Instant feedback powers up

A few months back we launched instant feedback bans, an automated system delivering two week and permanent bans for verbal toxicity within 15 minutes of a game’s end. Instant feedback hits two player behavior design values, both punishing negative players and helping them reform their behavior.

Now, we’re bolting a few new cylinders onto the instant feedback engine. Fueled by your reports on what is and isn’t acceptable behavior (and some elbow grease on our end), chat/ranked restrictions and intentional feeding bans are now delivered and enforced within 15 minutes of a game’s end. Beyond those upgrades, we’re moving reform cards into the client and rounding out the design value trinity by rewarding positive players with an exclusive summoner icon.

In-client reform cards

Until now, reform cards were sent via email to offending players. Now they’ll appear in-client, delivering context on the punishment and displaying the chat log that triggered the punishment. Pushing reform cards into the client ensures players receive the information they need to understand the punishment and change their behavior for the better. Since the vast majority of you won’t ever receive a reform card, here’s what one looks like:

Chat and ranked restrictions

Instant feedback began with two-week and permanent bans because the negative behaviors spurring them (homophobia, racism, sexism, death threats, and excessive verbal abuse) are both overwhelmingly rejected by the community and hard to mistake. After crunching several million games worth of data over the last few months, the instant feedback system’s now ready to help reform more mild, but persistent negative behaviors with chat and ranked restrictions. Beyond the extra horsepower, we’re re-tuning restrictions to better encourage reform. Learn more about that effort over on boards.

Intentional feeding bans

Intentional feeders ruin games, so the behavior nets offending players two-week bans, and can escalate to permanent bans if the behavior continues. Through a ton of in-game metrics, chat logs, and even historical play patterns, we ensured the system understands the difference between intentional feeding and being crushed by a Riven main in solo queue. You shouldn’t need to worry about just having a bad game.

Like with all new feature launches, the whole player behavior team will hand-review the first few thousand cases to make sure everything’s working right.

Positive players unlock exclusive icon

To celebrate positive play, every player who hasn’t been chat/ranked restricted or banned over the last three months will unlock an exclusive summoner icon. You can expect that to land in your account by 5.19.

We’ll hang around the comments to answer any questions!