I don't think it is fair that they are so vague.
There are flimsy reasons for there to be further restrictions after you serve your time. I wouldn't expect to get rewards anytime soon either. From what I've seen, because we literally have to google this instead of the moderation team just being clear and transparent, it usually takes about 3 months for the average casual player to receive Hextech rewards again.
The responses ranged from the very helpful, "You'll get them eventually. :)" to about 3 months for a 10 game chat restriction. I find it to be particularly unacceptable that Riot doesn't even give you a time frame. That is unreasonable.
I just received a 10 game chat restriction because I had the nerve to respond to someone rudely who told me to kill myself when this ADC took their gromps by accident and I didn't stay to babysit them in their jungle in a normal game, and they didn't even ask either. I don't think it is right to sound off on your leash when they accidentally take your camp, but it's especially wrong to blame the support who didn't take it in the first place. That's not even the first time that has happened either, which is why it made me laugh.
The other example they gave was one where I again did not instigate, but this premade thought they could say whatever they like to me and this other guy then report us because there was 3 of them. So much for that. Am I going to be winning miss congeniality? No, but I don't think responding to harassment when you're having a bad time makes you a bully or toxic.
I don't feel sorry for people who instigate situations like that by being incredibly insulting or belittling players. I'm not talking about griefing, I'm talking about unprovoked verbal abuse. If you tell someone they're absolute garbage, then I don't think you have any right to be angry when they respond to you the same. If I don't want someone to say mean things to me, then I don't say mean things to them. I don't always respond to negative behavior thrown at me, but really? In my opinion I don't think that's toxic. It may not be mature or constructive, but I'm human.
My recent brush with this system makes me wonder how many people that get these chat restrictions would actually be judged as toxic, i.e. instigating arguments, using hate speech, threatening someone's life. If you're a jerk to me (calling me out of my name), and I'm having a bad time, I'm not going to be nice to you. That's way different from berating someone you perceive to be griefing you.
In the end we agreed to these silly rules, so okay that restriction is fair. I'm not disputing their restriction, even though I think the reason wasn't accurate, but I am disputing that I can't receive mastery tokens because of this restriction after I served my time. Interestingly enough, you can still craft things.
Withholding rewards for months after the fact is a form of punishment, like it or not. Truthfully I could care less about Hextech rewards in general, but then they had to make our mastery levels tied to the system. I think because of that, they should remove the Hextech restriction after you serve out your chat restriction, or at the very least make an exception for the mastery system because it has nothing to do with player behavior. Keep my chests and keys, but don't take away my mastery tokens that I get from playing my champion. **That's the only real issue I have with all of this. **
Their reasoning behind keeping Hextech restricted for months is that it is for positive players, again I find that to be a poor excuse, but not the issue. If we simply got mastery tokens for being positive, that would be another story, but we get them based on our performance in game, and thus I see no reason for them to withhold that. We can agree to disagree with them on what constitutes toxic behavior, but I think when it comes to champion mastery tokens the issue is clear.
They do need to give us a set time frame if they are going to continue with this arbitrary system of punishment because things do not go back to normal after 10 games, and champion mastery tokens should be excluded from Hextech restrictions simply because we don't get them based on behavior.
