Champion Select: Toxic Players

Currently, there is a problem that has held League of Legends and its community back for a long time. When regarding toxic players, one likely thinks about such a player regarding their in-game behavior, but players interact with one another in and out of game.

At the moment, Riot is doing a poor job in communicating what exactly to do about toxic players in champion select, or even whether they condemn that type of behavior. There is currently no outlet or channel for a player to follow regarding this type of situation. As of right now, there is no way to report a player outside of the post-game lobby.

So if I encounter a toxic player in champion select who is either 1) Forcibly assuming a role that belongs to someone else or 2) Pervasively negative I will most likely have a severely lower chance of winning if I get into a game with this player on my team. This being the case; what option do I have but to dodge, take the punishment upon myself by losing a small amount of LP, acquiring a wait timer and then hope I never see them again? When I tried to solve this matter by opening support tickets, the Rioters I encountered consistently recommend that I do not dodge, but rather play the game out and report the toxic player after the game is concluded. This is such a ridiculous option. Without trying to put down Riot for the efforts that they are making; the fact their established position is to recommend that I sacrifice an HOUR of my day in a negative experience with a negative person so that I can personally take on the responsibility of making the community which is their responsibility better; is depressing to just think about doing just once, let alone regularly. But more than that, if I was playing ranked games (which I do almost exclusively), where players go to be competitive, I would be losing not one, but TWO hours of my valuable time. One hour lost while losing the first game, and a second hour gaining back my rating the next game.

When asked for help, cops don't tell you to endanger yourself to help them catch criminals. Why would Riot tell us to inconvenience ourselves and waste our time to help discipline toxic players? One can encounter more than enough toxic players just by playing games at random, rather than going out of one's way to interact and remain with more toxic players.

Part of the poor communication comes in to play regarding Riot Support. When opening a support ticket and defining the type of request, there is no category for reporting a player or toxic behavior. As a result, the player opening the ticket is left to make one of a few assumptions:

1) Riot does not condone reporting players via Support Tickets 2) No-one will hear my voice if I report a player via the incorrect category 3) I must pick one of these unrelated categories at random.

One might point out to me "If you choose the 'Question about League' category, you will be redirected to the boards; which if you then follow through all the way to the boards, there is an option to post a thread concerning 'Player Behavior and Moderation'". To which I would respond "Yes, that is true, but am I supposed to assume all of that, and then assume that Riot wants me posting my story about every toxic player I encounter to the boards for all to see? That seems highly doubtful, not to mention illogical.

In conclusion: I really do appreciate the lengths Riot does go to to make our experience better. However, there is much more than can be done. In addition, there are antiquated systems in place that, if updated, could provide a much more streamlined experience which guides and educates players towards the proper actions to take when dealing with others in the community regarding negative and positive interactions. But for the moment, it feels more like one is wrestling with the system to get the desired results, as opposed to the desired and very possible alternative.

Sincerely, CoffeeCaveman