Chat restriction system is very lacking.

This comes from a person who has flamed a lot, and has seen a lot of flame.

I just got through a 10 game restriction myself and I was very surprised at how little the restrictions affected me. Now, I have somewhat reformed over the last 2 days because I don’t want further penalties, but the restriction system is not that restrictive.

You get 3 initial messages + 1 chat message per 4 minutes. All chat is disabled.

That’s it. Champ select is unrestricted. In game you can still say whatever you want within those messages. Now you may get reported again and then there’s issues, but you can curse out your entire team in those messages if you wish (I did not do this, but I tested curse words and was surprised they were let through). Post-game lobby is unaffected.

I really think that an oppressive language filter would work a lot better than this system. Chat (while not necessary) can play a big role in team communication sometimes, so limiting the number of messages isn’t very advantageous. ESPECIALLY in low bronze/silver where players hardly listen to pings. All chat disabling is smart, but most flame occurs in team chat from my experience. The point of the restriction is to hinder the player’s ability to flame and in the process reform them, not to hinder potential gameplay mechanics or communication.

A filter that disables any message with offensive, profane, or passive-aggressive phrases (like “uninstall” which isn’t a curse within itself) would work a lot better to restrict players. A stricter punishment would ensue for players continually trying to chat these phrases (and failing) like the inability to chat at all for the whole game or not lowering the game counter for restriction.

This would show players a bigger contrast between their behavior and ideal behavior, and maybe it would even prove that they do better in games when they aren’t flaming.

TL;DR The current chat restriction system only limits the number of messages and not their content. A strict filter would be more effective in preventing flame and reforming players.