Riot's standard for gameplay related penalties
Riot's idea to detect bad behavior based on people's intentions rather than measurable and objectively assessable information is ridiculous. They set an impossible standard for themselves and then wonder why people think they aren't doing enough. I say this all the time, this time it's prompted by the gameplay of a wonderful little "support" I had a few games ago.
Playing Pyke he did all of the following:
#1: At around 13:30 he and I are defending bot outer from a super fed Urgot from top lane and our bot lane counterparts who at that point were kinda behind us, but not by much. Pyke walks out from under the turret, hooks the fed Urgot on top of himself and gets deleted by the 3 enemies before he could get back to the turret. According to Riot, this is okay, because he must have thought that he can just go out, kill the indestructable force of destruction Urgot and stagger back to the turret. And that's okay. And okay, I'm willing to grant that this much by itself is no big deal at all. But you know, in Riot's mind this is nothing, in mine I'm starting to count by adding a tiny, tiny mark signaling that this player might be a troll.
#2: Then, 3 minutes later I take enemy bot outer, but Urgot is coming down from mid through river to catch me out, followed with a few seconds of difference by his teammates coming through lane. I get out in time, and the moment it becomes certain that I'm safe, Pyke pops out of the brush, pulls the annihilating tower of doom Urgot not just on top of himself, but close enough for him that he would actually be able to engage on me if he had flash. (He doesn't, he stays on Pyke.) Even though I try to peel as much as I can (which isn't all that much), Pyke doesn't even attempt to disengage, he straight up stays in Urgot's face, giving up a kill for 0 reason. According to Riot this is A-OK, he just miscalculated. What I see is that he pulled the Urgot onto himself while not only knowing how a top vs support situation usually ends, not only having full info on how fed the other guy is, but actually having done this exact thing before and having gotten first hand experience in how that turns out, so he couldn't even say he didn't know.
#3: And a few minutes later he does it again. There's a small fight in the middle, Urgot appears, I put down chompers Pyke could just step back, take a safe position and we could see how things turn out. For a moment it looks good, but then he stays away, in fact splits himself by walking into the river brush, pulls Urgot on top of himself again. Riot's policy is, well we can't know for sure what went on in his pretty mind, let's say this was completely fine, not even a warning sign even though at this point he is clearly just giving away kills for shits and giggles.
#4: A bit later he walks into the middle of the enemy team while they are walking through the warded river in plain sight. The Riot mentality is, hey, how could he have known that he can't win a 1v4 as a support, that's not explicitly stated anywhere, so he might be yet to learn it. I'm sitting there stunned how this person is still able to play this game if this is his routine.
#5: His next moment is as follows: we are pushing mid as a team, all the other team has left is their inhib turret and the inhibitor. This guy's idea on how to handle the situation is: hook the unstoppable obliterating mayhem of an Urgot over the wall, when they are still split by the wall he flashes in and fights him under turret. So far so good actually, despite the turret, it's a 5v1, so he's cool. Then the Urgot backs off around the time minions arrive. Still tanking turret shots, Pyke then psychoes after the Urgot and 1v1-s him in the middle of their base while we start working on the turret and the rest of the enemy team shows up to defend. Riot: well he just wanted the kill very much and got a little tunnel visioned. Me: Sure, in itself this would be but a blunder, but in context it's clearly playing not caring whether he lives or dies, not caring whether his team wins or loses.
#6: Then at one point some people on the team are late to pull back after taking an inhibitor, among them is Pyke. The difference between him and everybody else is that they notice that the enemy team spawned and try to back off. Pyke, despite having multiple opportunities to actually get out, never takes a step out the other team's base. Riot: Well, that's just how he plays. Doesn't everybody walk up and down aimlessly in an enemy base with the entire opposing team present from time to time?
#7: His final, crowning moment is when shortly before we win the game the team is forming up on Elder Dragon. The enemy team at this point is way behind, this guy and our top laner just cleared their bot side jungle, so the enemy is in no position to contest. As everybody heads to the pit, this guy starts to walk into the completely unwarded top side enemy jungle, the only possible place for the enemy team to be, while being pinged to back off. He keeps walking, face checks a brush, survives, then keeps moving on until he finds the enemy team at red and just gives them the kill. His response is a cheeky "I found the other team" in chat. Riot: Well, he was just scouting, this happens, who doesn't occasionally wander into the deepest FoW on the map while being pinged back by their team which is gathering around an important objective. This is stand up behavior by all measures.
Now obviously, players like this shouldn't be punished for just one game like this, but it should leave a mark on their account and if they collect many from playing like this, they do need to be hit with a punishment. Not even a ban right off the bat, but maybe some as of now nonexistent, milder punishment to let them know, that it's not okay to just dirp around and give up kills willy nilly for no reason. And their intentions, being completely undetectable in any objective manner, should not factor into this. What should matter is that at the MMR their matches were played at these kinds of plays are universally known to lead to the other team getting ahead.
