Boards›Player Behavior

Perma ban system

Tom Keen·1/18/2019, 8:35:03 PM·2 votes·2,468 views

I think there should be some work done to the current system of permanent bans in regards to mild toxicity. Obviously if someone is being racist/homophobic/threatening/etc then yeah ban them. But to me it doesn’t make sense to permanently ban someone for expressing discontent with underperforming/careless teammates in a competitive game. After all, there’s a mute button for a reason and it’s your choice to put yourself into a competitive environment where how you play will be judged (ranked).

Once banned these players don’t reform. They buy new accounts and act the same way. There needs to be a REFORM system, not a punishment system. It’s the equivalent of exiling someone for speeding or some minor offense.

After all, a large amount of toxicity is just frustration towards underperforming teammates, so I believe it can be remedied, but the current system does not do that.

Lmk what you guys think. I’m simply suggesting looking at the system and seeing if any improvements can be made. I’m not defending the actions of toxic players.

17 Comments

ModThe Djinn1/18/2019, 8:50:31 PM8 votes

It's a bit of a misconception that the system is designed to reform players. Instead, it's designed to allow the opportunity for self-reform. At every stage up until the permanent ban sufficient good behavior can recover your account's standing.

The reason it does not reward reform is that you'd have to make the punishment hit something that can be taken away, such as champion pools or experience or more. Otherwise you're basically giving a benefit to being punished, which is frustrating for players who are well behaved. Currently there is a soft incentive in the form of loot boxes and key drops, but that's about it.

Actively helping players reform is difficult, as different people require different approaches and incentives. League can't really play therapist, but it can offer players second, third, and even fourth chances, which they currently do.

Imperial Pandaa1/18/2019, 8:41:00 PM4 votes

Repeated minor offenses will result in escalated penalties. You mention speeding; with speeding you may initially get a fine + a point against your license. Do it again and you get a larger fine and more points. Aquire too many points and your license gets revoked. Same with other "minor" offenses.

insomniacjezz1/18/2019, 8:38:22 PM4 votes

Less than .006% of players ever get perma bans. The system is fine. No one wants to put up with toxic players.

Jo0o1/18/2019, 8:51:28 PM3 votes

“Expressing discontent” won’t trigger a punishment unless it’s consistent enough to be considered harassment.

R107 Games1/18/2019, 8:53:10 PM3 votes

Agreed.

Only flaming excessively should lead to a punishment.

ModPrandine1/19/2019, 1:01:18 AM3 votes

First off, the mute button is meant to be a band-aid solution at most and not as an excuse to behave poorly or justify said poor behavior. Second off, there's only so much incentive one can give to try to get people to reform themselves, and it's meaningless if the player in question won't put forth the actual effort it takes to do so. Third off, there's also only so many chances you can give players before you have to just write them off as a potential paying customer. To quote Kei143:

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.

Finally if a player chooses to buy a new account (which is against the ToS btw) then they do so of their own volition knowing that they run the risk of being banned again should they get busted either for that or for continued poor behavior.

EvilDustMan1/18/2019, 8:41:25 PM1 votes

It takes a lot of mild toxicity to get banned.

Highwiseene1/18/2019, 10:54:22 PM1 votes

We don't have the current numbers on permaban statistics, but riot has said that most players who got chat restricted didn't receive further punishments, so maybe.

However, I don't think the system reforms players who are toxic enough to get a 2 week ban. I think most people who receive 2 week bans believe that they are in the right. I don't know if there is a fix to this, some people have proposed perma mutes, some propose that everyone else is a "snowflake", some believe the current system is fine. I honestly don't know.

PH451/18/2019, 8:48:12 PM1 votes

Takes a lot of mild toxicity to get you permabanned.

First there is 10-game chat restrict -> 25 game chat restrict -> 14-day ban and then finally permaban.

So there are already plenty of warnings for people to see that their behavior isn't tolerated.

Current system is fine. Sure some permabanned players keep making accounts again and again but no reforming system will change that for them.

Dynikus1/18/2019, 8:41:04 PM1 votes

I see it said a lot that most permabanned players just make new accounts I know for sure some do, but is there any statistic at all to back up that a lot do?