Just got perma banned for being harassed

Alyss Akashiya·8/16/2019, 12:33:12 AM·3 votes·2,309 views

I just got harassed two games in a row, and Riot's response to that was to permanently ban my account. I was told to lobotomize myself, to kill myself, I was called r%%%%%ed and accused of trolling. In response, I said "Shut the fuck up" [sic] and "Stop talking please" [sic]. Riot's automatic feedback system decided that I needed to be punished. Here is the chat log from the main game they're quoting, conveniently missing all the harassment.

this is the game i was banned on

Game 1 Pre-Game Alyss Akashiya: yes Alyss Akashiya: ya i like my build D: In-Game Alyss Akashiya: do Alyss Akashiya: u Alyss Akashiya: have Alyss Akashiya: a Alyss Akashiya: problem? Alyss Akashiya: ahh Alyss Akashiya: then leave Alyss Akashiya: tha Alyss Akashiya: ok Alyss Akashiya: cuz i wasnt planning to die he let me go free LOL Alyss Akashiya: think for 1s about fighting a yi with ult up XD Alyss Akashiya: ok ima say this now Alyss Akashiya: stop talking to me Alyss Akashiya: ur the only random here Alyss Akashiya: and everyone is saying ur wrong Alyss Akashiya: stop talking plz Alyss Akashiya: ty Alyss Akashiya: elo means nothing XD Alyss Akashiya: i havent played any ranked games Alyss Akashiya: in 4 months Alyss Akashiya: why are u typing Alyss Akashiya: im ex plat Alyss Akashiya: stfu Alyss Akashiya: u talk so much shit then u fail to ult on time XD Alyss Akashiya: muted report Alyss Akashiya: im trolling btw Alyss Akashiya: ^ Alyss Akashiya: maybe before you shit talk u wait till u lane for a min hmm? Alyss Akashiya: so wait u calling me a r%%%%% isnt verbal? Alyss Akashiya: u harassing me sience 20s in isnt reportable as well? Alyss Akashiya: settle down also if u didnt know ill give ya some info asking for reports is reportable Alyss Akashiya: feel free to ask riot support Alyss Akashiya: gg Alyss Akashiya: i mean whats the point of having vision on something we cant stop Alyss Akashiya: thats a troll Alyss Akashiya: gg

35 Comments

rujitra8/16/2019, 12:43:09 AM6 votes

Given you admitted to trolling, and harassed others in this game, this is completely accurate.

You just came off a 14 day ban less than a week ago, and you this quickly returned to this sort of behavior.

MagicFlyingLlama8/16/2019, 12:40:17 AM5 votes

you got permbanned for flaming all game, after multiple warnings, including the previous one that stated you would be banned for any further infractions. If someone is mentally incapable of recognizing they are at fault, that is the only option.

KFCeytron8/16/2019, 12:50:57 AM3 votes

So, it has come to this: someone displayed misbehavior in a LoL match in flagrant disregard for the game's rules, ToS, EULA, and Summoner's Code. That's unfortunate, and I'm sorry you had to deal with it. If this misbehavior happened in chat (including emotes or ping) and they don't respond positively to a single, courteous, constructive request to focus on the game, your best option is to mute that player. Submit a report after the match. This is equivalent to dealing with a noisy person in a library by asking them to keep it down and then notifying library staff and moving to another area.

Do not respond with misbehavior of your own! If you do that, your teammates may mute and report you, and those reports would be valid. This is equivalent to dealing with a noisy person in a library by getting into a shouting match with them. Just because someone else started it doesn't justify you in continuing it. I'm sure you're familiar with the "s/he started it" trope, where two children get into an argument or fight and then try to claim innocence of any wrongdoing by claiming that they didn't instigate it. As any parent, teacher, or other supervisor of children will tell you, that excuse doesn't fly. When Dad is trying to drive you to Disneyland and your annoying brother starts making faces at you as he's previously been told not to, you should calmly ask him to stop, and then, if that doesn't work, calmly notify your parents of the problem. Making faces at him or shouting at him has never been a good way to get him to stop, and it makes you just as guilty of that as he.

Riot doesn't care who started it. Someone else's misbehavior does not justify your own.

From Riot's support knowledgebase:

  • Simply speaking, retaliation is not an acceptable or justifiable behavior. An argument between two players can easily create a negative experience for the rest of the players in the game with you. Regardless of the other player’s actions, this does not justify your own behavior. You alone are responsible for your actions within the game.If you encounter a toxic player like this, the best option is to simply report their behavior and move on.
  • Reports are a vital piece to the puzzle. If you are not sure of what sort of behavior is reportable take a look at the Reporting a Player FAQ

If you misbehave but a teammate or opponent does or says something even worse, you should definitely report them after the match, just as someone reported you for your own misbehavior. Yes, that's certainly possible. Reports are not a limited resource. Any time someone believes that another player violated LoL's behavioral standards, they can report that player. Punishments are similarly not limited: if more than one player in a game merits a punishment, they can both get a punishment. This can happen even if the players in question were antagonizing each other. The IFS doesn't need to weigh the severity of all reported players' actions and then "award" the "winner" with a punishment; it's not a contest.

Think of it like dealing with a noisy person in a library: ask them to keep it down, and then notify library staff and move to another area if that doesn't work. If you get into a shouting match with them, you're just as likely to be removed, even if you weren't shouting quite as loudly as they were. The goal is a quiet library.

The only chat messages included in your chat log are your own for a single, extremely good reason: they are the only ones taken into account for your punishment, because they're the only ones in your control. The things other players said and did in your match might produce in you an impulse to do certain things that may include breaking LoL's rules, but your behavior is your own, and you are responsible for it. If you really think about it, this is a good thing. If a toxic player's goading could exempt you from punishment for your flaming them, calling for reports, etc., then it would logically go the other way as well, resulting in punishments for players who didn't necessarily break any rules but weren't quite as friendly and positive as their teammates. Can you imagine a world where "didn't participate in the dance party and ignored all of our jokes" was a valid report that could get someone suspended for two weeks? We don't want that situation anymore than we want "called our support a braindead waste of space" to be considered an invalid report just because, say, the support was telling their team to harm themselves while they merrily ran it down mid.

You weren't punished for misbehaving in one game. You were punished for misbehaving in one more game, in a consistent pattern of negative behavior that breaks the game's rules. Additionally, the reform card doesn't always show all the logs that led to your punishment: it randomly selects up to several logs. You might see three logs, but you also might see as few as one, even for players whose punishment stems not from a small number of egregious infractions but rather from dozens of instances of mild toxicity. The purpose of the reform card is to tell you how to reform, so it shows you an example of the behavior that prompted your punishment and explains that such behavior is inappropriate and should be avoided if you want to maintain an account in good standing.

Usually, one transgression by itself wouldn't be enough to bring such a punishment to an otherwise clean account, but the IFS works on an escalating punishment system. Breaking a minor rule, like engaging the team in useless arguments, has a minor punishment: a chat restriction. Breaking that same rule over and over again, however, doesn't prompt an endless series of chat restrictions. The severity of the punishment ramps up over time, because the goal is to eliminate the punished player's willingness to break the game's rules. If two chat restrictions don't stop the useless arguments, the system will increase the punishment to a 14-day suspension and deliver a very clear message that the continued rule-breaking is becoming a serious issue and any further instances will result in a permaban. Again, the point is to put a stop to this misbehavior. If a player is more interested in repeatedly breaking the rules than in maintaining access to their account, they'll lose access to their account.

Of course, it's possible to break major rules, like cheating, threatening people, or using chat for hate speech, and skip punishment tiers so that a clean account ends up with a 14-day suspension or even a permaban.

From Riot's support knowledgebase:

PUNISHMENTS GENERALLY FOLLOW A BASIC ESCALATION PATH:

  • First Offense: 10 Game Chat Restriction
  • Second Offense: 25 Game Chat Restriction
  • Third Offense: Two Week Suspension
  • Fourth Offense: Permanent Suspension

However, it is possible to skip to a Two Week or Permanent suspension based on the severity of the behavior in the game. Excessive negative behavior can result in a Two-Week or Permanent suspension at any time without having a chat restriction on the account.

I'm sorry you've seen worse, but the system wants your behavior to be acceptable, not just less unacceptable than what you have seen in others.

You got back from a 14-day ban less than a week ago, and then the entirety of your chat consists of spam ("do u have a problem?" with each word on a separate line), argument, harassment ("stfu" etc.), announcements of intent to report, and accusations against teammates (calling them trolls). You announced "muted report" but then didn't actually mute. Why not? That just makes the argument worse instead of ending it. Literally not a single chat message you sent during the entire match was actually positive, constructive, or worthwhile.

Riot doesn't care why you keep breaking the rules. They just want it to stop.

enshine8/16/2019, 2:41:34 AM3 votes

no you didn't

i have extensive, first-hand experience with the ban system. you got two chat restricts, then you got a 14-day ban, then you kept flaming and got permabanned.

• chat restrictions are only skipped if you use a zero-tolerance word. slurs, requests that people commit suicide, and, specifically, "kys." instant 14day if you say "kys" and a single person reports you • 14day ban is only skipped if you are scripting, boosting, account sharing, or otherwise cheating

Håppy8/16/2019, 1:16:46 AM2 votes

I wish Riot included other peoples' chats in these tickets so that we could see the context. Saying "stop talking plz, ty" sounds like harassing someone, until you see the 30 messages the actual toxic player was posting in between each of Alyss' messages. Yeah, I was in this game. It wasn't even remotely toxic from Alyss.

Håppy8/16/2019, 2:31:31 AM1 votes

I think what people aren't seeing here is that Alyss was not being toxic. He wasn't harassing, or flaming, or anything of the sort. He's a player who was reforming after the punishment he received and in spite of the road to reforming, he got frustrated at someone being a head-ass at him. There's no other way to put it. They accused him of trolling, flamed him, and spent most of the game doing nothing but typing. And so he got frustrated and typed his frustrations, in a way that was not insulting or attacking the person, but instead attempting to have them consider the situation and then, when that didn't work, contesting their /all chat story.

A dude got frustrated in a video game and bam, permabanned for it. A person rattled off a list of kys's and other things, no punishment. That sounds like a functioning report system right there.