Throughout the history of League of Legends (LoL) specifically and esports in general, stories about toxic behavior from a segment of players that affects others have never been lacking. However, Riot – the publisher of LoL – has not implemented any truly effective measures to address this issue. The toxicity from a segment of LoL players has persisted throughout the development of this game.
Take the case of a female LoL player named Kim So-hyun. Specifically, this girl was playing LoL live when the incident occurred during a match that lasted a whopping 3 hours. The match was created by none other than her teammates and two opponents.
So-hyun’s two teammates helped the two opponents use the champions Nasus and Senna (characters that can scale very well over time) to reach extremely high power levels. Moreover, whenever So-hyun attempted to surrender, they refused to let the match continue. To make matters worse, these teammates also helped the opponents hunt down So-hyun by continuously revealing her position to them.
However, after the match ended, her unfortunate account was banned by Riot for 14 days. According to many opinions shared by the community, it may have been because her kill count reached 121, which led her irresponsible teammates to report her to Riot, resulting in her being penalized.
This incident has caused immense outrage within the LoL community. Because Riot’s processing system has operated too mechanically, making a girl a “victim” of a portion of irresponsible players. In fact, the tool intended to handle negative behaviors in LoL has become a way for these irresponsible individuals to attack a girl.
As of now, Riot has yet to comment on the incident. However, if they do not handle it appropriately, this publisher may continue to lose the trust of its own player community.