Should i have done otherwise...

Ozzie Storm·5/17/2017, 7:14:28 PM·4 votes·412 views

Note: this is a sensetive topic regarding disrespect towards religion from players ingame, nothing extreme but some people might get offended.

So earlier today I was playing a casual game of league. Our bot Lucian was fed and was destroying everyone. Appearently the enemy Varus (who will go unnamed for obvious reasons) got tilted and said spmething very offensive towards our adc in /all chat. He said "Nik rabak" which in arabic means "Fu*k your God".

Obviously the offence flew right above our adc's head (him not knowing arabic and all) and since i doubt that the report system would pick up what he said i replyed with "Varus ma te7terem nafsak" which means "Varus you better respect yourself" basically telling him that he better watch his tone. Just because he is speaking in a foreign language it doesn't mean that it's ok to say offensive things, and disrespecting religion is no small thing.

Quick note: SInce the arabic keyboard isn't compatible with lol ingame arabs usually type what the words would sound in arabic using the english alphabet (the 7 represents a letter which doesn't exist in the eng. language, it's just used because it looks similar to ح).

Now my intention was to give him like a warning showing him that there are peope here understanding what he's saying and that he should watch his language and be done with it, if he continued with his behaviour i'd report him and that would be it, but to my surprise Varus replied to me in english.

He asked in what i assume is a sarcastic way "are you a triggered muslim?". I honestl didn't plan on replying but him shoing that he's capable of the eng language our adc got curious and asked what the meaning of Varus's offence was which i felt obligated to tell him. The offence was directed towards him after all, not telling him felt wrong. (Btw props to Lucian for keeping his cool and simply replying with "that's not nice", if you happen to read this you have my respect).

Ofc my beleifs have nothing to do with me replying to him, i simply said "no, i'm just a friendly respectful player not appreciating your behaviour"

And just when things seemd to get to a conclusion out of nowhere Varus started saying offensive things like "Jesus is gay", "Religions are evil" further disrespecting not just christians and muslims but every religion there is, it got so annoying that even his teammates typed in /all chat saying that noone cares about his opinion when it came to religion. Everyone simply wanted him to shut up. And when he got threatened with getting reported he simply lagues daying "you think a stupid robot would understand or care lolol"

Ofc i reported him there's no questioning that, but that's not why i'm writing this. After the game was over I couldn't help but feel guilty for translating the offence to or adc. By simply ignoring it all nothing would have happened, yet i felt that by not telling him I'd be the one disrespecting him even further.

There's no humor when it comes to disrespecting others beleifs and ignoring the thing all together fet wrong. And nowing what the report system is capable of doing and i strongly believe that arabic sounding english isn't detectabe there's no doubt why Carus simply laughed at the idea of getting reported (which is an issue by itself but that's beyond the point).

DId I do the right thing? should i have translated the offence, should i have lied to varus or should i have just stayed shut? What would have done differently?

If you have read all the way thrugh i appreciate it alot. I know it's somewhat of a long read but i felt that putting this out there was necessary and didn't want to leave anything out.

/Ozzie

10 Comments

Jo0o5/17/2017, 7:22:12 PM3 votes

Much respect for handling it the way you did.

We're not required to be emotionless automatons to play this game, we're just required not to flame and spam. Within the scope of the rules, there's nothing wrong with what you did.

You're right and smart to realize that it may have incited a fight that didn't need to happen, but shit, the other guy started it and it doesn't sound like you provoked or escalated the issue. You didn't need to translate what was said, but you did what you thought the situation called for, and for that I respect you.

League needs more people that handle trolls like you.

ModPeriscope5/17/2017, 7:29:28 PM1 votes

I didn't find anything problematic with what you typed, and I feel like you handled it well. It's never ok to bash someone's religion, or even to assume someone's religion in a game.

Warlord Scrap5/17/2017, 7:46:56 PM1 votes

while i respect how you handled it. If you feel the need to file a report you could put in under hate speech and say what it means in arabic in the future

Troll for Trump5/18/2017, 4:10:54 AM1 votes

It happens with other languages too.

Sarutobi5/18/2017, 6:49:25 AM1 votes

I'm sure Riot could translate it if needed. To assume different languages wouldn't be caught is just being ignorant. We live in a world of technology. Things now a days are easily translated even with a simple google search. With that said though writing in the detail sections wouldn't hurt. If anything it would help your case. I don't think what you did was wrong and is probably what Riot wants us to do in general. Keep up the good work!