Boards›Player Behavior

Coming up on 4 year anniversary of my permanent ban.

Jojobees·12/13/2019, 2:08:24 AM·5 votes·3,051 views

Hello Summoners, it's me, Jojobees. Before you say anything, let me explain. I was permanently banned for being toxic. Was I toxic? Oh boy, was I ever. I was the second most toxic player I knew. I was so toxic, that even though I had two accounts, I got them both banned a month between each other. (My other account being TheForumGhost)

I'm not here to argue that I was wrongly banned, because I wasn't. I'm not here to post chat logs or make excuses for my behavior. I am here to explain the effects of a permanent ban from the player's perspective, and appeal for my release.

I knew that I was going to be permanently banned, and I did a few things to stall this. First, I tried muting everyone with the /mute all command. This didn't work because as soon as I made a mistake I just 'knew' my team was flaming me for it. I unmuted everyone to see what they were saying, and I flamed them for flaming me.

Then, since that didn't work. I tried using a program called AHK (Autohotkey) to disable my enter key in chat, and I dragged the chat bar off my screen in game. This didn't work either, in the same way that chat restrictions didn't work for me. Both of these things just made me more angry as I let my toxicity build up and when I finally did get that message (in the case of a chat restrict) or I caved and alt-tabbed to close out of AHK, I was frothing with toxicity and I let it all out.

So I got banned. I got banned because I was toxic in chat. I got banned because I didn't have the self-control to keep AHK enabled, because I 'had' to know what my team was saying about me, and I got banned because I was an immature 18 year old 'kid' with raging hormones who couldn't keep himself from saying rude things in a videogame.

None of the things that I tried to do worked. None of the safeguards I had used to prevent myself from being toxic were strong enough to hold my toxic behavior back. But you know what worked? The ban hammer. The ban hammer worked.

When my accounts got banned I cried. There I was, an 18 year old guy in college crying. I cried for days. I cried whenever I even thought about the game. I even had a few tears fall down my cheek writing this post.

I took a hiatus from League of Legends for a few months, but it's too good of a game, I couldn't keep myself away from the competitive nature of the game. I made a few new accounts, just in case I got banned again, and I didn't spend any money on any of them for the same reason. But a few things happened. At first, anytime I wanted to say anything toxic I would think about my banned accounts, and how time-consuming leveling my new accounts was, and I wouldn't say anything. But given time, I also matured.

At this point it's been almost 4 years since my first permaban, I've opened at least two ban appeals every year for each account, and I just keep getting copy-pasted responses from the support agents. I've seen a couple unban experiments completely pass me over.

Here's the thing though. League of Legends will always trigger some nostalgia in me for my old accounts. The accounts that started my adventure into this game. I shouldn't care, because I have three accounts that will never be permanently banned, but I do care. I put time, effort and money into those first accounts. I'm attached to them. They feel to me like a child that I lost in a custody battle with RIOT. So here's my suggestion, you can take it or leave it. I petition that one month bans should not be the last step before a permanent ban. I feel that a month is not nearly long enough for the maturation process. I can't find the quote but RIOT has stated something like 'Permanent bans are only used when we believe that the player is not capable of reforming'. Well I proved that wrong, but it took me a lot longer than two weeks, or one month. So my suggestion is maybe a year, or a two-year suspension.

If you want a more personal story about where I was in my life at the time please refer to my last post on my permanent ban, 11 months ago here https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/player-behavior-moderation/BU2nPpJA-i-was-toxic-almost-three-years-ago-this-is-my-story

58 Comments

XVI Jake IVX12/13/2019, 2:23:47 AM4 votes

I think a 2 week ban is fair. Riot gives you multiple chances to reform. The first is with chat restrictions. Than the final straw two week ban. You should reform be attempting to reform. If I was you I would of reached out to the player behavior and asked for advice. Back in 2010. I got banned for being extremely toxic for 7 days. I did learn my lesson for a short amount of time ,but became toxic again. However, When I saw the 14 day ban ,and I read it. I realize I had to reform. So I stopped being toxic. I started being friendly. To this day I'm not toxic. Every now in than I'm occasionally toxic ,but not enough to get banned or chat restricted.

Heres what I do to prevent myself from being toxic: Take breaks from between games. I use to use a stressball. Chew gum. Play normals to detilt from rank. I stay hydrated and make sure I get my sleep so I have patience with the summoners. I understand some players may be having a bad day ,so I don't flame them.

XVI Jake IVX12/13/2019, 3:40:22 AM4 votes

I don't understand why this post is being downvoted. It's not like he is flaming. He is having a civil conversation. O well.

ModPrandine12/13/2019, 3:58:40 AM3 votes

While an argument could be made for an extra tier in-between 2-week and permaban, such as 1-month, I don't think a year or two is the right call, nor do I believe unbanning validly permabanned accounts is the right call because they would ultimately solve nothing. Why? Because people could just play on another [disposable] account(s) until their main one is unbanned, since there would be no lasting penalty for consistent misbehavior. Also, I feel a year+ is too long since by that time they may have already forgotten about the account and/or behavior and/or moved onto other games.

Ultimately while I do believe in second and sometimes third chances, the line has to be drawn somewhere. If someone despite the warnings still chooses to misbehave then they should no longer be allowed access to that particular place or item, which in this case is the League of Legends game. It's unfortunate but there has to be some lasting penalty to serve as a reminder of the consequences of consistent/egregious misbehavior.

AeroWaffle12/13/2019, 2:51:49 AM3 votes

One of the major issues I see with such a long-term ban such as one or two years is it pretty much guarantees that any account made while waiting out the ban is going to be treated as disposable, knowing that they'll eventually get the account that they care about back.

Subdue12/13/2019, 6:26:02 AM3 votes

Given that permabanned players are already provided the leniency of being able to create a new account and continue playing, why would they deserve to get their accounts back after repeated warnings to change their behavior?

Toxicate1312/13/2019, 4:29:53 AM2 votes

Two weeks is NOT LONG ENOUGH TO REFORM. For most people, toxicity is an emotional response. You can't just change your emotions on a whim; if that were the case, no one would be depressed, right? I think it's ignorant to argue that someone can reform within a 2 week period because that's just not the case.

OneMustFall12/13/2019, 2:44:56 AM2 votes

If two weeks away from the game isn't a big enough wake up call that you need to change your behavior or your account is toast, then you can only blame yourself. Two weeks is a long time to suddenly be cut off from playing a game especially if you play multiple games a day. I got a 10 game chat restriction earlier this year and I disabled chat for three months until I felt I could handle looking at it again. I got back to Honor Level 4 by the end of the season. Sometimes it takes more than that for people to get it. Sometimes it's getting a two week suspension. Sometimes people actually have to have an account banned before it hits them. You're given plenty of opportunities to reform before you get banned, what you do with those opportunities is up to you.

Quiet Dude12/13/2019, 9:13:46 PM1 votes

Two weeks is generous, OP. If you can't process the idea that "one more punishment and my account is gone" in the time span of 2 weeks, I regret to inform you that reforming is the least of your worries.