If you want to fix toxicity start banning people who intentionally ruin games.
I've been back and forth with 3 different "Support Representatives," in the past 4 days. I made a ticket regarding people who ruin ranked games, and why my time and other players time constantly gets wasted, while we take Full LP Losses, on top of the time spent in in pregame and champ select. Above is the full transcript of my encounters so far with Riot Support on this matter. I was told by two different reps to post on the Forums so other people could see this.
Ive played for well over 4 years, and this is the only game I know of that punishes Verbal Behavior well above anything else, and does little to nothing about the actual causes of said toxicity. Players constantly waste other players time for literally the smallest reasons, and we are just told to stomach it, report and move on. We are told to mute those players, even though muting won't make them play better, prevent them from afk running down lane, or following your jungler around taking camps. We play a game where it's okay to go 0/15 every game, but ask someone to play Safe, or buy wards and they report you for "Toxicity." It's such a broad statement now that it's used to describe game mechanics, or anything that isn't "Good Job." Hell, you say GG in chat when you have 2 peole with a combined score of 3/18 at 15 minutes, you can get reported for being "Toxic." It's honestly a joke at how much Riot focuses on "Toxicity," but won't do anything to the people who actually breed it.
I spend on average, 20 minutes between Queue and Pregame, and most of my games are over before the 20 minute mark. Constantly see games where people drop 1/15, or scores similar, and these players clearly don't care about climbing or winning. I spend more time in queue and pregame than I do actually getting to play the game. Someone dies once, starts feeding, and then goes afk. If you look at these players match histories, and see that 75% of the matches they play consist of 10+ deaths with minimal kills or assists, and a 40% or lower winrate, you have to wonder how these players are still allowed to play. Meanwhile the players that want to Climb/Win get shafted if we say anything to these players in chat. When 2 or more people have literally 20+ deaths between them before you can even surrender, it just ends up being not only a huge waste of time, but you find yourself asking "why even bother?" It just ends up being a waste of everyones time, and that time that is constantly wasted holds no value in the eyes of Riot.
The players who do want to win though, take full LP losses, get their time wasted, and there's nothing in game to prevent these measures at all. I'm told to Play with Premades to prevent people from feeding, which is complete ludicrous. There are plenty of solo players who get stuck with 4 mans all the time, and 4 mans feeds just the same as a group of solo players. Not to mention 4 man premades are extremely toxic compared to your average solo player, because they feel the need to defend themselves or their friend who is intentionally going out of their way to lose. I've had premades forfeit winning games simply because I've said something like "Get a sightstone," or "We need more vision." I've been a solo players ever since I played Ranked, 90% of my ranked games are Solo queue, being told that the only way to prevent feeding is to Premade is a bandaid answer.
They refuse to segregate players who go out of their way to ruin games, aka Ranked Restriction, which is/was a thing for "Verbal Abusive Players." I encounter more Trolls on a daily basis than toxic players, I get many more games ruined by Trolls than I do by toxic players. I see 2 and 3 man premades feed all the time, and end with scores like 3/14 botlane and 2/11 jungle, all within 20/30 mins Sitting in a game for 40 mins while 3 people afk run down lane, while refusing to surrender isn't a good use of any players time. Players like this, who go out of their way to ruin games just make the climb harder and more tedious than it is. They deserved to just be banned on sight. Trolling/Greifing is a bigger impact on a game than almost anything a player could say to someone else.
Dynamic queue hasn't changed anything. People get their best roles, and still end up looking at a grey screen for half of the game. Just because someone gets their best or second best role doesn't mean they want to win or climb. It all just ends up being a waste of time. Just because a player mains X roll doesn't mean hes not going to go in and feed to his hearts desire.
The only players I see getting banned for this behavior are people who stream it for months or years on end. It ends up taking Pros speaking up about X player, because hes taking their views, or A reddit post hitting the frontpage about Y player, whos been intentionally feeding for 4 years, for anything to actually happen. Anything short of this, nothing is/will be done. Our wasted time is of no value to Riot.
If you honestly want to fix this 'Toxicity" issue, then start by dealing with these players. The ones who go out of their way to lose games because of the smallest things. People who constantly try to win, and put forth all their effort every game continue to get their time wasted, lose FULL LP, and it just lessens the morale for these players. It makes the climb that much harder, and tedious. Give us LP Reductions in games where people intentionally troll. Give us someway to restart, or end a game early under the same circumstances. Sitting around for 20+ in queue, then getting into game just to have 2 people be 1/15 by 20 minutes isn't my definition or fun, nor is it a good use of time for any player. It's ranked, the only thing that should matter is the Win and the Climb. In order to Climb, you need LP, in order to get LP you need to win. If you want to have fun, and see how many times you can die, there's always normals, or the rotating game modes. Yet, people constantly play ranked with the mindset of "it's just a game," and are shocked when someone asks them to stop trolling when they are afk running down lane with a score of 0/9 at 12 mins.
The sooner that these players are actually dealt with in EVERY ELO, not just Plat+, and not just people who are stupid enough to stream it... The sooner people will actually be able to enjoy ranked and actually climb at a decent rate. How can that your system is truly working when most of my losses are caused by people who troll/feed and not by people being toxic. You can mute "Toxic Players," you can't do anything about those who go out of their way trolling games because of 1 or more players on their team. Just like I've said for years, it's a team game. It takes 5 to win, and only one person to lose. That's how its always been, that's how it always will be. Players who consistently feed or grief need to actually be punished, and despite Riot stating they are doing so, in the most vague manner possible. Without providing any evidence, enough players have shown that this really isn't the case. If it was it wouldn't be a bigger problem than the "perceived Toxicity," issue that riot has been humping for the past 4 years.
