[{quoted}](name=KhaZix Bot,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=L29eKslg,comment-id=00040000,timestamp=2019-07-12T07:57:16.873+0000)
I absolutely understand why we see more bans for chat than anything else. It's so easy to catch people that a bot can do it. And so a bot does. False positives are a massive problem, so of course they shouldn't make the system more lenient in dishing out punishment. That's not the point.
The point is that no one should be telling themselves that their garbage mentalities and trolling are somehow justified by their teammates' harrassment. The point is also that, when these people ARE caught for obvious, unmistakable trolling, there should be no escalation to a 14 day ban. They should be gone. First offense, finished.
I believe the reason why it's not a straight up permaban is because Riot believes that people can change their behavior for the better if given the chance to do so. Obviously it can be seen as a double-edged sword where on the one hand it gives people the chance to get their act together and potentially never get punished again but on the other it can allow them to troll even more games before being permabanned. Can't please everyone after all.
As far as the mutes go, I've played since season 2, so I was there, thanks. I also played out my 100 game chat restriction and didn't "grief as an alternative form of toxicity" once. I play with some toxic scumbags, and not one of them has done this. Yeah, I'm aware that Riot CLAIMS gameplay toxicity spiked, but I witnessed no increase in this behavior over the thousand or so ranked games I played during the implementation of these chat bans.
I've played League since the S2 Snowdown Showdown and I didn't either, but then again I don't play every day and most of the toxicity i experienced in the earlier seasons came from custom game modes such as Draft Racing and Hide & Seek where people falsely thought that Riot didn't punish for poor behavior in custom games. Heck I even remember reviewing a Tribunal case that was from a Hide & Seek game where I think I voted Punish if memory serves. That said just because we didn't personally see a major uptick doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't one. From Riot Tantram:
It really breaks down into two categories.
1.) Helping players reform
2.) Shielding others from the behavior, at a cost.
We used to issue chat restrictions that essentially scaled indefinitely.
We were able to determine that after a certain point the penalty no longer helped with reform. The 10-game and 25-game counts for chat restrictions are based on data that they were both light enough, and felt strict enough to encourage people to understand their behavior is unacceptable in game and change it.
We also saw that the players in this 'large restriction' category defaulted to gameplay altering means of harassing their team. It caused an increase in feeding and trolling.
The sample size of this population and time frame is huge. Essentially the time spanning from the introduction of chat restrictions to the introduction of IFS.
So my question for you is, would you rather have more feeders and less negative chat?
Just like the sudden disappearance of the "un-permaban" program and all information surrounding it, there is no concrete evidence of Riot's claims as far as permanent chat bans go. I'm not going to sit here and trash talk the balance team and the visual design teams like everyone else here. Shit isn't half as deserved as people like to think. But player behavior? Everything surrounding it has always been an enigma and you know that.
Maybe it's just me but I don't think it's that mysterious when all you have to do to avoid being punished is not do or say anything you know will just tick other people off (don't insult, flame or harass others and don't troll, int or afk).
Off-topic: I do agree with you that people flame the balance and design teams way too much, usually for petty things such as "X isn't in the colors I like!" (not sure if someone actually complained about that but you get the idea).
Let's not forget the promised return of the Tribunal. They talk circles about everything related to player behavior until everyone forgets.
I think I do remember them talking about the Tribunal returning years ago back when it was taken down. I don't remember how I felt when they stated that it wouldn't be coming back (if they stated it wouldn't: my memory's not the best in that regard), but I'd say the system we have today (which btw was built in part with data gathered from the Tribunal) while it has major room for improvements in the troll detection category does it's job reasonably well if not arguably better than the Tribunal did.
