With the nature of an online competitive game that is globally famous, it’s understandable that League of Legends has players with poor gaming etiquette or those who ruin games and throw tantrums. However, that does not mean we should turn a blind eye and accept it, as this attitude towards gaming is extremely negative and has a very bad impact on the players themselves and the community as a whole.
Unfortunately, the ones ignoring the toxic and game-ruining situation in League of Legends are the creators of the game themselves – Riot Games. Without going far, we can see that the post-game reporting system seems to have no meaning at all; those game ruiners even dare to challenge reporting because they know for sure that they will remain unscathed and continue to troll the game without fear.
This is a common situation across most servers, not just in Vietnam; it even occurs at the highest rank in League of Legends, the Challenger tier. The negative behavior happens so frequently that many streamers and professional players have complained about it. Most recently, streamer Voyboy – who has been involved with League of Legends since the game’s launch and has competed professionally – has spoken out and called on Riot Games to take action for a cleaner community.
“Hello everyone, if you don’t know, I am Voyboy, I have been playing League of Legends professionally since season 1, streaming this game full-time for the past 5 years. League of Legends has simply been my entire life since I was in high school.” – Voyboy introduced himself before diving straight into the issue of the extremely poor state of League of Legends over the past few years, especially in solo queue.
“The truth is that League of Legends players are becoming increasingly toxic, with game ruining, AFK, and trash-talking happening more and more in solo queue. Personally, the last 5 months of Season 10 have been the worst experience I’ve had since I started playing League of Legends.” – Voyboy also shared that he had visited Riot’s headquarters in 2018 to discuss this issue, but nothing has changed, and each season things only get worse.
“And those game ruiners are not punished at all; Riot Games completely ignores it, so people are not afraid of being banned. Unless you spam banned words in chat or excessively attack others, you might get banned, but otherwise, they just keep ruining the game without any consequences. Is Riot planning to do anything?” – Voyboy bitterly spoke about his ranked experience.
“I think that those game ruiners respect no one, they do not respect League of Legends – the game we all love, and this needs to change. In my time, that was not the case; players loved and respected the game they were committed to, and people did not troll the game just for fun; if they did, they would face appropriate consequences. I hope everyone and Riot will understand this and work together to solve this pressing issue.”
Voyboy’s somewhat bitter comments not only reflect the reality of game ruining but also indicate that Riot Games seems to be indifferent to punishing players with poor etiquette. This happens even at the highest ranks like Challenger, and when streamers find themselves in this situation, viewers realize that – “if they can ruin games at Challenger, what do I have to fear? If they aren’t punished, then I won’t be either.” And thus, game ruining, trolling, and AFK behaviors continue to spread.
The League of Legends community may be large in terms of player base, but along with that, there are many players with poor etiquette, leading to a decline in quality. It is high time that Riot Games take stronger actions regarding this issue if they do not want players to become frustrated with solo queue and switch to playing Teamfight Tactics instead.