Riot dev addresses League of Legends toxicity and new punishment system

League of Legends is no stranger to toxicity, although the developers at Riot Games have announced that they are finally bringing the hammer down with a new punishment system.

The announcement was made online on X by Lead Gameplay Designer, Matt Leung-Harrison, who said that, when it comes to League of Legends toxicity, they aim to ‘punish bad behaviour’ and create a ‘thriving League.’

In the post, Leung-Harrison said: “Today, I wanted to focus on our philosophical approach to player behaviour and punishments, given the excitement (and some confusion) around punishments related to our systems.

“Our ultimate aim isn’t to simply punish bad behaviour, but to foster a well-thriving League that encourages good behaviour and reform.”

He first detailed the philosophy behind the new way Riot will be dishing out punishments, moving away from ‘harsh penalties’ and opting for ‘timely nudges’ to encourage players to be more respectful. He highlighted how severe issuing severe punishments did not result in reduced offences, but rather making users aware that negative behaviour has been identified makes their likelihood of re-offending lower (less than 10%).

The post also highlighted the reporting system in League of Legends, calling on the community to use reporting more thoughtfully instead of using it to spite the enemy team. According to Riot, it’s preferable to have certain actions uncaught rather than punishing innocent players unjustly.

“Our systems have benefited greatly ]from] high-quality reporting,” Leung-Harrison said. “If you shotgun report everyone on the enemy team every game, we’re not going to be able to use that, and it will decrease our trust in your reports in the future.

“Reports don’t do anything by themselves, but they do increase our likelihood of escalating penalties or detecting a behaviour in the first place.”

Finally, Leung-Harrison went into detail about egregious behaviour when it comes to League of Legends toxicity. He highlighted how a small portion of the community (less than 0.1%) continues to commit misconduct until they are permanently banned. He shared they they intend to give a ‘typically permanent vacation from the game’ to these players, but acknowledges that account swapping and alts remain a problem.

He concluded his post by saying: “Thanks as always for your feedback and patience as we continually strive to make League the best it can be and thank you to the team for all the hard work in getting the foundation out the door.”