Helping to debunk common misconceptions about the behavioral systems.
DISCLAIMER: I know that this will be allot of text to read so I'll do my best to keep each section short and to the point.
Hello all. I've been an active member of the PB community for many years now and over the years I've seen the same old misconceptions about how the behavioral systems work. Well today I'm here to help debunk them. If you'd like to help me out with this or just have any questions then feel free to do so by leaving your comments down below. Let's get started.
Instant Feedback System Questions
How does the system work?
Simply put when someone reports a player the IFS will scan that game for any wrongdoing on the reported players part and punish the player if the poor behavior is consistent across multiple games. The IFS will issue a Reform Card to the player giving them 1-3 recent games from which they were valid reported in as examples of the kind of exhibited behavior that's not tolerated here.
What if I did nothing wrong/had a bad game? Will I still be punished then?
Simply put no. If nothing of guilt is found then the report is thrown out and the reporters report weight drops, making their future reports less as important as before. Likewise having a bad game or two where you snap won't punish you unless the poor behavior shown in it is extreme.
What is punishable behavior?
This is decided by the community and Riot but generally speaking intentionally doing or saying anything that you know will just tick people off are things to avoid. Some examples of punishable behavior include:
- Death/harm threats (wishing death/harm on others in real life)
- Racist comments
- Verbal abuse/harassment
- Calling for reports
- Intentionally feeding/leaving/afking/trolling (threats do to so also apply)
- Using 3rd party software not approved or sanctioned by Riot
- Account sharing/trading
- Spamming
- Scamming
- Name calling
Note that Riot will never release a full list of what's punishable in order to prevent people from trying to circumvent/game the system. Also, though not shown in Reform Cards poor behavior displayed in Champion Select/the Post-Game Lobby is also punishable.
Why do Reform Cards only show what I say?
Simply put because you are judged based on your actions alone, and it was your actions alone that caused you to be punished.
Punishment Tiers
The system generally follows a 4 step process in issuing out punishments.
First Offense: 10 Game Chat Restriction Second Offense: 25 Game Chat Restriction Third Offense: Two Week Suspension Fourth Offense: Permanent Suspension
However, skipping tiers is also possible if extreme instances of negativity and poor behavior are displayed. Things like death threats, racist comments and gameplay trolling skip to the 2-week or permaban step depending on the severity of the shown behavior. Riot has a zero-tolerance policy for death threats and racist comments so expect to be banned if you show that kind of behavior.
Can I drop down tiers if I reform and improve my behavior? How long does it take to reform?
Oh yes definitely. If you show a genuine effort to reform then you can slowly but surely improve your account standing one level at a time. For example, receiving a 2-week ban and then reforming would drop you down to 25-game chat restriction. Being punished again at that level would give you a 2-week ban instead of a permanent ban.
As for how long it takes, that varies from case to case, meaning that there's no clear-cut answer on how long it takes for an account to get back in good standing. Just continue displaying good behavior and you'll eventually get back into good standing.
Common Complaints and Excuses
I got punished because I was just defending myself while someone else was harassing me!
No, you were punished for contributing to the negative environment. Regardless of the reason why, retaliating against someone by being toxic solves nothing and only makes the situation and environment worse than it already is. If you must defend yourself, do so in a neutral or positive manner. Otherwise just mute, report and move on. If you retaliate then both you and the person who started it will get punished so just don't do it.
Riot only punishes for speech and not for gameplay trolling!
While it's true that speech punishments are more common, there have been instances of gameplay trolls being banned. Here's the thing though: it takes longer to punish someone for gameplay trolling because those instances aren't always as clear-cut as speech is. Because of this the IFS has to make sure that the offender is actually trolling rather than just having a bad game or two.
Speech is punished more frequently because that information is more readily available to players and thus easier to differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. This doesn't mean that gameplay trolls don't get banned, just that it takes longer to get them than it does for speech offenses.
I was just bantering/trolling around with friends/trash talking so why punish me?
Bantering: While Riot has no problems when doing it with a full pre-made group of friends. caution is advised when doing so around random strangers who may not understand your intentions. What you and your friends may find playful and harmless others may find crude and hurtful. There are plenty of tools such as Curse Voice, Skype and Discord that you can use to banter with your friends while not putting yourself in the position to be validly reported by the random stranger on your team.
Trolling/messing around: Like with bantering, doing it with a full pre-made group of friends is fine, but doing it at the expense of a non-friend isn't fine. Why? Simply put they didn't sign onto or agree to your trolling so there's no reason to drag them into your antics without their consent.
Also, along with the two topics mentioned above (Trolling/messing around & Bantering) the IFS doesn't differentiate between friend and non-friend, so if you and your friends like reporting each other then the IFS will only see the reportee acting up and will issue a punishment if the poor behavior is consistent enough.
Trash talking: Even in professional sports there's a fine line between trash talking and just plain being a jerk, and the people who cross that line get punished for doing so. Just respect others and know when to stop.
I spent allot of money on this game so I shouldn't be banned!
Sorry but spending money doesn't magically excuse you from the rules. Everyone is treated exactly the same regardless of how much they've payed, so if you're unwilling or unable to follow the rules then expect to be held accountable for your behavior just like everybody else is as well.
I personally think it is a fine argument to protect the ones that are paying money and aren't toxic rather than protecting the ones that may pay the same amount but are toxic.
If the mute button exists then why can't I say anything that I want?
Simply put the mute button =/= a get out of jail free card. When you force others to mute you then you're doing something wrong. You can have discussions with others and even communicate with others via chat, but you should do so in a mature and respectful manner. If you're afraid of snapping at others for no reason then there are some things that you can do to help prevent that from happening:
- Mute all at match start.
- Move the chat window off-screen.
- Unbind the Enter key and/or rebind it to something else (preferably a useless key to you).
Above all if it's not helpful, respectful or constructive then just don't press Send.
If there's a language filter then why is cursing so bad?
Cursing in general is not a problem, but cursing at others is. The Language filter exists for people who'd rather not see that kind of language in a match, but it does not excuse directing it towards others.
I got banned because I was breaking the meta!
Breaking the meta with intent to win is not punishable, but breaking the meta with intent to troll and be a jerk to the other players however is in fact punishable.
Leaverbuster/Low Priority Queue
I only left one game. Why did I get hit?
One left game isn't enough for Leaverbuster to act on. LB only acts on consistent leaves/afks.
Why am I stuck in Low Priority Queue and how can I get out of it?
Continuing to leave/afk games will increase the time that you remain in LPQ. To get out of it simply play 5 matchmade games without leaving/afking, it's really that simple.
Can I get punished for an emergency/unexpected leave?
If it's once in a blue moon then no. That being said though however it is your responsibility to make sure that you have much time to play as possible before playing.
Okay then, I'll just move around occasionally to avoid getting hit by Leaverbuster.
Yeah, sorry, no, that won't work as Leaverbuster is programmed to track useless movements and actions as well. This includes afk farming and moving around in base aimlessly.
Other Concepts
Can I be punished for saying nothing or if multiple people report me?
From Riot Tantram:
Actually, Erdrik is correct here.
A report flags a game for review. They do not establish guilt. The game is then reviewed for harassment, feeding, etc. This is why 'troll reporting' or 'gang reporting' do not work. False or inaccurate reports are thrown out.
You cannot ever be punished for saying nothing .. unless of course it's for something gameplay related like feeding, afking or cheating. But, you can never be punished for offensive language, hate speech or verbal abuse if you said nothing.
In short, no and no.
Since I got banned I want a refund!
You will not get a refund. Why? Because you merely rent out the account and don't actually own it. Additionally, you chose to spend money on the account when you didn't have to. If you truly valued your account then you should have thought of that before you got banned.
Free Speech!
Only applies to the government and prevents it from regulating what you can and can't say. It also doesn't protect you from the consequences of what you say. For instance, yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater or shouting racial slurs in a public restaurant are quick ways to get thrown out from those places.
For private companies like Riot Games, free speech doesn't apply, and they are well within their rights to remove you if you continuously act up non-stop.
Are bans ever overturned?
It's extremely rare but only if:
A. There's an error done on Riot's part (write into Riot Support if you feel that the ban was done in error). OR B. If it's a chargeback ban (just pay back the amount owed and the account will be unbanned).
Bans for behavior-related issues though are never overturned.
Can I give tips or advice and not be punished for it?
Well that depends on how you give the tips/advice. If it's along the lines of "Hey Akali, you should consider getting some hybrid items to boost your damage more" then that's fine, but if it's along the lines of "Hey you stupid noob Akali, get some more hybrid damage items now!" then that's not fine.
Remember though that even if you're respectful about it, if it appears that they're not receptive of the advice then it's better to just drop it and move on rather than continue to bug them about it.
Can't Riot just put in a system that lets us blacklist people and not play with them anymore?
Could they? Sure. Will they? No.
Blizzard Entertainment tried this early on in Overwatch (a team based shooter) before removing it. Why did they remove it? Because a top Widowmaker (a sniper character) player had super long queue times due to so many players blacklisting him. This wasn't because of his behavior (it was fine) but rather because they just didn't want to play against him. So while in theory it sounds good, in practice it's just too easily abused, hence why it was scrapped.
Why can't Riot just assign perma-mutes to people instead of banning them?
Short answer: They tried that and it didn't work.
Long answer: There used to be a system in place where one could rack up hundreds of games worth of chat restrictions. This was replaced with the current Instant Feedback System for two main reasons:
- People with tons of CR's often wouldn't even try to reform because they couldn't work them off fast enough to make it worth it.
- The truly toxic people would just switch to other forms of griefing instead (i.e. ping spamming, intentionally feeding/afking, gameplay trolling, etc.) once they found out that they couldn't do it with chat.
The IFS encourages people to reform or get lost faster than the previous systems could. Is it perfect? No. Is it effective? Yes.
Why is report weight lowered with false reports?
The reason why this happens is to discourage people from reporting just to harass other players and to encourage players to only report when they absolutely have to.
Think of it like the old story "The boy who cried wolf": if you keep reporting for meaningless, false and inaccurate reasons then the system will take your reports less seriously than reports from those that only report for meaningful, legitimate and accurate reasons. This will keep happening until eventually you have no more credibility by the time you finally find a legitimate reason to report someone over.
If you don't want that to happen then only report for actual issues and not just because someone looked at you wrong.
I reported someone but I didn't get the message saying that they were punished.
You only get this message if your report was the one that triggered a punishment. Not getting it simply means that your report wasn't the straw that broke the camels back and not that they didn't receive a punishment.
Why did I get punished when my Reform Card only shows 1-3 games?
Simply put the Reform Card only shows recent games that you were reported in, but it takes far more than just 1-3 games to receive a punishment under normal circumstances. As for why only 1-3 games, well that's because some email providers reject long emails, so depending on the case you may only receive 1 or 2 games in your Reform Card as examples of the kind of behavior that led to your punishment.
If Riot wants more money then they should just stop banning people.
As it stands toxic players just drive business away, so it's actually in Riot's benefit to remove the players who don't want to reform. If the toxic players make new accounts, that's their choice, but they'll quickly find that behaving in the same way that got their older accounts permabanned will result in the same thing happening again. Think of it this way: the more time one spends raging and flaming at someone the less time that they're spending actually playing the game itself. Kei143 made a post that talks a little about it and it goes as followed:
When Riot permabans someone, their philosophy is "the chances of this guy reforming isn't a whole lot, we'd rather not have him in the game". Thus in their eyes, they have already written off the toxic player as a paying client.
From a business standpoint, do they want to remove the toxic guy who has spent $500 but is causing a negative environment for 4-9 other players in every game? Those non-toxics are also spending $500 and probably will spend more, promote the game more when they are enjoying the game AND they won't cause a negative environment.
I personally think it is a fine argument to protect the ones that are paying money and aren't toxic rather than protecting the ones that may pay the same amount but are toxic.
Sources
My Account is Suspended Instant Feedback System FAQ Leaverbuster FAQ Tribunal FAQ Understanding the Tribunal Ulanopo's Knowledge Base Riot Tantram Terms of Use Lyte on Report Weight What does report weight mean? (UKB Passage) Blizzard removes ability to “avoid this player” in Overwatch
Please let me know if I missed anything. Thanks in advance and as always thank you for your time.
