League of Legends has an infamous reputation for toxic behavior in matches, and a new “remedial” ranked system that forces players to play normal matches for a bit if they don’t behave.
From players purposely throwing games to create content to poor in-game conduct that reaches as far as the game’s very best pro players, League of Legends has a bit of a reputation within the gaming scene for its toxicity.
However, the developers at Riot have made it clear that at the beginning of 2023 that they’re experimenting with a number of ways to disincentivize this behavior and punish players who do things like AFKing games, BMing their teammates, and other unsportsmanlike activities.
Their newest system, however, takes things a step further. Those who AFK games and BM their teammates or opponents will be forced to play normal matches, leaving them unable to queue ranked entirely until they play a few matches.
New League ranked behavior system sparks controversy
Players who hit ranked queues hard have found a number of ways around the barriers Riot has put up so far. Even with increased penalties on leaving games and dodging lobbies, many dedicated players have a few different accounts that they consistently swap between to keep queuing.
While the current system’s timed penalties and chat restrictions will keep those accounts in particular at bay, many of League’s more toxic ranked players can simply swap out to another account and get right back into queue.
However, the newest system revealed by Riot promises to take things a step further and really punish players who hop between accounts.
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As far as "which offenses?" This would come into effect for Leaving, AFK, Gameplay, and Chat penalties.
— League of Legends Dev Team (@LoLDev) September 19, 2023
“Offenders must play remedial games in a non-ranked queue with good behavior,” claims the post from the dev team. These other modes consist of pretty much anything that isn’t ranked, with it being specified that only players who behave well in these remedial games will be allowed to return to ranked.
It hasn’t yet been confirmed just how many matches would have to be played to return to ranked, but it’s clear that those who hop between accounts won’t be able to just wait out a timer anymore and will have to play some matches on that account before they can return to the grind.
While the majority of players in the thread thought this was a “W” change from the team, a few who don’t interact with ranked and just want to play normal games in peace were skeptical.
“this blows. innocent players in your fanbase are now going to be stuck playing with “RXFORMED GOD 217″ in all of their norms games, likely that they play partly to stay away from the stress and toxicity of ranked. 0/10 change this literally makes League worse for me thanks tons” responded one user, with some others mirroring their sentiment.
This change will be arriving on patch 13.19, which gives it a release date of around September 26, 2023.