Why I haven't touched this game in 2 months & why I haven't been tempted to pick it up again

I think the last time I played this game was in early November. I quit playing this game for a few reasons, but the main reason I stopped playing is due to player behavior. Note that I've been playing this game regularly since Season 2.

I think that the overall player behavior in LoL is actually fair. I would say about 50% of games I play have zero toxic players. I define a toxic player as someone who lets emotions dictate what he or she says in chat and what he or she does in the game for extended periods of time. I don't consider toxicity to be short outbursts of name calling or burning a flash for no reason. True toxicity is when someone is intentionally assuming a negative attitude that is severe enough to influence his or her teammates.

The problem with toxicity is two fold.

1. A truly toxic player, although rare, is a massive pain to deal with even when blocked because teammates sometimes fall into the trap of communicating with the toxic player and become toxic themselves.
2. A game of LoL lasts the better part of an hour, so you're stuck with the toxic player(s) both during champion selection and for the entirety of the game.

When I started playing this game I was in high school. Now I've graduated college and I have a job. I have almost no free time in comparison to when I was in high school, and as such I need to spend my free time effectively. Toxic players threaten my free time and thus, I do not play this game anymore. I just can't risk wasting an hour of my time knowing literally one person can ruin my game.

So here are a few suggestions I have.

1. Figure out a way to remove KDA numbers from the game. LoL is an objective focused team oriented game. KDA, in the grand scheme of the game, is completely irrelevant and most likely does more harm than good in 90% of matches. I remember about a year into playing LoL I was banned for excessive toxic behavior in game. I remember that I went on a massive losing streak because I was so obsessed with getting my KDA to be good. I felt that if I just showed the other people on my team that my numbers were good that it would imply I was a good player. However, that first level thinking is what gets a lot of people into a rut, and can sometimes get you banned for 2 weeks.

KDA numbers are important, don't get me wrong. We use them to understand how well some of our teammates are doing, and how well some of our opponents are doing. However, I feel that the numbers are doing more harm than good, and often lead to teammates thinking, "oh, that guy has a bad score and he's 2 levels behind the rest of the team. I'm going to lose my game because of this goon. Oh man, he just died again! [in chat] 'Hey you dumb cu*t, stop feeding the enemy team. Reporting you for intentionally feeding.' "

Obviously KDA metrics aren't the only thing influencing toxicity in game; but I feel that it's a big enough problem that it should be addressed. Riot has some of the smartest guys in the industry and a lot of resources other companies do not have. I think they can come up with a solution to re-working KDA numbers and replacing them with a different type of metric. Heck, maybe just remove the death counter completely and only show the amount of kills each champion has?

Also, I think it might be a good idea to limit chat entries during ranked games. I feel that you don't really need to communicate more than one single line, maybe two, in a game to do an effective play.

ie: I did my red, I have my ult. Going to gank mid. Does mid have flash? No. Flash down for another 2 minutes. I have mine tho. Ok omw.

• Gank occurs.

Limiting the amount of things people can type in chat would most likely reduce toxicity. A person who would most likely rage at the team might think to himself, "hm, I'm totally pissed at this feeder, but if I flame at him I can't communicate later. what's more important? flaming at this one guy or using chat to communicate properly?"

Anyway, good luck to any new and continuing players. This game is very fun and enjoyable when people are being civil. However, now that I've graduated and have a job I just can't risk throwing my free time away because of one or two toxic individuals.