Whether it’s intentional feeding, going AFK during a game, or toxic in-game chat, League of Legends players are used to encountering griefers during their many games on Summoner’s Rift. Riot Games has continuously worked on its punishment system for constant wrongdoers and greater measures will be taken in the next few months, the devs announced today.
Behavior systems lead Hana “TimTamMonster” Dinh has outlined plans to limit toxic players by disabling ranked queues and forcing repeat offenders to play in different queues to unlock the mode again. Although some players might be worried about getting toxic players in their unranked games, Riot believes the environment of ranked can lead to even worse behavior in the long run.
“We know there’s still so much more to do,” Dinh said in a developer’s blog. “But these changes are giving us a lot more confidence that we’re moving in the right direction, and we’re looking forward to making even more impact on preventing disruptive behavior from ruining your experience in games.”
These ranked restrictions will also be added onto other existing restrictions so that any players who are constantly toxic will be given account bans that disable all game modes for a specific amount of time as a major punishment. Riot will, however, monitor the level of toxicity and disruptive behavior in the other game modes once these new systems are in place.
Another change that Riot will be implementing is the switch to a year-long calculation for Honor rewards, instead of splitting Honor rewards into two seasons like the ranked season currently is. As a result, players must maintain good standing throughout the entire year if they wish to get the unique Honor skin and other loot.
Moving forward, Riot will be focusing on negative in-game behavior and griefing through other means, such as using abilities against one’s own teammates, as it tries to find more ways to curb this problem over the course of the year.
