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@Riot, will I be banned for this? My concerns.

SwainLaneWinGame·2/26/2017, 8:23:29 PM·4 votes·826 views

Back in s5 I mained supp role exclusively and did ok in it, but since then I moved away from that to top and more recently mid. So lately I've been having fun playing soraka again, but this time in mid lane and sometimes top. I was bored one day of playing all the same champs in those lanes and tried soraka out of curiousity and wow, it was amazing for me. I started the usual "support" starter item of ancient coin for the gold passive in case I missed last hits, and refillable potion to save gold for items but still have some sustain. I went more damage-y with my runes and masteries (currently using dft), and boy it was great. I think I'm somewhere around 60% win rate with her in mid and top. Of course I find it easier to lane against ap champs, because now with all the Available control items that are cheap like zz rot and banner, I just rush banner for the wave pushing and I max my Q and E first for harass, control and zoning. Also since playing soraka as a damage dealer/control Mage makes you rethink how you lane, it forces you to be more aware of surroundings, the min ap and playing safer in lane. Not that I don't go aggressive when I think I can push an advantage; I've quite literally 1v1'd champs like Vladimir top and cass mid. The damage output from a q and e combo takes many off guard, and returns most of the damage you take in trades back to full hp. It seems to be pretty effective especially considering everyone and their grandmother has been opting for lethality carry champs or high damage ap Mage supports with no defensive team capabilities. Soraka mid late game I've noticed provides the same level, of not even more control and team support for these carries to do their job better.

The problem is, every time I hover soraka mid or top, at least one player in my lobby seems to have a small seizure, and usually repeatedly asks me (incredulously) "you're playing soraka mid???/". Sometimes their reactions aren't even that civil, and I get things like "wow it's gg" or "are you fucking kidding me" etc. I'm scared that my account may be in jeopardy of being perma banned. See, I was a naughty child (reformed) and did get to a 2 week suspension a month or two ago. I've literally invested around 3k usd into my account for loot and skins and stuff, and tons of hours playing. I play ranked exclusively because I dislike the casual experience of normals and I always play with the intention to win.

Even in-game, I still read my chat and whenever something goes wrong in teamfights -- even if it's their own misplay -- I get blamed and told I'm getting reported for trolling, or that I'm a pos, a noob, trash, etc. the few games I have lost with raka laning, usually were the result of poor team direction and lack of basic end-game concepts like grouping for objectives and managing waves and such. There's only been I think around two games I actually went negative score and did badly. On average though I've been getting at the minimum, S- rank on my wins and usually with scores normal to that of a more meta soraka support. I find it also works great for my play style because I've come to be more objective oriented and farm oriented than simply hunting enemy players for kills. I love playing singed, for example (currently my highest mastery point champ). I got a lot of flame for proxy farming singed too; less now though after some Korean played him on lck though.

Please riot, let me know if it's ok for me to keep playing soraka mid or top in ranked play? There hasn't been one game where I've hovered or locked in Raka mid/top where another person hasn't at the very least, had a negative attitude towards my pick. At the worst (and on average), I get flamed or harassed and told my pick is stupid, or I'm stupid, and later harassed by someone or multiple someone's in game for every tiny misplay or mistake that I'm involved in (keyword: involved, not always the originator of them). By and large I play relatively passive in lane as compared to say, a lux mid, but it works and the scaling damage of my runes and max Q throw a lot of people off, sometimes my own teammates that expect miracles from my off-meta pick because they're either used to a damage dealer solo laner, or they project their own insecurities about my pick back onto me.

I know you've said going off-meta is never punishable -- one could theoretically play amumu bot (per your own words on your site) -- but lately I've seen growing unease and controversy with other, much more skilled players than I being banned for going against the current meta. Of course, if someone in my lobby questions my pick (usually if they're at least cordial about it). I'll just confirm I'm playing soraka mid/top, but what about all the other times other players get angry or confused and rage at me? Am I supposed to acquiesce to their demands and not play soraka solo lane? Remember, her kit's strength revolves around healing and supporting others, I can't inherently be a "carry" (although I have done so in many of my games, just via a more objective and map control oriented way), so what if my teammates demand I play something else? More often than not my pick is met with distrust at the least, and contempt and resignation of failure in-game from the beginning, at worst. Invariably every loss I've had I've been told I'm getting that report sent. Often times my teammates also repeat it in /all chat for the enemy team to report me as well. I never say anything back because I know now not to use the in game chat lest I may accidentally let out my own frustrations and inadvertently trigger the IFS.

I'm really concerned that for whatever reason, these reports over time may stack up in the system (I play ALOT -- just logged in at 800 games this season), and for whatever reason may be flagged for a manual review. Since often times I'm going against the grain and against what my other teammates think is a winning lane champion, I'm concerned about causing any incident that might cause a negative environment and/or undue stress in for my team with having to learn how to play around a passive heal Mage in lane. If it's ever my fault that we do lose a game I would hate to be the center of that blame for my off-meta pick and singled out in their reports for "trolling" or "not playing correctly" my champion role -- since it does say In the game that soraka is strictly a support champion. Yet I'm playing a support in what is widely considered and accepted to be dominant solo lanes for Xp and gold income.

Please advise how I should proceed?

28 Comments

SrbLud2/26/2017, 8:34:09 PM6 votes

It's viable and you can't be banned if you follow one simple rule. Explain to your team what you are doing and why it works. Try and do it as politely as possible. Be possitive about it.

If the outrage is too big and the majority doesn't like it, just pick something else. It will bring the morale down if you ignore it, essentially ruining the game for your teammates. That would be reportable.

It's a touchy issue so in essence try and not to piss off your teammates.

FioraWillCarry2/26/2017, 8:36:45 PM4 votes

There's a guy that made it to Diamond playing Soraka top so I guess you're pretty safe. Just don't let them bait you into toxic behavior which you can be punished for.

Magical Player2/27/2017, 3:10:06 AM2 votes

https://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=magical+player I can confirm you're response toward me playing to win. I clearly give a 63% effort towards that goal

glad you looked me up...... sarcasm ofc

to me you are trying if in a 20 min game you have less than 5 deaths 30 min game less than 7 Unless both teams are aiming to get high kill counts post 7 deaths in a 30 min game directly tells me you are not trying. a Death every 4-5 mins is absurd on 1 champion factors do change my mind in each game but my rule of thumb is after my 5th death I may as well be feeding(note I said my not others)

Also 50/50 every game. lol far to many factors to begin discussing to say that is true Riot tries their best to "balance games" but every individual person is never balanced with another on a team

Magical Player2/27/2017, 2:23:22 AM2 votes

You're 100% right.... but what if you're not Prove to me you were playing to win As you've already stated you have many accounts My guess is they're all 1 trick ponies.

Prolific? really you? do you really think you contribute that much to this game to call yourself prolific?

Riot understands bad games, but when you string together 100's of reports for together for various reasons across several games its called a pattern. You had a pattern of being a cause of negativity on teams

People want the cause fixxed rather than the effect

So you created toxic players, by not working with your team

My guess is your way of communicating with your team was insta locking soraka then block pasting a wall of text saying your gonna try your best or some "I got this" type of line Just my guess after all only riot knows why they punished you be sure to take it up with riot if you want a rioter to post here for you be sure to post on their posts to get their attention :D

Ohh yeah 1st point prove to anyone you are playing to win. prove you are not trolling. Prove to anyone who wasn't there that your goal was to not simply to have fun 1 tricking.

Magical Player2/26/2017, 8:29:20 PM2 votes

https://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=SwainLaneWinGame+ a swain main.... confused here

SwainLaneWinGame2/27/2017, 1:01:13 AM2 votes

Still waiting on an official stance from riot !

SanKakU2/26/2017, 8:31:06 PM1 votes

Even though I don't like the idea of a 'hard-core' support like Soraka or Taric in a solo lane, it's not bad enough to ban someone over. Now if you were doing dumb stuff like buying Infinity Edge on her, or like a Manamune on a Zed, then I'd be wondering if you're level 30 or not yet.

OnlyYouCanHearMe2/27/2017, 1:14:48 AM1 votes

{quoted} The problem is, every time I hover soraka mid or top, at least one player in my lobby seems to have a small seizure, and usually repeatedly asks me (incredulously) "you're playing soraka mid???" Sometimes their reactions aren't even that civil, and I get things like "wow it's gg" or "are you fucking kidding me" etc. I'm scared that my account may be in jeopardy of being perma banned.

See, I was a naughty child (reformed) and did get to a 2 week suspension a month or two ago. I've literally invested around 3k usd into my account for loot and skins and stuff, and tons of hours playing. I play ranked exclusively because I dislike the casual experience of normals and I always play with the intention to win.

I'm going to lump the two above quotes together, because they need to be addressed in conjunction with one another. The thing is, it's not against the rules to play an off-meta champion, or to bring a champion into a lane/role that they are not typically found in. However, it is against the rules to ruin the gaming experience of your teammates. Now, I'm not talking about having a bad game that upsets competitive players. But when you knowingly pick a champion that your team is emphatically against, you are going to encounter friction with your teammates. This is exactly what happened with the Smite Support Singed, and I've just heard mention of a Smite Nunu Support, but I have not read any details of that case yet, so I am not familiar with what happened with him.

If you were given a 2 week suspension only a couple months ago, and have been playing Soraka top regularly since then (and have been reported regularly by teammates), it's highly possible that you still have not dropped back down to one of the lower punishment tiers. It takes a period of time with "good behavior" where you are not earning viable reports. Even if you are not being toxic or flaming, you may be racking up many reports for trolling/griefing for playing Raka top. The reason the Singed player was threatened with a ban was the sheer volume of reports he had received, which is something you may also encounter.

Please riot, let me know if it's ok for me to keep playing soraka mid or top in ranked play?

Again, it's not against the rules to play off-meta. But one of the fundamental principles of the Summoner's Code is being willing to work with your teammates and maintain clear, and polite, communication. Just telling them "I'm going to play Soraka top" is not communicating with them. When they express their concerns, express your reasons for wanting to play her. But keep in mind, if you are expecting the four other players on your team to compromise and allow you to play Soraka wherever you want, then you also need to be willing to compromise sometimes and play another champion if it is causing too much strife in champion select. You may have a team comprised of champions with low damage output, or mainly tanks. Sometimes it's not good strategy to put a passive, low damage healer in place of a damage dealer in one of your solo lanes.

I know you've said going off-meta is never punishable

Again again, it's not against the rules to play off-meta. But it is against the rules to ruin the game for your teammates. And if you are being reported hundreds of times for playing Soraka mid/top, then you are ruining a lot of people's games.

I'm really concerned that for whatever reason, these reports over time may stack up in the system (I play ALOT -- just logged in at 800 games this season), and for whatever reason may be flagged for a manual review.

Continuing from what I typed above, once you get that many reports, you very well might trigger a manual review. Like the Support Singed. If you haven't read the threads about him, or seen one of the many YouTube videos detailing the responses he received from Player Support, I highly recommend you do so. It will give you an idea of why Riot recommends a degree of compromise in cases like this, when a player is not just going off-meta, but going off-meta in a way that is actively enraging their teammates.

Additionally, if you are already antagonizing your team by choosing such an off-meta pick, you run the risk of them being hyper-vigilant about reporting you for anything else that might happen in the game. If you flame or harass anyone, even if they started it by raging at you first, you are that much more likely to be reported. And reports for that are much more easily proved than reports for trolling. The IFS will catch them. So it's even more important now that you do not fall back into any previous toxic habits. Which can be very tempting when a team begins to flame you in champ select and continues it throughout the game. In that sense, playing an off-meta champion can create, and even nurture, a hostile environment, breeding the sort of toxicity that Riot is trying to remove from the game.

Riot doesn't tell people that they cannot play a champion in a role, but they do ask their players to exercise diplomacy when interacting with teammates in champion select. Being willing to speak with your team, and compromise if it is causing too much of an issue will go a very long way towards enabling you to play off-meta without carrying such a risk of reports and possible punishment.