Since you brought up dunkey and the professional scene, here's Lyte on dunkey's ban:
**What do you think about vgdunkey's ban? **
It's really unfortunate. Many Rioters love Dunkey's content, and I've unloaded my share of "Not even close babyyyyy" jokes around the office; however, we really can't show favoritism to someone just because they are a pro or a known content creator. This isn't really a debate about whether trashtalking is OK or not OK in games; we've talked a lot in the past about how we're OK with players bantering with their friends but you should be careful when interacting with strangers who may not understand your intentions--especially if you're using hate speech or slurs. We have a zero tolerance policy against hate speech, racism, homophobia, and sexism and that policy stands whether you're a random player, a pro player, or a Youtube celebrity.
This also really wasn't a case about intentional feeders and whether it's OK to be toxic towards other toxic players--there wasn't even a Malphite in the game that got him banned and either way, retaliation just isn't OK because it makes the experience worse for everyone else in the game.
We know that players have been asking us to be more aggressive against intentional feeders for awhile, and it has taken us a bit longer than we'd like. We do consider gameplay toxicity just as serious as verbal toxicity, and are launching a new Intentional Feeder Detection system in 5.18 that can ban feeders within 15 minutes of matches. We're starting with conservative settings to make sure the system would not ban players for having the rare bad game, even if it was a 0-10 type of bad game but this is a great first step to aggressively tackling intentional feeders.
At the end of the day, this incident sucks for everyone. We respect that Dunkey hasn't posted his Reform Card, and I'm not going to post it either. Best wishes to him in the future.
From Ulanopo's Knowledge Base:
Trash talk is part of all competitive sports. It happens all the time in the pros.
Yes and no. Yes, trash talk occurs, but it has definite limits. Most of the things that are punished in game (racial, ethnic and homophobic slurs, sexism, etc.) would also earn you a hefty fine in professional sports.
A Tumblr List of NBA Fines (http://nbafines.tumblr.com/)
(My personal favorite on that site is this indefinite suspension (http://nbafines.tumblr.com/post/1010368028/3-12-96-the-nba-suspended-mahmoud-abdul-rauf-den), simply for refusing to stand during the National Anthem.)
A List of NFL Fines for Taunting (http://www.spotrac.com/fines-tracker/nfl/all-years/fines/taunting/)
NBC Article on Fines Agreed to by the NFLPA (http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/01/bizarrely-specific-nfl-fines-come-from-agreed-league-union-schedule/)
"Excessive profanity or other unsportsmanlike conduct triggers a minimum fine of $10,500."
NHL Office of Player Safety (http://www.nhl.com/ice/eventhome.htm?location=/playersafety)
Brendan Shanahan is the ****ing Bad Santa of the NHL. Did you know that his Office of Player Safety watches every minute of every game, from multiple angles? He sees and hears EVERYTHING, including swearing.
... and the grand finale!
Marge Schott (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_Schott), who was forced out of ownership of the Cincinnati Reds for racist comments and pro-Nazi sentiments.
People who report are simply being oversensitive. The mute button exists for a reason.
Lets start with the Riot quote on this (link (http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=30696571#post30696571)):
Why is verbal abuse punishable if there is a mute button/language filter?
Players shouldnt need to rely on features like the mute button or language filter to engage with other players in positive ways. When a player verbally abuses another player and forces him to use the mute button, they have already created a negative experience for that player.
Simply put, Riot says no. You can scream and cry all you want, but it is their house and their rules.
With that out of the way, I think the topic deserves some further discussion. The theory is that, if people resolved to care less, then they would be happier. I often refer to this as Argument from Stoicism and I think it is a fairly weak philosophy because it places the burden on the person being expected to endure the behavior rather than the person exhibiting the behavior. You should be able to handle it is just a flimsy excuse for being a bully or a jerk. I have to be the bigger man so that you can do whatever you want? That hardly seems fair.
There is also the issue of how I spend my limited free time. Like most people, I am constantly required to make value judgments between the different forms of entertainment that are available to me and, let's be honest, we live in an age of nearly limitless entertainment options. If I'm having a bad day in League, I can just fire up Steam and play a whole bunch of games that don't require me to put up with someone's BS.
This is not an issue of weakness or thin-skin; it's a question of choosing activities that don't leave me feeling frustrated and angry. Too many of those experiences and I'll just find something else to do. Riot knows this.
EDITED 18 JULY 2014
If you kids report and punish things like this, youre going to be in trouble when you get out in the real world.
This is a subset of the oversensitivity argument, but I feel it warrants separate treatment.
You're making the highly unwarranted assumption that the people who punish for "noob" lack real-world experiences. If you were to ask the TBI regulars, you would find that almost all of us are at least in their late 20's, if not significantly older. Most of us have at least undergraduate degrees. So, this idea that we're all naive little children is more than a little silly.
Also, we know that professional players dislike people who spend their time typing because math. Not only are the report rates for the highest tiers not significantly lower than anywhere else (this from Lyte), but the pros know how that kind of behavior affects play. Someone who is on tilt is throwing the game just as much as the person who is playing poorly.
The truth of the matter is that the loose cannons end up having their misbehavior overshadow their skill. Look at Dennis Rodman. There has never been a better rebounder. Ever. But his legacy is not that he was basically a human vacuum. No, it's that he was out of control, both on and off the court.
In short, this is a stupid argument if you know anything about the people who are reporting and punishing you.
I should be allowed to speak however I like to people who started it or are griefing me.
I was provoked or taunted. I should be allowed to defend myself.
Why did you vote to punish me when others were behaving worse?
You should know that Riot specifically instructs jurors to ignore most of the conduct of people in a case other than the accused. The reason for this is rather simple: rather than one person causing trouble, you now have two or more. In my more cynical moments, I have phrased it thus:
Timmy, Tommy and Sarah are trapped in an elevator.
Timmy loses his temper and soils himself.
Tommy gets angry at the smell and decides to retaliate by soiling himself.
Now Sarah is trapped with two smelly idiots.
Dont be Timmy or Tommy. Stop ****ing your pants.
An informal poll of the Tribunal regulars shows that most jurors are willing to excuse a certain amount of response to someone who is attacking you, but that it isnt considered an excuse for you to become toxic in response. You get MAYBE one or two lines of response. Anything more than that and youre part of the problem.
From Lyte (link (http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=27540071#post27540071)):
We strongly believe that it is not OK to retaliate. If a player refuses to cooperate and says something negative, then players should ignore the player and report them after the game. Players can ignore or mute players by pressing the Mute button on the Scoreboard [when you hit TAB] in the game.
Emphasis mine.
