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Why does Riot punish toxic players un-equally?

SWATCOLE·8/2/2018, 12:02:09 AM·3 votes·2,323 views

Awhile back, I was in the type of normals game where both teams are doing friendly banter forwards each other. I'm not sure how to describe it other than that; if you've ever been in a game like this you know what I'm talking about. Anyways, as the game went on the enemy Ezreal joked he was going AFK because he died, and I replied "no pls :( you might be a %%%%%%, but you're my %%%%%% <3". Immediately after the game, I was two week banned, despite never being punished, or even warned in my 4+ years of playing League.

Did I deserve the ban? Yes. I've come to realize that behavior like this isn't acceptable in League, regardless of the context or intent.

Fast forward to 3 weeks ago. I was in a game with a friend who started the game out by typing in all chat something along the lines of "%%%%%%s yall suck bitch ass players". I reported him after the game, yet he was not banned.

Yesterday, after winning a game, a friend of my regular duo told the enemy Heimer "%%%%%%. go die. you suck" in the post-game lobby chat. I reported him, and I think the enemy Heimer did too judging how long he stayed in the lobby. Yet, he was not banned either.

In both of these occurrences, I can confirm they were not banned due to me being in Discord/League Voice with them, as well as having them on my friends list. Why was my use of the word "%%%%%%" deemed as "hate speech" and therefore ban worthy, while these other two people's use of the slur is seen as acceptable enough to not even issue a chat restriction? One could argue that these two other players had a clean history, so Riot gave them a one-time "get out of jail free card". However, I also had a completely clean history my entire prior 4+ years of playing League, yet was still instantly given a 2-week ban, so that argument doesn't hold up.

Am I missing something here? In my opinion, their use of the slur was worse than mine, as they were using it for the sole intention of flaming, while mine was used in a distrustful joke about Ezreal's sexuality.** I'm not saying that my use of the word was acceptable - hateful slurs have no place in League, regardless of intent, and I deserved to be banned**. Riot's rules and polices align with that statement. So, why are people like this not banned, or even punished at all? It's not that they somehow slipped through Riot's auto-detection - both of these players were reported by at least one person, and probably twice each. Why are rules like this not enforced equally?

** TL;DR: Some people can use hateful slurs and not even get chat restricted, while others are instant 2-week banned. Why does Riot not enforce the rules equally to all players?**

EDIT: Instead of downvoting me, leave a comment telling why you disagree with the points I brought up, then downvote me. I'm looking for a discussion that will lead to an answer.

30 Comments

La Mataviejitas8/2/2018, 12:06:53 AM9 votes

you might be a %%%%%%, but you're my %%%%%%

I feel like we need to make a sticky at some point.

Zero-tolerance words.

Kei1438/2/2018, 12:08:35 AM4 votes

The system punishes people based on consistency x severity. Meaning someone can be punished for having 1 game of extreme toxicity or 100 games of consistent mild toxicity.

In the cases of toxicity not severe enough to get someone punished right away, that game is saved within their behavioral history and will be part of their punishment later.

Think of it like a leveling system. Everytime you are toxic you work towards the punishment threshold, once one pass that level, they get punished.

On the flip side, when a player has clean behavior, they system registers that and gives you more chances .

The Highest Noon8/2/2018, 12:36:27 AM1 votes

Because the punishment system is as flawwed as the people dishing out punishments. Zero-tolerance is a terrible belief in 2018 and if it's not the automated punishment system messing up it's people punishing others because they don't like what was said even if what was said was either entirely justified or entirely innocent.

The Highest Noon8/2/2018, 12:43:53 AM1 votes

I am someone who's been banned and is currently on suspension, and I can say this with 100% certainty:

I HAVE NEVER BEEN TOXIC TOWARDS SOMEONE WHO DIDN'T DESERVE IT.

Zezockary8/2/2018, 10:21:51 AM1 votes

I believe the current system tolerates one zero tolerance infraction that may or may not fall off of your record on the basis that someone mashing keys might accidentally input one, but I don't have any official sources backing me on that.

Basically, you said it twice, they said it once.

Gundrabis8/2/2018, 12:34:26 AM1 votes

From a comon sense standpoint the ban is not justified, especially not in full context of the entire conversation (which is left out for obvious reasons because then you could argue from an actual basis of facts). But this is "FULL RETARD VIDEO GAMES" telling you that you are toxic when their definition of toxic would be saying hello in all chat. A lot of people who want you to stay sane would agree to just mute everyone BUT this doesnt fix the underlying community issue that riot is protecting the people who int and troll and flame by telling everyone with comon sense to just "look away" while the retards are doing drive by shootings in the alley every hour. They continuously filter out people who are not toxic and only leave the inters/passive aggressive trolls and anything beyond sanity in the system and THATS what greets you when you start playing the game. So obviously it creates an avalanche effect of more retards joining the stream and now everyone who could have fought the idiots is gone /mute all and the trolls win. Thats what "FULL RETARD VIDEO GAMES" has acomplished. and NOW they dont even have a playerbase with a comon sense to rely on anymore so there are only people who are going to try EVERYTHING to win an arguement in game by getting people banned. How do you do that? Well, you just say "he should be banned becasue i feel offended" and from that point on ALL LOGIC IS DEFIED! There is no comon sense or logical argument anymore that can resolve the issue because everything is subjective and about "feelings". And riot wont/cant even argue with it anymore, they have dug too deep. They put the bar so low they cant reach it anymore. That also means riot is so far gone that they cant distinguish anymore so they just ban everything they see for damage/image control even if its just teh tip of the iceberg. If you ask anyone: whats the most toxic game? They answer: league

Personally I`ve seen some of the worst flamefiestas and nobody ever got banned because those games were those silver fiestas where nobody even cared about the game or anything at all anymore so the fire lit itself to ridiculous hights. The pinicle of toxicity that still exists today and its like korea where you can basicly flame everyone every game and you will never get banned. EVER

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Manslayer8/2/2018, 12:07:47 AM1 votes

Wow! You reported your friends? Shows how good of a friend you are to them. Like, intervene with them be like "Yo man, don't use that language that aint cool.". Then if they continue report them. Literally reporting them behind their back for something so petty or because you were salty you were two week banned is just silly. I know I wouldn't call the police on my friend if he stole, I'd just be like "Dude, wtf why are you stealing? Stop that shit.". (Unless he did some really bad stuff.)