concerning the exchange of strategies, this works with pings and short chat communication fine too, if everyone just uses their eyes and ears.

Riot needs to improve their community outreach. Older players of the game simply become more wary of the nonsense Riot peddles through its ads on YouTube ["noob-friendly game, sure"; "it's ok to be a noob"; "league has one of the best communities" (sure, it has one of the most creative in terms of original content like fanart, but it also has a notoriously toxic one)]. Newer players are misled by promises of diverse gameplay (the 450 BE selection of champions is stagnant, the weekly rotation somewhat helps but encourages unrefined gameplay without ever giving newer players a chance to truly master a champion they find fun) and a noob-friendly community (lower levels are filled with new smurf accounts smashing legitimately newer players, or they're filled with toxic teammates who haven't yet been taught a lesson by the long dick of the Instant Feedback system).

I totally agree with that. New players are just outright lost in this game, and although I play myself on a daily basis, I hesitate to recommend the game to friends. Everyone for sure remembers the painful first three months of LoL, where you are just the noob feeder, because you just have to learn so much. Actually, I have several ideas to make the game more beginner-friendly, but where should I put them, that Riot notices them? The boards? I feel that would be wasted if the goal is to actually change something.

_The Instant Feedback system is incredibly problematic. It groups more explosive, but objectively good people, with actual toxic offenders and ignores the core human aspect of the very population it seeks to police--its players. _

Totally agreed, the report system is utterly trash. Int and troll a hundred times and you are fine, insult others once and you're climbing the punishment ladder. Also, there is zero feedback on if reports actually do something, which makes the system feel...inactive. Furthermore I wished Riot would give us statistics on reports / punishments etc., but I guess this kind of transparency would be unwanted because it led to difficult discussions.

sangesland1/22/2018, 12:25:53 PM3 votes

I have a nephew who's 13 years old now. He loves playing on his computer. But, I will NEVER recommend this game to him, despite how much I enjoy playing it myself. At least not til hes old/mature enough, ~18 years.

The toxicity in this game is just shocking. 1 failed gank or death in lane and "I'm gonna F### your mom" "F### you noob. Learn to play idiot." etc etc etc. I report it every time. But last time I got a feedback that someone had been punished was over 2 months ago. And considering how it doesn't seem to be decreasing I take it my reports are worth 0, sadly enough.

Because of the community I personally hate trying out new champions. Despite watching videos and reading guides on how to play that champion I will most likely underperform the first few games. And oh boy am I in for a shitstorm then. We all know what happens to a player who loses the lane 2/7. He gets flamed to hell and back and then reported for intentional feeding.

I would love for riot to be WAY harder on the toxicity. Both by muting and banning. And I'd also love to have the tribunal back. Maybe only allow players whos account is X years old and with few toxicity flags/reports. Or allow them to function as a GM of sorts (like in WoW).

HavokDash1/22/2018, 11:16:26 AM3 votes

Good post, I would say copy and save it because it will get downvoted and ignored to oblivion just like the last person to try and actually show the flaws of this community. I am one of those veteran players (Started season 3) and I have watched it take a nosedive. People will come and use anything the can to dismiss your arguement, like your win/loss record, any off build, any game where you werent completely perfect.

This community is so coddled and full of themselves inside thier own echo chamber, anyone who tries to say "Here are the flaws, how do we fix it" will get Ad hommed and downvoted to hell so fast they will sink lower than teemo's toenails. This community dispises anyone that disrupts their precious little bubble. Everyone thinks they are perfect in this community, so high up on their own coddled sense of self-rightous hogwater they will sit there and throw anything they can find to not only dismiss you, but will actively try and turn your arguement into some sort of laughing stock.

I have seen good arguements be mocked and ridiculed because it actually exposes how bad this community is, and then players respond not by reasoned arguements, but they will come with random stats and subjective views. They wont argue your points, but just label you a troll, tell you how dumb you are, etc. I have no respect for the LoL community, they have given me no reason to give them any. Far as I have seen just adult children who throw temper tantrums when someone wont reinforce how Awesome they are.

You are trying to put cracks in their perfect echo chamber, thier bubble. Get ready for the downvotes and flames of the infantile community.

Sweet Sayonara1/22/2018, 11:42:41 AM3 votes

Agreed. The instant feedback system seems to have significant problems which are negatively impacting reasonable players. Seems like there are simple changes they could make to improve the system. For example, for instances where one player is consistently giving feedback to the team ("why fight there? You should fight under tower!" etc) and is reported for it, a short ban can be applied. Any permanent bans for chat functions should be reserved for horrible language (racial slurs, hate speech, etc). And should always be subject to review, especially when accounts have purchased RP.

FurriesAreHot1/22/2018, 6:05:26 PM3 votes

I don’t think the toxicity stems from the systems at all. It’s just the nature of a MOBA, it’s inherently more frustrating due to larger teams (used to be) long games, and how powerless your character can become if behind enough. A game like Overwatch, your characters powerlevel is never changed. It’s static, all play. The games (were) much shorter than a league game.

It’s really not hard to not be an ass in this game. The few times I’ve been angry to the point of insulting a team mate I haven’t been punished since they weren’t extreme or common. There isn’t an excuse for being a consistent asshole on a league game.

Mandatory voice chat? Hell no. See Ayanami3rd’s post.

The IFS isn’t perfect, but is a really good system for what it’s worth. I don’t at all believe the claims “ah I only said 1 thing and got punished” since I sometimes say some really rude shit to teammates, but I do it so rarely the IFS let’s it be. The system is bad at looking at inting and trolling since it’s a computer, and you can only write so much code to tell what is a troll and what is a noobie. More responses on report status would be nice, though.

Wínters Dawn1/22/2018, 7:58:45 PM3 votes

"LoL has earned its well-deserved reputation as one of the, if not the most, toxic gaming communities out there."

I honestly hate this statement because I dont think its true. To say league is the most toxic community os to say the internwt as a whole is some how better.

I played Xbox live from ages 13-20 and I tell you league is JUST AS TOXIC as any other form of online community. The internet is toxic, being able to hide behind a screen is what gives people the pass to be toxic. It is not exclusive to league.

NekoniClaws1/22/2018, 1:06:17 PM2 votes

Toxicity is probably the biggest problem this game has in regards to its surviveability. 'Game's too toxic' is the reason my friends leave gaming sessions about half the time.

I wish the filters were more sensitive to plain-simple bad sportsmanship. Maybe after someone's been through a game spamming 'lol' and 'ez' and 'you're bronze' in allchat their chat could be turned off for a game? Without it adding a point for future punishment. So that repeat offenders learn to can it. Because no-one wants to be around that.

And I have to disagree with voicechat. I've been into quite a number of random discords, just to see what they were like. Just as toxic but 50 times more awkward to deal with.

MediocreAatroxNA1/22/2018, 6:01:33 PM2 votes

Season 5 or 6, I forget. A genuinely honest post how the clock was ticking down on the final day before season ended. He/she was on final promo game and needed one last win since there was no more time to do the necessary games again. Final half hour or something.

They merely MENTIONED this in /all. They did not ASK for a win, the enemy simply, out of generosity, forfeited the match. So struck with kindness, they posted on the forums praising the community at large for having wholesome people to do something so selfless for a total stranger.

It was immediately met with the worst reception you could think of. Hundreds of downvotes, flooded with toxic remarks as far as the eye could see, and just all-around a circus.

Yet we have had posts in the past that try to JUSTIFY the abhorrent behaviour of some of League’s most disgusting individuals (and not just Tyler1) because they were, and I use the term loosely, “entertaining” on Twitch and YouTube.

If a popularity contest dictates how much a significant amount of the vocal community reacts positively vs negatively, we cannot take it seriously in the absolute slightest.

Karunamon1/22/2018, 7:49:22 PM2 votes

[{quoted}](name=A Cynical Asian,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=03xdAwIM,comment-id=,timestamp=2018-01-22T10:16:33.074+0000)

So, I've read some of the posts on the Player Behavior forum. And it seems to be the same pattern every time I read posts.

You want to discuss toxicity on these forums? It seems there's a condescending undercurrent among some of those who reply to other posts on this board. Confirmation bias is really bad. You got banned for toxic in-game chat? Too bad, too sad, you deserve it 100%.

More like 99.9999%. The truth of the matter is, most of the posts here are complaining about their (completely justified) and they think they'll be able to wheedle either the community into agreeing with them or Riot into undoing it. It's funny, someone's chatlog will show them acting like the worst AOL troll circa 1993, and then they come here and suddenly the good english and manners come out in stark contrast to the chatlog.

I mean damn, if you'd talked like that all game, you wouldn't be making a "i got banned" thread.

Most bans are justified. 8 years of good behavior can and should be able to be thrown away by a single instance of telling someone else to kill themselves over a video game. Good behavior and honor is the baseline expectation, not some above and beyond thing.

  • I can't even tell anymore if the community just lacks thick skin,

Yup, there it is, excuse #3,297 on the big list of "reasons why this ban is bullshit rito pls". Surely this has never been said by anyone in a ban thread.

At the end of the day, most people can manage the herculean task of not telling other people to kill themselves over a video game. Those that can't are both a minority, and a problem that needs solving. If anything, I submit that Riot is entirely too lenient, giving people who have no real desire to change their behavior no less than 4 chances to do so before finally telling them that their shitty behavior is no longer welcome here.

Especially those of us who were unfortunate enough to get a two-week ban are walking on 1 millimeter tightropes.

Fortune doesn't factor into it. Your behavior does. Your actions, not the roll of a dice. I don't mean to make this personal, but this speaks to a fundamental problem in your understanding. If you got banned for your chat, you weren't "unlucky" or "unfortunate". Your willful behavior, hitting enter, striking keys, hitting enter again, was done in an unacceptable way. Riot doesn't care if you pound the wall, your desk, yell every obscenity known to man out loud in your stream. What they do care about is subjecting everyone else to that garbage. You (collective) have plenty of outlets for your rage, yet you (collectively) choose the one that makes the game shittier to play and is most likely to get you in trouble. Why on earth would you (collectively) make that decision?!

It's lack of maturity and self control. There is no other option. Too many hormonal teenagers (mentally or physically) who have been taught by other games that there is no recourse for telling someone else how badly they did their mom last night. Too many communities where telling other people to kill themselves or making threats is just handwaved as "kids being kids" or "not a big deal" or worse, "normal". Too many people who were never raised to understand that you treat people with a modicum of respect by default, even if it is "just a game".

This isn't one of those other communities. The only reason there's so much angst here is because those behavioral standards are enforced.

#It's not acceptable, there are standards here, they will be enforced, and no amount of demeaning the community as "elitist" or "thin skinned" is going to change that.

Comments like these reveal your bias. Hell, the fact that you think it's about being "thin skinned" rather than "sportsmanship" shows a complete disconnect in your beliefs vs what the IFS actually sets out to do.

Newer players are misled by promises of diverse gameplay (the 450 BE selection of champions is stagnant, the weekly rotation somewhat helps but encourages unrefined gameplay without ever giving newer players a chance to truly master a champion they find fun)

This is largely ameliorated by the new BE system. As someone climbs levels, they will be getting enough BE and shards to unlock a a few champions that they encountered in rotation.

Yordle Xayah1/22/2018, 11:32:08 AM2 votes

LoL has earned its well-deserved reputation as one of the, if not the most, toxic gaming communities out there

Someone didn't play on the original XBOX Live service... [slayer-pantheon-popcorn]

87870959DEL11/23/2018, 3:24:08 AM2 votes

Thread is mostly on point and true.

I've never been banned so hard from a game that got me banned for putting up with toxic players shit with out actualling harassing them back.

I've played a lot of online games interacting with people in a large community. Mabinogi, Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, Dragon Nest, Ragnarok, Wonderland Online and other varios online games that I've played or tried. This is certaintly the worst most piece of shit community, report system and game I've ever had experimented with.

Ambitious Minnow1/24/2019, 5:40:22 PM1 votes

Fact: LoL is toxic because Riot is toxic from the top down. I'll give some clear examples here:

I would estimate 90% of games, you see losing team arguing and blaming each other at end. This a FACT, we all see it every day. Riot LITERALLY believes trashing your own teammates in game is not toxic in and of itself, and has a high threshold of tolerance for this behavior. You can even go beyond the ingame report system and get live chats and others on the line, they literally do NOTHING but justify whatever original action they took.

Riot has done NOTHING to prevent pregame schenanigans. Everyone has probably at one point or another had this experience: Player gets auto'd to support, doesn't want to play support, and doesn't want to dodge either. So they either ban main of someone else in queue, or take ridiculous choice to try and convince someone else to take the dodge, or just plain ignore all the roles and do what they want all game. This could EASILY be solved by offering a detailed dodge option. Example: Player loads, bans my main, wants jg. I would HAPPILY dodge right there and take my own five minute ban, if there was any way at all to report the player in question obviously sabotaging entire game from start. But of course there is no option for that.

The funniest part of the main bans is the result: you are often stuck playing a champ you are not as good with, in a rank you are not really prepared for with that champ. This then results in ENTIRE TEAM flaming you, telling you you suck, to go kill yourself, etc. Then you are literally the bad guy and getting reported, because no way to dodge and report original instigator.

I got so fed up with it last night I stopped in game to file a Better Business Bureau complaint. Game before we lost (and through zero fault of mine, top score by a mile), a buddy and his duo partner loaded into next queue with me. Immediately shown in text' we are doomed' ' we lost' 'rip' then one of them bans my main. Riot has explained to me in detail that they expected the following from me:

  1. I should have dodged to avoid this scenario even though two other players harrassing through two games (victim takes penalty)
  2. I should have played it out and spent entire game being flamed by entire team (victim takes penalty).

LIterally not cooperating with targeted harrassment wasn't even an option, and my account was banned. I have time stamps, I filed BBB complaint before ban, supervisor stood by ban even with clear text from other players confirming main ban was malicious.

Riot's attitude really does come down to 'boys will be boys' and they claim nothing they can do about it.

This is patently false.

Six Inch Heals1/24/2018, 1:07:14 AM1 votes

Toxicity would honestly curb itself if Riot showed that people who intentionally trolled other people's games (troll picks, double jungling nonsense, etc) without teammate's consent actually yielded some sort of punishment.

When you hold one element of toxicity higher than the rest, the one that "doesn't matter" is bound to be exploited, inciting the former out of most players.

To be clear, I believe it is equally damaging to a game to be 0-15-0 and nice than it is to be 15-0-15 and a jerk.