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Lost my 6 year old account, a test of morality

FifCCiZ5KO··6 votes·1,520 views

Hi guys, this is the message I relayed to Riot Support about my account, below is the entire story of what happened to my account. I would like some opinions on how you guys think Riot should respond. I really want some light on this..

Good evening. Today I attempted to log into my 6 year old League account after I was on a very long hiatus since Season 1 , but when I tried to log in a message showed that I was permanently banned by the tribunal. The interesting part here is that I enlisted in the military (U.S. Navy) in August of 2011, a year after I graduated high school and the permanent suspension happened while I was in basic. I did not have access to my account. In a nutshell I joined the military and went to basic, came back, lost interest in the game due to being in a different place in my life, and I quit playing altogether. My last suspension was 14 days it was issued on 10/11/11, I remember specifically because I went to basic at the end of October, after all my paperwork was cleared and I remember I was able to play a couple more days before I left. After those long 5 years of not playing, I finally decided to give it another try because some of my friends have started to play it as well, but I got this message of my account being banned and my heart sank because I put over a year of 6-8 hour days playing this game to get everything I had. I used to be obsessed with the game and since then I've reformed, I am at a much better place in my life, and I've matured more, gaining leadership skills and learning how to work as a team in the military changed my outlook on life in its entirety. I am 24 years old now and I was 19 when this happened. I honestly just want to get back into League without having to spend hundreds of hours again to get all my runes and champions I invested in. If you guys know more about my permanent suspension I would love for you guys to shed some light on it's status, or if it's even recoverable. I know it's a long shot and I understand that you guys probably get a lot of requests like this, but this is an act of honesty and I just want the truth here. I guess if the permanent suspension is justified on your guys' end I cannot do anything. I know it will be difficult to put everything in context here because it's been such a long time, but I do have every single email that was sent by you and I am also willing to answer any questions. Attached are some screenshots of my situation, along with the last email I got for being suspended.

The only conclusion I could have come up with why my account was permanently suspended was that I allowed a close friend to play on it while I was gone. I have no idea what he may have said or done(The tribunal back then did not show the in game text connected to the punishment), but that's the only explanation I have and if that is the case, It feels like a punch to the stomach because although I had suspensions leading up to a permanent ban. I did not actually get myself permanently banned. As I said since then I have reformed and I wanted to give league another shot. The account would not have seen that final suspension if I were to use it today.

This is the way I look at it.

Do I deserve this permanent suspension because I was on my last stake before the ban and that it would have likely have happened anyways, regardless of how many years it's been or how much emphasis I put on the term 'reform' to myself? or...

Do I deserve to get the account suspension lifted to get the second chance I deserve, even though that my next offense would have resulted in a ban, I still had that window to show proof of my growth in character, and to truly express how much I have changed since 2011.

I really just want to play League, I invested hundreds upon hundreds of hours into the game, I had nearly every rune, all the champs at that time, and I had limited skins that I cannot get today.

At this point in my life it's really only worth it for me to reinvest into League with my original account and play with the set up I worked so hard to earn. If I have to start over to get everything I did that would take me over a year. I simply no longer have the time to play it like I did in the past. Please don't make me leave you Riot... I absolutely adore this game but I just cannot afford the time to get back to where I was.

I hope to hear from you guys soon. Thanks in advance.

Anyone want to share their opinions?.... I feel so lost right now and robbed... Or maybe I just don't know enough for myself... I don't actually know what really happened to get me permanently banned. But I am assuming my thesis is surely correct, because only he had the password to the account other than myself. What sucks even more is that close friend of mine who used that account passed away 2 years ago in a motorbike accident, just one week before my birthday... So I really have nowhere to go with this.. I just want my account back..... :/

EDIT: I was unaware that you are not allowed to let a friend use your account.... Wow this makes me feel so stupid. I actually don't even know what emotion to feel right now, to my friend passing away and me being stupid to let him use my account while I was away. Now I'm banned for what doesn't feel right but it gets off on a technicality. My morals are being tested...

32 Comments

xReadyPlayerOnex3 votes

The lack of sympathy on RIOT's end is why many people disagree vehemently with their punishment system. Myself included. It's akin to pot and mandatory minimum sentences. If you had a dime.. spend 5 years in prison... even if you were just having a nice friday minding your own fucking business.

FifCCiZ5KO1 votes

:( They didn't even reply to my multiple requests when I sent them this letter... For the first time in my life, I'm starting to veer away from the game solely based on how they treat their customers, not even about the game itself. Who knew you could feel so negative about a game we all came to love so much. On top of that, this is just my case out of I'm sure, thousands upon thousands. When they leave their customers without a voice like this, How on earth does that lean people towards reform? Seems like it actually makes the community more inclined to be toxic, as to a lot of their customers simply mirror how they treat us, ZERO empathy.

Reaper Review2 votes

[{quoted}](name=I AM THAT DUDE,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=lTQEWB7t,comment-id=00060001,timestamp=2016-04-09T01:43:35.918+0000)

How on earth does that lean people towards reform?

The answer you're always going to get to this is "they had their chance to reform before being banned". Which isn't wrong, mind you, but then what happens after the fact?

So you want to act better and follow the rules, continuing to support the game you enjoy? Well, have fun making a new account and climbing back up the levels, grinding out all your content again. Meanwhile, the players who don't want to learn any better are content to just keep on making new accounts, harassing new players, or buying level 30 accounts and being on their merry way.

It gets both easier AND more appealing to try and undermine the system at that point than to try and adhere to it. I've been struggling with trying to level my own new account and hitting all manner of brick walls, and for what? I'm still a ways off from finding joy from the game again, while the ones who don't want to reform are free to keep doing what they like.

xReadyPlayerOnex1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Reaper Review,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=lTQEWB7t,comment-id=000600010000,timestamp=2016-04-09T01:55:32.153+0000)

The answer you're always going to get to this is "they had their chance to reform before being banned". Which isn't wrong, mind you, but then what happens after the fact?

So you want to act better and follow the rules, continuing to support the game you enjoy? Well, have fun making a new account and climbing back up the levels, grinding out all your content again. Meanwhile, the players who don't want to learn any better are content to just keep on making new accounts, harassing new players, or buying level 30 accounts and being on their merry way.

It gets both easier AND more appealing to try and undermine the system at that point than to try and adhere to it. I've been struggling with trying to level my own new account and hitting all manner of brick walls, and for what? I'm still a ways off from finding joy from the game again, while the ones who don't want to reform are free to keep doing what they like.

Flawed logic, devoid of fact, reason or compassion.

Mandatory Minimums don't work in prison or here. Reform isn't about punishment. It's about rehabilitation and expanding the options available so they have the choice to correct their behavior. I think most people deserve what they get. But that doesn't mean in any way that it was correct to be heartless about it.

TrulyBland1 votes

Mandatory minimums and Riot's strike system exist for completely different reasons though.

Mandatory minimums are obviously aiming to deter criminals by being a harsh punishment regardless of context. Riot's strike system is not so much meant to deter as it is meant to speed up certain processes that, statistically speaking, are more or less inevitable.

I agree with the part about rehabilitation being about expanding the options available so they have the choice to correct their behaviour... But the thing is, Riot has only limited options available to them in the first place. They have no legal authority of any kind... they only have authority over their game, their servers and the accounts on those servers. If some people legitimately do not care about what hapepns to their account... what will you do in those cases? This is a problem that is abysmally small in the real world, where you have a really really really tiny fraction of the population that absolutely do not care about anything about their own life. And even then, via psychologists there is the theoretical possibility to make those people start caring about something. There's also the possiblity to just lock these people up and keep them away from the society for as long as it takes to reform them (thus possibly permanently).

Riot doesn't have those capabilities, their only hope is to efficiently and quickly weed out these types of players, while also deterring the new creating of accounts (another problem you don't encounter in real life justice systems) . And the only way they can achieve that in a feasible way is if they accept some "collateral damage" in the form of permabanning some players that might have been reformable, but that by no means were innocent.

And now back to what you said: "Mandatory Minimums don't work in prison or here." Unlike mandatory minimums in real life, the current system in LoL works, because most of the time, Riot's system does exactly what it was intended to do: Catch people that would not have been willing to reform, early instead of after months, and permaban them. What you are seeing on the forums, what people are complaining about, is a minority of collateral damage.

Sure, that might be bad enough in your opinion, but in my opinion it's still worth pointing out the difference.

xReadyPlayerOnex1 votes

{quoted}

Mandatory minimums and Riot's strike system exist for completely different reasons though.

Mandatory minimums are obviously aiming to deter criminals by being a harsh punishment regardless of context. Riot's strike system is not so much meant to deter as it is meant to speed up certain processes that, statistically speaking, are more or less inevitable.

I agree with the part about rehabilitation being about expanding the options available so they have the choice to correct their behaviour... But the thing is, Riot has only limited options available to them in the first place. They have no legal authority of any kind... they only have authority over their game, their servers and the accounts on those servers. If some people legitimately do not care about what hapepns to their account... what will you do in those cases? This is a problem that is abysmally small in the real world, where you have a really really really tiny fraction of the population that absolutely do not care about anything about their own life. And even then, via psychologists there is the theoretical possibility to make those people start caring about something. There's also the possiblity to just lock these people up and keep them away from the society for as long as it takes to reform them (thus possibly permanently).

Riot doesn't have those capabilities, their only hope is to efficiently and quickly weed out these types of players, while also deterring the new creating of accounts (another problem you don't encounter in real life justice systems) . And the only way they can achieve that in a feasible way is if they accept some "collateral damage" in the form of permabanning some players that might have been reformable, but that by no means were innocent.

And now back to what you said: "Mandatory Minimums don't work in prison or here." Unlike mandatory minimums in real life, the current system in LoL works, because most of the time, Riot's system does exactly what it was intended to do: Catch people that would not have been willing to reform, early instead of after months, and permaban them. What you are seeing on the forums, what people are complaining about, is a minority of collateral damage.

Sure, that might be bad enough in your opinion, but in my opinion it's still worth pointing out the difference.

Actually, you're wrong about mandatory minimums, their results and what RIOT's system is designed to do and deal with but other than that....

It exists in the real world but their are social consequences. RIOT is a multi BILLION dollar company that could do f@cking anything. They have the capability. Jeff decides not to use it. He has a boss and a budget and is supposed to justify his actions. Working as intended also isn't a justification, nor a bar for gauging success of a system.

You simply point out flawed logic to make assumptive, predictable and unoriginal arguments without analyzing any data, understanding expert analysis or doing research. You literally just made up BS to try and justify what you said. It's frankly a bit disgusting. THAT is the only thing that happens in real life as much as it does here.

TrulyBland1 votes

Your entire post manages to adress not a single one of my points. It's fascinating, you claim that I make up BS to support my arguments... well, even if that was true, at least I do support my arguments instead of just throwing out handwaving arguments like

RIOT is a multi BILLION dollar company that could do f@cking anything.

Since Riot is apparently godlike in their power and can make any kind of limitation, be they logical, phsyical or legal, go away by throwing money at it, there's probably no sense in discussing anything anyway. Well, at the very least there's no sense in discussing with you.

xReadyPlayerOnex1 votes

{quoted}

Your entire post manages to adress not a single one of my points. It's fascinating, you claim that I make up BS to support my arguments... well, even if that was true, at least I do support my arguments instead of just throwing out handwaving arguments like

Since Riot is apparently godlike in their power and can make any kind of limitation, be they logical, phsyical or legal, go away by throwing money at it, there's probably no sense in discussing anything anyway. Well, at the very least there's no sense in discussing with you.

I didn't address your points because they're terrible points. Maybe you should learn how to make cogent, cohesive arguments that are relevant to a topic before spouting out your inane opinion? Discussion has lead to a great many things in history. Discussing things the way you want to... which seems to be in an extraordinarily absurd way that wouldn't be taken serious in academia, debate or general public conversation. It's allowed on the Internet and fora because... it's the fuckin Internet fora...

LOL. You Sir are a joke. Thanks for the laugh.

TrulyBland1 votes

Since apparently you have trouble identifying my arguments, here we go, an extremely summarized version:

  1. Mandatory minimums are meant to deter through harsh punishment, Riot's strike system is really only meant to speed up the current process. Mandatory minimums and Riot's strike system serve different purposes, so concluding that one can't work because of the others' failure is a non sequitur.

  2. The vast majority of people have at least something they care about in real life, that you can then take away as punishment. In LoL some people absolutely don't care about their entire account, which means you can't effectively punish them. Especially given it's free to play, and it's easy to "avoid" punishment in this form. Which means LoL's justice system has to be different to real-life's in some parts. Which again means your attempts to conclude from real-life scenarios that LoL's justice system is flawed, is in itself flawed.

  3. "RIOT is a multi BILLION dollar company that could do f@cking anything." is not how anything works. You can't throw money at things to make them go away. And even multiple billion dollars is not infinite money. If you have a specific solution in mind that you believe they are able to do, feel free to point one out. But I won't discuss hypothetical solutions that might not even exist.

As to your paragraph about discussion...

I didn't address your points **I didn't address your points **

Yes. I'm sure this is the proper way to discuss things that would surely be taken serious in academia. As we all know science everywhere is done by listening to the person shouting "YOU'RE WROOOOOOONG!!!" the loudest, while pluggin their fingers in their ears.

If I'd dismiss points because they're "terrible" as easily as you, I wouldn't even have started this conversation, given that all of the points you were making rely only on far-fetched analogies and bold assumptions.

And yet... I tried. Guess I can't do more than that.

xReadyPlayerOnex1 votes

{quoted}

Since apparently you have trouble identifying my arguments, here we go, an extremely summarized version:

  1. Mandatory minimums are meant to deter through harsh punishment, Riot's strike system is really only meant to speed up the current process. Mandatory minimums and Riot's strike system serve different purposes, so concluding that one can't work because of the others' failure is a non sequitur.

  2. The vast majority of people have at least something they care about in real life, that you can then take away as punishment. In LoL some people absolutely don't care about their entire account, which means you can't effectively punish them. Especially given it's free to play, and it's easy to "avoid" punishment in this form. Which means LoL's justice system has to be different to real-life's in some parts. Which again means your attempts to conclude from real-life scenarios that LoL's justice system is flawed, is in itself flawed.

  3. "RIOT is a multi BILLION dollar company that could do f@cking anything." is not how anything works. You can't throw money at things to make them go away. And even multiple billion dollars is not infinite money. If you have a specific solution in mind that you believe they are able to do, feel free to point one out. But I won't discuss hypothetical solutions that might not even exist.

As to your paragraph about discussion...

Yes. I'm sure this is the proper way to discuss things that would surely be taken serious in academia. As we all know science everywhere is done by listening to the person shouting "YOU'RE WROOOOOOONG!!!" the loudest, while pluggin their fingers in their ears.

If I'd dismiss points because they're "terrible" as easily as you, I wouldn't even have started this conversation, given that all of the points you were making rely only on far-fetched analogies and bold assumptions.

And yet... I tried. Guess I can't do more than that.

  1. Mandatory Minimums don't work. Regardless of their intentions. There's tons of literature, legal precedent and moral objections to support the abolition of this practice. Simply put, adding a minimum sentence to a crime does NOT deter the commitment of that crime in any way and merely punishes offenders to an extent not befitting their crimes.

  2. Search and Seizure and Cruel and Unusual punishment are constitutional rights for a reason. Law enforcement is NOT about punishment. It is about correcting behavior and protecting the greater community. The defeat of an opposing force or opposition is a concept of WAR. Not a concept for peace (Games are a construct of peace) and therefore doesn't apply to our community. You seem to assume that flaws aren't a part of life. nothing is perfect including this justice system and others. The only part of your argument that makes sense is that you understand punishment doesn't work when you say you "can't effectively punish them". And that's because we shouldn't be punishing them. The goal is to correct behavior. Punishment has never done this except for a minority populations and minor, one time offenses. Consistent behavior requires a much more responsible, thought out method of changing that behavior. Do some research on it.

  3. Riot may be limited in some regards but there are plenty of experts they could hire along these lines and Lyte tends to fall agree with my above two points. I think there's a LOT more they can do and by taking the stance of "do this or die" they in fact create additional problems, moral dilemma's and controversy. There needs to be recourse for extenuating circumstances as what happens in real life because we're human beings capable of mistakes when emotional or of our judgement. This scenario that the OP describes is an outlier and I think should be a reason we change the system at whole and would debate what changes to make with anyone. I have made specific posts about that before and will continue to do so and strike down dumb, unthoughtful crap like what you present.

I don't take your arguments seriously as they are ludicrous. Academic examination of ludicrous arguments tend to be treated the same. Just think about if Neil Degrasse Tyson was told by someone the earth was flat... what would he say to you? You offer "arguments" and positions that are akin to this and do nothing more than spout your opinion.

Listen. Go do some research. About the detrimental effects of mandatory minimums, common business practices regarding ethical and moral dilemmas and the responsibility of companies to cultivate positive culture and some moral philosophy. Then look back at your posts here and you might see exactly what I have.

[zombie-brand-mindblown]

TrulyBland1 votes

Simply put, adding a minimum sentence to a crime does NOT deter the commitment of that crime in any way and merely punishes offenders to an extent not befitting their crimes.

Riot's system is not as harsh as it is to deter punishments. I said that in every single fucking post of mine.

Sorry, I hardly ever do this, but I stopped reading there. It's clear this is pointless, since you're apparently not even reading my arguments, let alone adressing them.

Edit: Sorry for the harsh response... still, this is obviously pointless. Either I fail to convey my points to you, or you fail to understand them. It doesn't really matter either way.

xReadyPlayerOnex1 votes

{quoted}

Riot's system is not as harsh as it is to deter punishments. I said that in every single fucking post of mine.

Sorry, I hardly ever do this, but I stopped reading there. It's clear this is pointless, since you're apparently not even reading my arguments, let alone adressing them.

Edit: Sorry for the harsh response... still, this is obviously pointless. Either I fail to convey my points to you, or you fail to understand them. It doesn't really matter either way.

Your failure is not my problem.

Vesarixx2 votes

If you let your friend play on your account that is against the ToS, maybe not something they would ban you for but might be a reason that they would be unlikely to overturn the ban.

Linthe1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Raith alghul,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=lTQEWB7t,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2016-04-05T04:20:49.490+0000)

If you let your friend play on your account that is against the ToS, maybe not something they would ban you for but might be a reason that they would be unlikely to overturn the ban.

Yup.. This. Your account, your responsiblity. It's sad that your friend did whatever he did... but he did.

The one exception I would want to see to this is if the account got hacked (one incident of which was reported on here).

xReadyPlayerOnex1 votes

{quoted}

Yup.. This. Your account, your responsiblity. It's sad that your friend did whatever he did... but he did.

The one exception I would want to see to this is if the account got hacked (one incident of which was reported on here).

Punishing people for other people's behavior is neither fair nor consistent. It doesn't help anyone. It doesn't change anything. Stripping the person of something they enjoy and like because of someone else's actions is just wrong. There needs to be leniency in this regard and understanding that repeat offenses are subject to full punishments.

It's akin to saying... you don't get a candy bar when the rest of the class gets one because your friend got detention. How does that help you? How does that correct your friends behavior? Maybe it'll pressure him through you. But that's completely unfair to you.

Linthe1 votes

{quoted}

Punishing people for other people's behavior is neither fair nor consistent. It doesn't help anyone. It doesn't change anything. Stripping the person of something they enjoy and like because of someone else's actions is just wrong. There needs to be leniency in this regard and understanding that repeat offenses are subject to full punishments.

It's akin to saying... you don't get a candy bar when the rest of the class gets one because your friend got detention. How does that help you? How does that correct your friends behavior? Maybe it'll pressure him through you. But that's completely unfair to you.

Only.. it's not exactly. The problem is that Rito has NO idea who is sitting at the keyboard at any given time. So the onus is on YOU to make sure that the only one using your account is you.

Otherwise, everyone would use the "dog ate my homework" excuse. It wasn't me... I just let Johnny log in. Punish HIM. Not me.

Raw2 votes

"I allowed a close friend to play on it while I was gone" http://www.auplod.com/u/uopadl6d63e.png

jpguy9022 votes

I know Riot doesn't take any exceptions to permabans but this man fought for our country. Please take this into consideration

Sarutobi2 votes

You might want to talk to your friend. But what everyone said in here is true. While it does suck, your friend possibly was toxic while you were away and resulted in your account being ban. You giving your account to your friend is already breaking the rules, because you are responsible for your own account. Sadly it looks like the odds arent in your favor. You break the rules, you get some sort of punishment. Although i will say to try and contact Support to get the facts straight, but again it doesnt seem likely that you will get your account back. If you want to play again just make a new account.

FifCCiZ5KO2 votes

Did you read the entire post? The friend that used this account passed away 2 years ago...

Sarutobi1 votes

[{quoted}](name=I AM THAT DUDE,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=lTQEWB7t,comment-id=00040000,timestamp=2016-04-05T05:49:47.540+0000)

Did you read the entire post? The friend that used this account passed away 2 years ago...

my mistake, but it still stands that he broke the rules.

Zerfallen2 votes

As a fellow Sailor, I hope the best for you.

Keep us up to date on your ticket status, if you don't mind!

Also, if you ever need someone to play a match with, feel free to add me.

FifCCiZ5KO1 votes

Thanks man... I just wish Riot was a bit more sympathetic in this area, seems a bit gray to me how they go upon it.

Ruin Lance2 votes

unfortunately i don't think your account will ever be unbanned. riot only cares what the account does, not the player.

disregardable1 votes

I mean, a permanent ban from 4-5 years ago is very unlikely to be overturned. It sucks that you have no idea why it happened, but it was a long time ago. The "good" news is that they've halved the time it takes to level to 30 and decreased rune prices as well. Obviously not what you wanted to hear, but I think the game is still worth playing even if you don't have your account from that long ago.

FifCCiZ5KO1 votes

Does making it 4-5 years old make it less likely to be overturned since it was such a long time ago? Can you enlighten me on that? I would like to know why that is so.

disregardable2 votes

Permanent bans are not undone unless there was a mistake made in the ban. It's unlikely they'd unban it anyway because you'd shared your account info (which is against the terms of service itself), but when there are mistakes in the banning process you're expected to contact Riot within a month or so of when you're banned. Honestly, I'm surprised the account still exists- they do delete old accounts for the names sometimes.

FACE THE WlND1 votes

Uhhhh, you shared you're account. 1. That's not allowed. 2. You're responsible for any actions done on your account. Sorry.

Denavai1 votes

Skipped 2 paragraphs and saw you mention. "Cause I let a friend play it." Done; That was no longer your account the moment you released your password to it; Nore should you even care about it anymore -cause you had done that. Make a new account, or play something else.

Love Bots1 votes

Your account is gone. You made the mistake of letting your "friend" use your account.

You paid for it. Save your sob story, Riot doesn't care.

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