Players Abusing the Report System and How Automation Makes it Easy

So, I'm not going to lie, I was recently chat restricted and am a little upset. I have been playing League of Legends since season 2 and have never been disciplined for unsportsmanlike behavior until just a few days ago. I queued into a ranked 3's (Yes I like T.T. and no I am not weird) and get put into a game with 2 people who had just played a game together. It seems like it is going to be a good game, they are talking about good plays that were made and how they won the game together, so I had high hopes. Fast forward to the first skirmish in the jungle and one of our teammates (Lux) disconnects abruptly and does not reconnect for about 3 minutes, giving first blood to the enemy team. While this is upsetting I say nothing and continue to play the game, hoping that they reconnect in a timely manner. Once the 3 minutes pass they do connect long enough to say "MY BATTERY DIED AND MY BROTHER TOOK THE CHARGER" and then they disconnect again. Another 3 minutes pass where the 3v2 enemy team is running rampant, I happen to die a few times (lane was Teemo (me) vs. Irelia) to the enemy Sejuani ganking me repeatedly, but when they do reconnect yet again I do not say anything... At least not for a while.

Fast forward 15 minutes later and we are in the mid/late game. I have roughly 3 kills and 10 deaths (what are you to expect when its 2v3 for 6 minutes?) and the Lux has been going "ham" and has a few kills of her own but roughly twice as many deaths as kills (so is also feeding) and she then starts complaining about how "Temmo" is trash and how I bad at the game. I tried not to say anything but honestly it was pretty offensive given that, even though the enemy team got an AFK first blood, I was thrashing Irelia in lane but could not do anything about a Sejuani who would happily dive me every 2 minutes. She continues to berate me about being a bad player and I finally snap. I do not scream at her in caps, I do not blame her for disconnecting, I simply say "There is no way to win, they are too far ahead and we won't win fights." And to that she replys (in all chat) "Temmo is giving up."

I in no ways said that I was giving up, I simply said there was no way for us to win when we were under-leveled, under-farmed and had little to no coordination. But because of me pointing that out she labeled me as a quitter. I was, yet again, offended that the person who ruined the game for me (that I had yet to point out because its just a game and did not matter... Even if it was ranked...) was trying to blame me for the loss. It was at this point I started to argue with her that it was not actually my fault, but theirs. They did not like that. They started saying things like "I was amazing last game" and "Temmo is bad" in all chat and accusing me of being toxic after having cost me a ranked game because they were not intuitive enough to plug in their laptop before queueing for a ranked game.

We ended up losing the game. Towards the end of the match I was stressed out because of the drama that was coming out of a game that I have loved and enjoyed for years all because one person could not own up to their part in our teams loss. I admit I said some things I probably should not have, namely, "Your reasoning is terrible, what are you 12?" (referencing the "I was amazing last game" argument they kept bringing up as if it had any affect on this game) and "This is retarded" (Notice I said "this" and not "you" I was talking about this situation in general and not the player themselves) but these statements alone were obviously enough to trigger the automatic chat restriction. Upon starting my next game I was told that I must complete 10 games with little to no communication with my team and 0 communication with the enemy and that my honor rank had been reduced to rank 1 and locked for an indeterminable amount of time.

All because someone in a ranked game forgot to plug in their laptop and then blamed me for the outcome of the game.

I know most of you who have spent the time reading this entire post (if anyone actually does) will probably just think I am whining about getting punished, but that is not the case. Had I blatantly flamed my teammate for disconnecting and then harassed them for the rest of the game over the loss of my ranked match then I could understand the punishment, but for having tried to be civil about the situation and then losing my temper because they couldn't own up to their mistake and convinced other people to report me even though I had not broken any of the rules, I honestly feel like I have been taken advantage of. Like I said, I have never before been punished for and form of harassment in the game, but without warning I get stripped of my honor and my ability to communicate because some automated system decided that I was "unhealthy" for the community.

Simply put, I believe that the automated systems are too susceptible to abuse from players with a personal vendetta against other players, and there should be some sort of human-based judgement on whether people who have never before been punished for something such as harassment should actually be punished. People make mistakes, I obviously did, although I do not believe it to be as egregious as the system makes it out to be, but to make them pay such a stiff penalty for first-time offenses and not even give a chance for an appeal is honestly a terrible oversight. I am not a repeat offender, I do not flame my teammates for being bad, but I am a fallible. I don't think I should be punished for that.

Thank you to anyone who took the time to read this, I felt the need to vent my frustration and to tell my side of the story in an attempt to shed light on what I think is a flawed system. Please feel free to comment on why I am wrong or whether you agree with me, I'd appreciate any feedback.