Flamers on the Rift (From the perspective of one)

First off before we get into the heavy stuff, an introduction is in order. I'm "Zion Sairin" in game, although that's not really the case anymore. As some of you may have heard, on March 23rd my account was permanently banned for extreme toxicity in one particular game. This game was on a rather stressful day. I am NOT here to discuss that ban, if you wish to see chat logs or hear my aide of the story you may message me on here. I DO regret what I did and I apologize for it,

I am making this topic to discuss the cause of in-game chat abuse, reformation vs punishment, and how the current system could easily be adjusted to follow Riot's philosophy of reformation over punishment more closely while still deterring abuse.

First on that list is the cause of in-game chat abuse, and I personally believe that part of it is the fault of the one who abuses everyone. That is obvious to anyone; however in my experience a large amount of verbal abuse is retaliatory. When I say that, I mean a teammate either made a sarcastic or unhelpful comment (a person knows when they are feeding and do not need to be told to stop. In fact, being told to stop usually frustrated me more than dying because I know I'm not trying to die and that I am playing poorly, and due to low self esteem I'm already berating myself over it. "Stop feeding" only makes me more likely to die because of frustration influencing my actions, and this becomes a cycle of antagonism.

As a story, I recently created a new account and I act as if I have never played before while I am on it, and repeatedly have run into high level players ("diamond smurfs") who will mistreat new players over common mistakes like missing farm and chasing kills. This type of behavior takes place in post-30 gameplay (ranked or normal) as well and it is the most frustrating because many people play to improve and they don't appreciate constant trash talk when they're trying. Riot often punishes retaliation but they will let the instigators walk free even though, without instigators retaliation would not happen.

People often use the argument that you can mute an instigator, but this is not a good solution, as you may miss something useful that is being said. In addition, nobody should accept abuse without responding; people have a right to defend themselves regardless of the venue. In my personal opinion Riot should crack down harder in the people who start problems as opposed to the results.

My second point was to address punishment vs reformation. Currently, Riot will chat restrict a toxic player on occasion, giving them a chance to adjust without removing them entirely; after that, various time suspensions exist up to two weeks. This is where they stray from their philosophy; chat is actually a great tool to use against toxicity, but they continue to ban people who do nothing wrong action-wise. This is where my first proposal comes into effect: Focus on removing chat when someone abuses it. Save actual account bans for trolls, intentional feeders, and others of the same vein; if a player is being rude via chat the best way to remove the problem is to merely take away their venue of abuse: chat. A chat ban system based around a certain number of games would greatly benefit all parties; I remember constantly saying I wanted Riot to just permanently restrict my chat because I was not ever toxic when under chat restriction, and it would preserve my near $2000 account. You may argue that realizing how much money I put in I should have acted differently, but I am an extremely impulsive person and I don't always consider the consequences of my actions before taking them.

The third point intertwines with this; in the case of a permanent ban, be it chat or account, there should be a review system in place just like competitive players have; LCS players have long-term suspensions that are subject to review after a certain amount of time. Key word here being review.

If so few players (less than 1% of the game's player base according to the permanent ban tooltip) recieve such a radical punishment, it should be no trouble to review their behavior some time later and consider lessening the punishments to a long term chat ban or removing the punishment entirely if they see to be totally reformed.

I would personally like to see Riot's stance on these ideas, and I am not suggesting them only for my own benefit; toxic players CAN reform, even the worst, and Riot should give these players a second chance.