a few ways riot could combat bait banning with pros/cons

"Flamebaiting, bait banning, report baiting" these are all terms which describe a form of trolling where a player will attempt to provoke or coerce a player into getting themselves punished by the IFS. even though a certain person who's name i wont mention "we all know who he is" has brought awareness to this issue. this form of trolling is nothing new. its been an epidemic for awhile and it's not always "please say the slur for black people starting with N three times or i run down mid. sometimes it's more subtle methods like passive aggressive needling, using a throwaway account.or low key trolling.

here are a few things riot could do to reduce or eliminate bait banning NOTE. "i am in no way saying riot should or shouldnt do any of these."

1. get rid of the feedback popup PROS: bait trolls wouldnt get the notification and wouldnt be able to gloat CONS: wouldnt actually fix the problem, people would think their reports arent working.

2. allow a small amount of retaliation without fear of punishment. but nothing more then a single "fuck you" or "shut up" PROS: allows players to blow off steam, may prevent toxic behavior from escalating, bait bans would be harder. CONS: not everyone wants to see it. minor chat toxicty might increase

3. Eliminate text based chat entirely and replace it with voice chat PROS: would eliminate bait banning completely. voice chat wouldn't distract from gameplay the same way typing does CONS: would be impossible to moderate.

4. Eliminate in game chat entirely and DONT replace it PROS: would eliminate chat toxicity completely. and therefore eliminate bait banning. CONS: limits team communication to pings and 3rd party voice chat. may increase gameplay trolling

5. put honor restrictions on reporting. PROS: further encourages people not to get punished, prevents low honor players from bait banning CONS: won't stop premades, gives players a viable reason to report beg, may increase undetectable trolling

6. put a cap on the amount of reports a person can file every so many games. PROS: will reduce frivolous reporting, will reduce strain on IFS, and reduce false positives CONS: some toxic players may get away due to people being out of reports. encourages report begging.