Permanently banned for afking one game

Thundermight·Feb 5, 2016·5 votes·5,651 views

So, my account that I have been playing on for over 3 years, have put 1000+ hours into and have spent over 300 dollars on, recently got permanently banned. I just logged in to my account one day and it said "account permanently suspended check email for details yadayadayda.....". I thought what there must be some hacking screw up or something. So message riot support "account permanently banned,what is going on?" I wasn't that worried, I've been playing since 2013 and have never did anything permanent-ban worthy, most i ever got was a 2 day suspension for afking like a year ago, and generally don't be toxic in chat. After a few useless responses of saying "specialized audit bs" mumbo jumbo and "someone will be with you to discuss the matter further, I finally get this response: Hey Thundermight,

I'm Broken Blade and I will be assisting you.

This account was permanently suspended for griefing other players by intentionally leaving a ranked match before your team was able to win, resulting in the enemy team coming back and winning.

Broken Blade Riot Games Player Behavior Specialist

So..... Let me get this straight............... Riot just took away my account..... permabanned........out of the blue......no prior warnings, temporary bans, etc............that I've spent 300 bucks, and even worse, 1000+ hours to get all of my runes/champs/etc.......... BECAUSE I LEFT A SINGLE GAME???? WHAT? IT WASN"T EVEN INTENTIONAL! I HAD TO GO EAT DINNER AND HAD THOUGHT MY TEAM HAD IT!

The point is, this is just straight up criminal. It's a game, Riot. A GAME. It's not a JOB. I understand you can get permanently fired if you leave your work once. BUT A GAME??

300+ dollars and thousands of hours. And the sad thing is, it was worth it to play league. It's a great, fun game. But I'm instantly permanbanned out of the blue because I had to leave for a game? A SINGLE GAME???

I would have spent a lot more money and time on this game too. But to hell with it starting over at level 1 and making me buy 300 dollars of skins over again.

Adios, LOL. We've had a fantastic run, and I don't doubt you will get better in the future. Too bad you are run by criminals.

GG Rito. -Thundermight

UPDATE: Account permaban was just reduced to a 2-week ban. Message from riot:

Broken Blade (Riot Games Player Support)

Feb 5, 09:26

Hello again,

So we have reviewed your case and determined that we will be reducing this permanent suspension to a 2 week suspension which will be lifted 2016-02-19 at 09:21:37 PST. Please take this as your final warning in regards to intentional feeding or leaving matches intentionally, if this account is found doing so again it will result in a permanent suspension that will not be lifted.

Broken Blade Riot Games Player Behavior Specialist

So yeah. The only thing i had got permabanned for was afking a single game. Thank goodness Riot actually looked at how dumb the ban was themselves. I'm not against a two-week ban at all for leaving a ranked game. But permabanned for life? Thank goodness Riot actually came to their senses.

Lastly, it is very sad to see how many commenters were against me. I'm surprised how many people thought getting permabanned for afking a single game was completely alright. Just shows how depressing this community is.

For the few peeps that supported me, I appreciate it. See you in 2 weeks.

-Thundermight

16 Comments

PrinceBedazzledFeb 5, 20165 votes

I don't think they would ban you for one afk. You have to have done other things.

Deep Terror NamiFeb 5, 20165 votes

I doubt this was the only offense which lead to their decision, but we can't make assumptions on that without the evidence they found in their audit.

The only thing you can do is ask them specifically "Was I permabanned for just this one case of afk'ing?"

FrankerXFeb 5, 20164 votes

i just wanna clear 4 things.

its not your account. read the terms of service, it is NOT YOUR ACCOUNT its riots account and you agree after every patch that they can do with their account what they want without giving any reasons.
usually you always have dinner around the same time. if you go into a game around that time you know you have to go afk eventually. so this is 100% your fault!
you dont get permabann for afking
noone cares how much money or time you spent!

ps: do as it told you CHECK YOUR MAILS i wanna see those chatlogs lol. because like i said no permabann for afks.

MeilinIIFeb 5, 20163 votes

I smell bull. There's more to this story. How about posting some screenshots of the ticket and your email?

ThundermightFeb 5, 20161 votes

They never sent me an email with details pertaining to my ban. Which is why I initially thought it was a mistake or bug. I have a screenshot of the support ticket conversations but it wont let me paste it. Ticket # is 20317820 but I don't think anyone else can see if besides me. The support ticket responses i got, in order:

Hello Thundermight,

Your account has been permanently closed for in-game actions following a specialized audit that tracks this sort of behavior, which may include griefing other players or intentionally feeding. These actions are against the Summoner's Code and the Terms of Use, which you agreed upon when signing up for League of Legends.

For more information, check out Lyte's forum post on the initiative here:

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=4813730

Regards,

Kunoichi Riot Player Support Maven of the Strings

My response:

so i got a response from riot that i was banned for intentional feeding. What??? I haven't been intentional feeding ever? I play ranked! This has to be a mistake. 3 years and 300 bucks on this game and never banned or warning of ban and i get instantly PERMANENTLY banned for something i didn't do? Show me the match history or some semblence of proof this isn't a mistake, because it is. 300 dollars and 2000+ games on this account should warrant me a better answer than just sending me to a link about intentional feeding when i have never done it

Next reply from Rito:

Summoner,

We have a Player Behavior team in place dedicated to working with these requests, so I need to transfer your ticket. A Player Behavior Specialist will be contacting you as soon as they can.

Please keep in mind that we respond to tickets in the order we receive them, so ‘bumping’ your ticket by sending us additional messages will send it to the back of our queue. This might inadvertently delay our response :(

Thank you for your patience!

Frost Ace Player Support Specialist The Tidecaller's Voice

The next response was the one I got from Broken Blade, noted in OP.

alasarcherFeb 5, 20162 votes

"So..... Let me get this straight............... Riot just took away my account..... permabanned........out of the blue......no prior warnings, temporary bans, etc"

It was never your account. All our accounts belong to riot and they can, at any point, for any reason, even without reason suspend any account. Read TOS. And yes, it was intentional, as you didnt dc, it wasnt electric cut, your internet didnt go down. U willingly left game.

cuAc6faaEUJun 17, 20162 votes

Same guy Broken Blade looked at my ticket. I literally asked him why I got banned and he couldn't provide me with the information as to why. He literally puts no effort into his work. And in still perma banned. They should brief this guy on how to do his job

Troll ArmadaFeb 5, 20161 votes

"I had to go eat dinner"

Don't start games you can't finish.

furthermore, this post reeks of the various, "i had to take my baby to the hospital" posts lecturing everyone about how unimportant league is in the overall scheme of things.

If it's not that important to you, then don't play ranked.

No flash no lifeFeb 5, 20161 votes

uh...

Your investments tell us how frustrated you are, but your account isn't going to get special treatment from that. If anything, it should make you treasure it more and be more careful with what you're doing.
You went afk. Reasons and circumstances do not matter unless they fall under exceptions approved by the authorities.
Rules broken, consequences occur. Warnings aren't and shouldn't be required.

Edit: the riot staff said " griefing other players or intentionally feeding". If you didn't feed then it's the first case, and going inactive can arguably be considered griefing as it causes your teammates misery undeservably.

MissMikasaFeb 5, 20161 votes

I have to agree with some of the others on here that one afk shouldn't automatically end with a ban. Either you did more to warrant such a thing or Riot messed up. But it is not your account, it's theirs.

Also, did you get a warning after you afk? When I have had technical issues before and my game wouldn't connect, I was essentially not able to play and my team reported me after. I got a warning saying that I had been gone the game and that I shouldn't do it again and if I agree with the terms or what not then press OK or something like that.

Usually you get some kind of warnings before you get punished.

BarkhoofFeb 5, 20161 votes

If you truly did get banned for leaving a game, it's silly and should be looked in to. I fully agree, don't go in to a game that you can't finish. I should also point out, however, if my daughter throws up, I'm AFKing. If my wife wakes up and says she needs to head to the hospital, I'm not finishing the game. Those are once-in-a-while, blue-moon sort of deals but ones that should accompany a punishment without permanent ban.

WinBoatFeb 5, 20161 votes

That doesn't matter to Riot. Your family could all just die, and you miss and match and get perma banned and try to explain to Riot? They going to laugh that you used it as an excuse to try to get back your account. This is Riot we're talking about.

Everyone would make up stories if it were that easy. Personally I don't afk really ever unless my net goes out which sucks but hey riot won't accept that either, and look at it as an excuse.

So basically, you're screwed. I also highly doubt this guy got perma banned over "1" game. I'm sure he has had to have been reported many times in the past before for afking, or something.

There is many on here that come to lie and say they did nothing wrong when a riot member comes on and puts them in their place like a guy saying he's never had chat restrictions, then a riot member said "you've had 2 in the last whole month".

So I won't ever fully agree with the OP's here. You never know. Most of them are lying.

The UnbangableFeb 5, 20161 votes

I think it's unfair to get pema banned for leaving ONE game. I don't know if there's any toxicity involved, if so, Riot would've told you in the support ticket, but they haven't, so I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you only AFKed that one game.

VernMcHansonJun 17, 20161 votes

AFKing is the worst offense in ranked play in many players opinions. I personally don't care how toxic your chat is because I know how to use the mute feature if I don't like what you are saying. But I do HATE when people intent feed or afk. That directly affects my game and my desire to play the game. Your lucky you get a second chance, most don't, for much less objectionable behavior. But crybabies usually get their way with RIOT. no big shocker.