The Report Feature is a system that allows players to report other players when they encounter offensive, negative, or disruptive behavior within League of Legends.
Reporting
Players can report other players in champion select, in-game, or on the post-game screen. Reporting is denoted by an exclamation mark !
. In champion select and on the post-game screen, the button is displayed when you hover the player's name.
Clicking the report button opens a form, where details about the negative behavior of the player to be reported can be entered. The button at the bottom will submit the form. In, game, you can edit and update the form until the end, by marking and un-marking each reporting category.
A combination of frequency of reports versus quality of reports is taken into account holistically when the system flags an account with a penalty. Reports made within champion select are not tied with the penalty system and are instead used by Riot to collect information regarding disruptive behavior within champion select.[1]
Reporting Options
- Negative Attitude
- Griefing, giving up, putting other players down or being negative about the game.
- Verbal Abuse
- Including, but not limited to language that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, or otherwise objectionable.
- Leaving the Game/AFK
- This includes:
- Exiting the game before a match ends, or
- Standing idle for long periods of time, or
- Refusing to participate in the match at all.
- While LeaverBuster automatically penalizes leavers and AFKers, this category of reports assist in improving Riot Games' models and decision making.
- Intentional Feeding
- Feeding is griefing, not just having a bad game.
- Hate Speech
- Racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.
- Cheating
- Using unapproved third party programs.
- Offensive or Inappropriate Name
- Names that:
- Are falsely indicative of an association with Riot Games.
- Contain personally identifying information.
- Infringe on the proprietary rights of third party.
- Are offensive, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable. This also applies if the name uses a misspelling or an alternate spelling to circumvent the restrictions to summoner name choices.
- Refusing to Play Position (Champion Select only)
- Playing a role other than the one they were assigned without agreeing to switch with the other player.
- Griefing / Hostage Taking (Champion Select only)
- Threatening to grief your teammates in game or champion select unless they get a desired outcome.
- Other
- Miscellaneous negative behavior.
Reasons to Get Punished
The reasons are told in the terms of use and are:
- Impersonating any person, business or entity, including an employee of Riot Games, or communicating in any way that makes it appear that the communication originates from Riot Games;
- Posting identifying information about yourself or other players to the Website or within the Game;
- Harassing, stalking or threatening other players while using the Riot Services;
- Removing, altering or concealing any copyright, trademark, patent or other proprietary rights notice of Riot Games contained in the Website, the Game and/or the Software. You also may not transmit content that violates or infringes the rights of others, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, publicity, personal rights or other rights;
- Transmitting or communicating any content which, in the sole and exclusive discretion of Riot Games, is deemed offensive, including language that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, or racially, ethically, or otherwise objectionable;
- Transmitting or facilitating the transmission of any content that contains a virus, corrupted data, trojan horse, bot keystroke logger, worm, time bomb, cancelbot or other computer programming routines that are intended to and/or actually damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or mine, scrape or expropriate any system, data or personal information;
- Spamming chat, whether for personal or commercial purposes, by disrupting the flow of conversation with repeated postings;
- Participating in any action which, in the sole and exclusive judgment of Riot Games, defrauds any other user of the Game, including by scamming or social engineering;
- Using any unauthorized third party programs, including mods, hacks, cheats, scripts, bots, trainers and automation programs that interact with the Software in any way, for any purpose, including any unauthorized third party programs that intercept, emulate, or redirect any communication between the Software and Riot Games and any unauthorized third party programs that collect information about the Game by reading areas of memory used by the Software to store information;
- Accessing or attempting to access areas of the Game or Game servers that have not been made available to the public;
- Selecting a Summoner name that is falsely indicative of an association with Riot Games, contains personally identifying information, or that is offensive, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable. You may not use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent this restriction on Summoner name choices. Riot Games may modify any name which, in the sole and exclusive judgment of Riot Games, violates this provision, without notification to you, and may take further disciplinary measures, including account termination for repeated violations;
- Logging out or exiting the Game during live game-play. Riot Games’ automated Leaverbuster® system tracks this data over time and issues a temporary ban when a user is determine to have left mid-game too many times. The length of the temporary ban will increase over time if a particular account continues to leave live game play;
- Playing on another person’s account to “boost” that account’s status or rank; or
- Inducing or encouraging others to violate this Code of Conduct or the terms of this Agreement.
Penalties
Instant Feedback Report
Players who are found to be causing a negative game experience are then punished within 15 minutes of the games end and will be notified with a reform card. Players who reported the offending player will be notified with an Instant Feedback Report if a punishment was issued.[2]
The punishment system generally follows a basic escalation path:
- First Offense: 3-Day Chat Restriction.
- Second Offense: 7-Day Chat Restriction.
- Third Offense: 14-Day Ban.
- Fourth Offense: Permanent Ban.
Chat restrictions restrict the number of chat messages one can send in-game, but players can still communicate through pings, emotes, private messages or voice chat. However, it is possible to skip to a Two Week or Permanent suspension based on the severity of the behavior in the game. Excessive negative behavior can result in a Two-Week or Permanent suspension at any time without having a chat restriction on the account. Players who show consistent reform or show positive behavior in their games will help heal their account's reputation.
Inappropriate Summoner Name
Selecting a Summoner name that is falsely indicative of an association with Riot Games, contains personally identifying information, infringes on the proprietary or non-proprietary rights of third parties, or that is offensive, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable will require the offending player to rename themselves. The name change will be provided for free within Riot regions. Repeated name reports after changing names will result in a penalty to either your account or your honor level.[3]
Honor and Hextech Crafting Restrictions
If you've been penalized recently for negative behavior, you'll be locked out of earning hextech chests and keys from playing games and the Honor system until you've reformed, shown progress towards positive play, and unlock these features again.[4] If your Honor level is below level 2 at the end of the ranked season, you will be ineligible for that season's ranked rewards.
The length of time you're restricted from earning loot is relative to two things:
- Severity of penalty. You won't earn loot for the duration of your penalty, be it a temporary suspension or a chat restriction.
- Signs of reform. Once your penalty has ended, you'll continue to be restricted from earning loot and locked out of honor until you're recognized to have made significant progress in amending your past behavior.
The number of honor levels you lose is based on the severity of your penalty:
- 14-day suspensions: Drops your level down to 0 and lock your Honor progress, making your account ineligible for hextech crafting rewards.
- Chat restrictions: Knocks your Honor level to 1, or 0 if you're already at level 1. Honor progress will be locked, making your account ineligible for hextech crafting rewards.
Once your penalty ends, you'll enter a reform period, during which you'll remain ineligible to earn Hextech Chests and Keys, and your honor progress will be locked. Ending this reform period requires consistent displays of good sportsmanship. Your reform period isn't over after a specific number of games, or after a certain date, but is completely dependent upon your behavior. You'll be notified when your Honor progress is unlocked. Once unlocked, you'll be able to earn Hextech chests again even at Honor level 0. You'll start earning key fragments and other rewards again when you reach Honor level 1.
Elo Boosting
Elo Boosting is an act where a player logs into another player's account to climb the ranks or increase matchmaking rating on their behalf. This service is disingenuous to the integrity of the ranked system and endangers account security, and thus may be eligible for punishment.[5]
Any accounts found participating in Elo Boosting are subject to the following punishments:
- 14-day suspension.
- Honor will drop to level 0.
- Exclusion from receiving the current season's Ranked Rewards.
- Second time offenders will be permanently banned from League of Legends.
ID Bans
ID bans are different—and more serious—than normal account permabans. An ID ban is a rare, drastic step Riot takes against players who've consistently chosen not to play to win or to abide by the terms of service.[6] When a player is determined to receive an ID ban, it's effectively a statement that Riot doesn't want that particular person to create, access, or use any account on a Riot platform or game for the duration of the ban. ID bans generally result from a player: showing extreme aggression in chat, intentionally feeding across multiple permanently banned accounts or makes a verifiable threat of harm against other players or Rioters. ID bans are extremely uncommon. To date, only a handful of players globally have ever received an ID ban.
Whenever an ID ban is active, Riot will regularly search for account activity on the part of the banned player. If any accounts are found, they will be immediately, manually banned. The behavior of the ID-banned player on these accounts is not taken into consideration—if you've been ID-banned. Getting an ID ban means you aren't allowed to play the game publicly.
In order to appeal an ID Ban, the offending player must:
- Wait at least one year from the date the ID ban was applied.
- After a year has passed, the affected player should submit a player support request to ask for a re-evaluation of the ID ban. This request should include a list of any accounts the player has used while ID banned.
If these conditions are met, Riot will evaluate if they should lift the ban or extend it. If the conditions are not properly met, the player must wait another year before submitting another request. If a player received an ID ban because of a verifiable threat of harm against a player or Rioter, it won't be lifted unless there are unique circumstances. If a player's ID ban is lifted, it means Riot will no longer manually ban their accounts on sight, but any accounts that were suspended will not be unbanned. Because of the seriousness of the ID ban, Riot will continue to monitor the player's in-game behavior for a period of time. If the player lapses back into their old, negative behaviors, an investigation will be conducted. Depending on the outcome of the investigation, it's possible that the ID-Ban is re-applied for at least another year.
Trivia
- On the 30th of July 2018, a limited amount of players in NA, got their perma-banned account, un-banned. This was due to an experiment by RiotWookieeCookie to see if people can grow and change for the better.
The NA server was chosen simply because the staff and resources necessary to operate this experiment were in NA.
During this experiment, players who failed to change (or who had no intention of changing at all) were re-banned and remained banned forever. If the experiment is successful NA Rioters will share it with other offices around the world and give them the opportunity to adapt it to their players' needs if they find it useful. Likewise, if the experiment was ultimately not successful NA Rioters will share the results and findings with other regions that highlight the trouble and difficulties they had with the experiment and why they won't be continuing it.- The roster for the experiment is full. Rioters will not be able to add any additional accounts; NO exceptions will be made.
- Rioters will be unable to provide updates on this experiment’s success (or lack of success) or any updates on when they might have another experiment like it or when they might make changes in the future.
- Rioters do not have any plans to un-ban or allow players to return to League on perma-banned accounts outside of this experiment. The fact that they’re running this limited experiment should not give hope that Rioters will end up changing their policies at a later date. They are 100% committed to looking at the data they collect from this process in order to do what’s best for League and their players. They are very aware that they might find that their current policies are working as intended and perma-banned accounts will stay banned forever. Players should be prepared for this possibility.[7]