Permanently Suspended? Common Posts and Common Answers

First off, RIOT's support section is a great resource and covers much of what I'll say in this post: https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201898070#h1q1

There's an enormous amount of players who come onto this forum after being permanently suspended. There's quite a few soap boxes that come out and the constitution is dragged up, popcorn is had and there is much down voting and incredulity. Most of these posts fall into a few categories which I'd like to answer here with the best answers that RIOT and forum members have posted.

To start, I would like to emphasize: "Suspensions due to the Leaver Buster System and Instant Feedback System will not be lifted or shortened under any circumstance.

Disciplinary suspensions unrelated to the Leaver Buster System and Tribunal, such as inappropriate summoner name, will vary depending on the specific situation. In these cases, please submit a ticket to Player Support, and we will be happy to provide you with more information about your suspension and how to proceed."

This essentially means that all tribunal and leaver buster decisions are final and binding and will not change. Ever. Stinks, I know. As it said, there are a few appeals available under certain circumstances. Typically, if you receive a chat log, that decision will not change. It's evidence and has been found to be negative enough to be removed from the community. Forum members almost unanimously agree via down voting and munching on popcorn that the suspensions are deserved when chat logs are posted. [slayer-pantheon-popcorn] Types of posts commonly found on the Player Behavior and Moderation forum:

1. Not sure why your account was suspended. Need help finding this information. Many players come onto the forums and don't know why they were suspended. There's a few things that have probably occurred to get that far into the tribunal system but there's a basic way to find this information. a) check your email associated with your account A email with a chat log or explanation for why your account was suspended will have been sent to your email and barring any spam filters, it should solve most issues of confusion. b) email wasn't clear or can't find email Forum members and moderators can't look up this information for you. You'll need to submit a support ticket by clicking the support button at the top of the screen and submitting a report. You can do this here as well: https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/requests/new (Would appreciate anyone telling me the exact category to submit the support ticket under for this circumstance in a comment, I would assume "I have a question about league of legends?")

2. Suspended for Verbal reasons Typically, these fall into four styles of posts: a) Chat log checks People post their chat log from the game or games that were cited in the suspension email. They either desire that the chat log be reviewed by their peers or RIOT and that their suspension be reconsidered or that they believe the reason for their suspension was not found in those logs and that their suspension be reconsidered. Forum members and Moderators cannot review your case. This can only be done by behavioral specialists after submitting a support ticket. They will communicate with you via email and explain your case and why the decision to suspend the account was made. b) Decision Bashing Rude, crude and sometimes downright entertaining these posts are typically just a rant about how bad RIOT was to ban them, how "dumb" the behavioral system must be to do this to them and how wrong it must be. c) Justification Posts Many summoners believe that since their game contained someone "toxic" or rude or trolling that their actions were somehow not as bad as they appear and therefore they were justified in their comments. They were not. d) Freedom of Speech The constitutional amendment does NOT cover your chat while playing League of Legends. RIOT, as a company, may have rules (both posted and unposted) that govern your actions and communication while using their service. http://na.leagueoflegends.com/legal/termsofuse e) Under this section, I would like to emphasize that racist, homophobic, sexist and generally bigoted chat is very quickly banned and posts containing many of these words of hate are 1. against forum policy to be posted and 2. are most certainly reasons to be banned. In addition, negative behavior in general is very often, almost unanimously agreed on by forum members to be a reason for a suspension.

3. Suspended for Griefing, Intentional feeding, etc. These also fall into two categories: a) Summoners that habitually have "bad games". These posts are from summoner who are or want to appear as newer or inexperienced summoners that may not have been griefing or intentionally feeding but the pattern of behavior that appeared was something that "deliberately caused the game to be harder to win" (https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201752884-Reporting-a-Player). Players in this section may not even know they did anything wrong. Again, forum members and moderators cannot review these cases but they can often explain why you were reported and what you can do in the future to avoid a suspension. As previously stated, these cases are not subject to appeal. There are a number of great websites, steamers and players here on the forums who would be willing to help you get better. b) Summoners who want to play the game "their" way These posts tend to be varied. They describe how they like to "break the meta" or that they think that intentionally feeding is a viable strategy in ARAM. It's typically very much agreed to that playing in a manner that makes it "harder to win through deliberate action" isn't very fun for your team mates and can lead to a suspension. It might be challenging to you to die to dragon 50 times before your team wins a beginner bot game, but that's not very fair to your team. RIOT considers League of Legends an E-Sport. It's typically well agreed on that if you wouldn't want a team mate in a sport doing it, then you wouldn't want someone doing it in League. Can you play soccer by running on your hands and headbutting the ball? Sure.. you can... but that doesn't mean your team likes it or that they'll let you play if you continually do it.

4. Suspended for scripting, botting, devices that script, illegal programs. (there's actually a great post on which programs league allows and doesn't but I can't find it, anyone know what I mean and where to get it? Post it in a comment and I'll add it) a) Post claims ignorance These summoners may not have known they couldn't use "mods" or a particular function of their gaming keyboard or mouse. They typically are confused and unsure of what to do. The proper way to go about finding out what happened is to submit a support ticket. From what I've heard and see on the forums, RIOT will NOT explain what it was that specifically got you banned under this kind of suspension. This is for their security. This also may be one of the areas that RIOT MIGHT make an exception to a suspension and review your case. For example, it's very common to use macros in gaming and use a gaming mouse that can execute one of those macros. If you set it up to /dance cause you thought it'd be funny, there may be reason for them to lift the suspension if you remove the macro and don't use it in the future. b) Post claims they weren't using features of a program that would be banned, just a skin modifier. Like the heading says, these posts are about certain programs that are not banned, but have features that will lead to an account suspension if used. These programs allow for custom skins (which at current is allowed) but also have features like "when to hit a creep" "did someone use a global ult" "is that bush warded" which would be banned. I'm not sure if these suspensions are able to be reviewed. I would suggest that you ask on the forums if a particular program or device is "legal" prior to using it. You can even submit a support ticket and RIOT should be able to tell you more.

5. What about them and the system is flawed cause... style posts a) Trolls! I was reported by trolls! The system is designed to discount troll reports and reports that aren't accurate. b) The system is messed up! I got fake reported by everyone. Reports count 1 per game. It's a habitual violation of the summoners code that yields a permanent suspension, NOT how many times you get reported. c) I got skipped to permanent suspension! Typically the escalation is: 10 Game Chat Restriction 25 Game Chat Restriction 2 Week Suspension Permanent Suspension RIOT reserves the right to use monopoly jail (do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to jail) rules. This means you can be suspended immediately in extreme circumstances. d) Warnings don't really count if they're not real. Per Riot's Tantrum: " The warnings are there so people know they are being reported. We tell you first, then we check the validity of reports. I understand this can be confusing at times, but if you didn't do anything wrong you have nothing to worry about. If the reports weren't valid, then you can disregard the message."

That about wraps it up. These are some of typical posts found on the forum regarding permanent suspension and answers to them.

References: RIOT Support "My Account is Suspended" https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201898070#h1q2 RIOT Support "Submit a Request" https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/requests/new RIOT Support "Reporting a Player" https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201752884-Reporting-a-Player RIOT Games NA "Terms of Use" http://na.leagueoflegends.com/legal/termsofuse

Hope this helps people. Hope it is a good reference for people so they don't have to post and wait for information that's often confusing, conflicted, rude or unhelpful. Please let me know if I missed something or if I'm wrong about anything. Thanks!