Process of Punishment [in the Tribunal]

The original post in the LoL GD forums. Do note its still a work in progress

 Contents of the post for your convenience

Hello Summoners,

This is an ongoing guide/explanation as to how the Tribunal system works and how to stay out of it, it is also a guide towards those who are struggling with their suspension. I am creating this guide to have summoners stray from the path that I chose to take. The path of permanent suspension. This guide is in its beginning stages and will continue to improve over time, please do criticize; but please only civilized discussion.

Table of Contents:
I. The Tribunal
II. Common Reasons for Bans
III. Summoner’s Code
IV. Common Cases
V. Understanding Suspensions
VI. Ban Order
VII. Permabans
VIII. Things to Keep in Mind
IX. Personal story
X. Questions
XI. FAQ

Quick Tips
- Listen to music, something like Pandora, while playing, it’s proven to help you play better and soothes those moments
-Record your games with something like LoLRecorder, and try to improve your game play by looking at your previous matches and seeing what you could have done better.
-Support is your friend, before making a thread about your problems, message them.
- The “Two Loss Rule”, this is something I implemented into my gaming where if I lose two games in a row, I will take an hour break and play/do something else. This usually happened when I would lose games in ranked, so I would stop playing to stop myself from going on a downward spiral. I found that by doing this, when I came back I would win more often. It’s a great little technique.

The Tribunal and You
- The Tribunal is a system implemented by Riot that is meant to punish people for their wrong actions. When your name pops up on it, it means you’ve been doing things wrong and need to correct yourself.
-The Process- Essentially you’ve broken the Summoner’s Code and have been reported. Those reports are sent to the Tribunal, where your peers judge your actions based on your chat and how it had affected others. If the community sees that your actions are harmful, you will be punished. These punishments begin at a mere twenty-four hour ban but can escalate to a much more severe permanent ban.
-Now if you don’t want to end up being punished there is one simple rule. That rule is commonly known as “The Golden Rule”, treat others the way you would want to be treated. It isn’t difficult but we all lose our cool, which is why you aren’t judged for a single game, it’s a collection of all of them that are used to reflect you.

How to Avoid It
Here I will be talking about the most common reasons for bans and how to avoid it.
Offensive Language/Verbal Abuse- Now as a player that was permanently banned for this reason, I can speak about this personally. Most players feel that because there is an invisible screen between them and the rest of the internet, they can say and do stupid things. Well that’s not the case. You see, I was one of these stupid competitive players and didn’t really accept anything until it was too late. I only played ranked and when someone screwed up it meant a lot more than messing up in a normal game. I decided that maybe if I yelled at them they would change and play better out of fear, I was later proven wrong. When you treat someone negatively they will react negatively and vice versa, it's human nature. For example, when running a marathon with a partner who is slower than you, what do you do? You motivate them. They can already see that they are behind, if you tell them that they suck and are too slow, they lose hope and give up much more easily. On the other hand if you keep telling them to never give up and keep trying their best, they will improve and try harder as you have showed them that you have faith.
Avoiding it- To keep your keep your cool have something like Pandora in the background, and know that everyone has bad games. Also this is most likely the only time you will ever see this person, so there is no point in going into a full out onslaught about who’s right/wrong.
Intentional Feeding/Griefing- Really, the only thing here is that people tend to give up too early. Even if your team has given up there is no need for you to go ahead and feed mid/start building "troll" items, besides, there might be people in the game who still believe they can pull a win, if someone starts trolling it ruins everyone's chances at victory. If the game is a complete lost cause you still don’t need to kick it while its down, simply wait until the 20 minute mark and surrender or you could actually play and see where the game goes, comebacks are possible just wait for the enemies to make mistakes.
Avoiding it- Don’t give up. Think about your teammates.
Leaving the Game/AFKing- When you start a match, you must be playing at 100%. Your teammates don’t want to hear that your cat suddenly caught fire or that your internet provider imploded causing D/C’s. It’s your responsibility to know that when you queue, you will be able to play the game to its fullest. Also just because the game is going downhill, doesn’t mean you have to leave/AFK, that just ruins all possibility of winning and ruins everyone’s experience.
Avoiding it- Have everything planned out, no distractions, just League. That means even if your significant other interferes, tell them that video games come first.

Interpreting the Summoner’s Code
The Summoner’s Code
I. Support your Team- Basically, you’re not going to win the game 1v5. So best thing to do is simply shut up and act nice. I don’t care if that top lane is feeding or if your jungler’s not ganking for you, start working together or you’re going to lose. Be a team player, meaning yes you are going to occasionally have to play support and call “Mia’s” or ping even if you don’t want to, besides, it takes a whole half a second. Little things go a long way.
II. Drive Constructive Feedback- Simply put, when talking, speak appropriately. So use correct grammar, spelling, and formatting so people don’t have to read blocks of text. This is both in-game and on the forums. When you’re asking that one player to improve their play style it’s better not to start with, “stop feeding noob” and instead go with something like, “Hey try playing a bit more defensively, it may not be fun but it’ll help us later. Thanks.” Also, don’t be a smart aleck. Sarcasm doesn’t go across well over text.
III. Facilitate Civil Discussion- Don’t pick fights. Someone’s bothering you? Use the ignore function. Say what you think but don’t start a war about it.
IV. Enjoy Yourself, but not at Anyone Else’s Expense- Trash talking is fine, but there’s a point where it crosses the line. Everyone interprets this line differently, so it’s best to keep it at a minimum. Just imagine being in the enemies shoes.
V. Build Relationships- It’s the internet, make a few friends.
VI. Show Humility in Victory, and Grace in Defeat- When you’ve lost, you’ve lost. Don’t start saying things like, “gg trash team” or “bg top lane fed”, when game starts going downhill for you. It’s not over until nexus blows up, and even then all you need to say is “gg” really. Also when you’re winning, don’t rub it in.
VII. Be Resolute, not Indignant- We all lose our cool sometimes, but don’t go overboard. For example telling someone that you’re going to skin their family is a big no-no, there are much better ways to release frustration than taking it out on other members. If you don’t like how someone is treating you, the ignore function is there for a reason. When someone else is raging, try to calm them down politely instead of poking at them even more, remember we all have those days.
VIII. Leave No Newbie Behind! - I don’t even… They are new players, we were all in their place once, if you really have to boast your ego upon new community members then there is seriously something wrong. Instead of hindering them, help them, teach them.. It helps League expand and brings more skilled players into the game.
IX. Lead by Example- Simply put, just be on your best behavior, others will follow.

Common Cases
“Justice is blind”
-I don’t deserve to be banned I have invested money and time into this game! I’ll start off with saying this, as this seems to be a major issue regarding players. They think for “X” reason that they are immune to getting punished. This is incorrect.
When handing out judgment, Riot doesn’t look at-
• How much money you have spent on the game
• Your skill level
• How long you have been playing
• Who you are or what your status is in the community
• Etc.
Whether you haven’t spent a dime or have put your life savings into the game, are platinum or unranked, joined last night or have been a member since beta, or even if you’re well known, an employee, or just the average player – it’s all fair game.
-Riot’s just picking on me because of “X”. No they’re not, albeit if you are a well-known community member, you will be held to higher standards as you are considered as a role-model for the rest of us. Riot has even demonstrated this by letting go of three of their own employees due to their in-game behavior because their standards are much higher. The only thing Riot looks at is your recent behavior and whether or not it has been toxic to your surrounding peers.

“Every man is innocent in his own eyes.”
-It wasn’t me I swear, there was a mistake! Well, get in line. There are many of these threads of people claiming to be innocent, and let me say this right now. When you have been banned, the only one at fault is yourself. Your case has been sent to the tribunal due to numerous reports by your peers, was reviewed, and it was deemed that your actions have ruined other players experiences, thus leading to your ban.
-The Tribunal is broken! Trust me when I say this, that although the system isn’t perfect, it works. Your community members simply do not spam the ‘punish’ button like you think they do, if you are truly innocent you will be pardoned. So far there haven’t been cases where a player was truly banned when innocent, so I think it’s safe to assume that justice will overcome. Also, the only role you need to play when combatting against trolls is hitting the report button, yes they do get banned, you just don’t see it happen, so there is no need to make a thread about it and call people out. We all have had trolls, we know how it feels.
-I’m going to be banned for no reason! When you’ve done nothing wrong, there is nothing to fear. This also applies when you believe that a pre-made team has reported you, the tribunal detects that you were reported by a group of people that are together, so you have nothing to fear there.
-The ban I received was unjust! Well, when you ruin other player's experiences, the best thing to do with you is remove you from play. Riot goes over each of the major suspensions and personally decides whether or not it’s a worthy punishment.
-Wait, but my case is different! No, you’re like the rest of us. You were getting trolled, lost your cool, went AFK for “X” reason. All bannable offences. Nothing is different.

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.”
-Why doesn’t Riot tell me why I was banned! Well it’s because it’s shown that even when they do, the player doesn’t really correct themselves and simply tries stay away from that one reason. They also want you to not focus on one aspect and instead change overall for the better.
-But people won’t know what they did wrong, so they won’t improve! No that is incorrect, when you’re that flustered that you do something bannable, you’re going to know the reason. Unless you really don’t know, then I would suggest recording your games and checking up on your behavior. Look for anything that is against the Code, this way you think twice about making that thread asking why you were banned.

Struggling with Suspensions
-THIS SECTION IS JUST IN ITS BEGINNING STAGES, I WILL FURTHER ELABORATE SOON.
-This section is to all of the players who are repeatedly getting suspended and are struggling to get why. Let me start off by saying that you should take a step back and look at yourself. So instead of going to General Discussion and ranting about how Riot is in the wrong and you don’t deserve your ban, you could take a look at yourself and talk it out. One quick thing to mention is that Tribunal cases do take some time, and sometimes players forget about what they did wrong by the time the punishment comes around. This is why I suggested using a recorder to keep track of your games.
- So let’s begin, to do this you have to be brutally honest with yourself and ask, “What did I do wrong that got me punished”, if you answered “Nothing” then ask the question over again until your answer changes.
- Next step is, if you know what you banned for, you can ask yourself how you’ll be able to prevent it from happening again, remember that there is no reason at any time to break the Code. That means even if you didn’t get the role you wanted or one of your lanes is feeding, that is no reason to lose control and start feeding/trolling. If it was for AFK, think of a better time to play free from distractions. If it was for raging, think of how you’ll be able to control your temper next time. If you were trolling/having a negative attitude, think of what good it did you that game and how you affected your teammates. If you do not know the reason, then try your hardest to reform overall and focus on what you think is the problem. Remember the problem isn’t your teammates or matchmaking, it’s you.
- The final step is to carry it out. Take out your plan and put it to action. You know if it has succeeded if you aren’t punished again, if it has failed then you haven’t figured out what you’re doing wrong. This would be the time to post your game replays and ask for the community’s response for help, and when you’re doing this at least attempt to make the thread civilized. The community will respond and you will be able to better yourself as a player, but be prepared, doing this process incorrectly can lead to a famous ‘Pendragon Smackdown’. If all else fails you can message support with your case and they will look over it and help you to the best of their abilities.

Ban Order
-This is usually how the order goes- 24 Hours, 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 week, 3 week or another 2 week, Permanent Ban

Permabans
-“The Level 20 Challenge”- This was a challenge that was given out by Riot where if a player could level up an alternate account to level 20 without getting punished they would be allowed to use their main again. This is no longer given as of the 700 people it was given to, 90% failed; it also created the problem of higher skilled player’s smurfing on lower levels.
-Permabans are no longer able to be revoked as stated by Pendragon.

Things to Keep In Mind While Playing
-I’m going to repeat this due to its importance, when you queue and meet up with bad players, you will most likely never see them again. So it’s in your best interest to not make a big fuss out of whatever problem that arises to avoid getting banned.

Personal Story
- I personally had a problem with raging. Every time someone would mess up in ranked, I went off and I did this because I had the, "Nothing is my fault" and "Everyone but me sucks" attitude. Due to this, I was on the tribunal 8 times, banned 8 times, and it still didn't get through my thick skull to change. Honestly, I knew the reason each time, it was because of language, each time. I tried, I really did to stop raging but as a player who played seriously and only ranked, it really got to me. It was losing both my ranking and the time wasted. When I had reached 1600 ELO, I expected everyone to be decent, but that wasn't the case. I realized that there were trolls and bad people at every ELO, they didn't magically disappear no matter what ELO you got to. I would yell at them, cuss them out, rage, spam. I was the worst type of human being. It took a permanent ban for me to evaluate my actions and realize that I was wrong. It hit me the moment that I logged in and saw that I would no longer be able to play and every achievement and all the time I put into League had vanished, it's really true when they say that you don't know what something is worth until it's gone. Those 8 times I was banned, I deserved each one. To talk about my case, I went to Pendragon and patiently waited about 8 hours in chat to get to talk to him. He's a pretty cool guy, we even got to play Tetris together and added me afterwards. He said the best thing I've ever heard a Rioter say, he said he never want's to ban anyone and that it is a necessary evil. Now I'm telling this to you because Riot isn't your enemy and neither is Pendragon, all they want to see is a good well-respected player base, yes they do care for you, and no they aren't out to get you. So please don't follow in my foot steps, what ever your problem is, because one day you might wake up and find out that your account just became a family heirloom.
- My main is Rebate, for anyone who wanted to know.

Questions
If you have any questions or specific scenarios, etc., then you can post below and I will answer.

-Also please do check this thread out here, it will answer most of your questions.

-If you enjoyed this thread, feel free to post, spread, up-vote, and share it around forums in order to have it gain more popularity.

-The Tribunal version of this thread- Here



FAQ

I took about 15 minutes to thoroughly read this, and its very well done. Definitely recommend anyone to read it, whether you had a brush with the Tribunal or not, and whether you're a beginner player or a veteran player in LoL. Explains everything about the Tribunal is about and ways to avoid being in it. Even though the OP doesn't have inside knowledge of Tribunal, he brings together a lot of the "common sense" stuff, as well as bringing in past experience as the perpetrator himself to relate to point out how one can avoid the Tribunal.

The only part about this that concerns me is "Putting all your priorities aside to play the game part". I'd not want to hear a news story about how a baby dies because the parents were irresponsible and playing LoL.

The only part about this that concerns me is "Putting all your priorities aside to play the game part". I'd not want to hear a news story about how a baby dies because the parents were irresponsible and playing LoL.

thats where common sense comes in: dont start a game you cant finish

one of my old group had a kid a year ago and promptly disappeared into WoW instead of LoL because he couldnt commit 45 minutes of uninterrupted time. WoW is a game you can drop at a seconds notice without harsh repercussions, and major raids take planning far enough in advance to tell his wife (if he was even doing any).

When handing out judgment, Riot doesn’t look at-

• Who you are or what your status is in the community

this is actually not true -- someone with a history of landing in tribunal is more likely to end up back in the tribunal (problem player tracking)

thats where common sense comes in: dont start a game you cant finish

one of my old group had a kid a year ago and promptly disappeared into WoW instead of LoL because he couldnt commit 45 minutes of uninterrupted time. WoW is a game you can drop at a seconds notice without harsh repercussions, and major raids take planning far enough in advance to tell his wife (if he was even doing any).

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the sudden unexpected events that occur that would require you to leave a game early, such as an earthquake that leads to a power outage.

if that is happening to you enough to get you banned, then maybe you should consider either moving somewhere more stable or seriously reconsider your lifestyle anyways.

God I hate the tribunal.
It's the reason I quit LoL.

Have everything planned out, no distractions, just League. That means even if your significant other interferes, tell them that video games come first.

lol good luck with that.

God I hate the tribunal.
It's the reason I quit LoL.

How so? If it's because you were warned/banned by it, then it's usually because you were being an ass to others, whether or not you realized it.

lol good luck with that.

As Nicosharp would say, wife aggro OP.

How so? If it's because you were warned/banned by it, then it's usually because you were being an ass to others, whether or not you realized it.

I got banned because I had to drive my best friend to the hospital.
pineapple that system.

I got banned because I had to drive my best friend to the hospital.
pineapple that system.

Bans don't happen over the course of one game. If you had to do what you had to do, that's fine. The system allows for the occasional emergency.

Bans don't happen over the course of one game. If you had to do what you had to do, that's fine. The system allows for the occasional emergency.

It was also a pretty bad week for me connection wise.
I just, I cannot agree with a system that puts decisions like that in the hands of the players.
Report abuse, AND Vote abuse, also compound my personal issues with the system.
What measures are in place to stop someone from voting to punish someone simply because the voter was in a foul mood?
Is there anything in place to ensure that the voters are completely unbiased in how they vote?

It's just a pomegranatety system in general.

God I hate the tribunal.
It's the reason I quit LoL.

It was also a pretty bad week for me connection wise.
I just, I cannot agree with a system that puts decisions like that in the hands of the players.
Report abuse, AND Vote abuse, also compound my personal issues with the system.
What measures are in place to stop someone from voting to punish someone simply because the voter was in a foul mood?
Is there anything in place to ensure that the voters are completely unbiased in how they vote?

It's just a pomegranatety system in general.

No offense, but I do question your "story" about how you got banned in the first place. In other words, you're definitely hiding something that we don't know about (and feigning innocence at the same time). Driving your friend to the hospital (and having to bail out of the game as a result) is an understandable emergency, an extremely rare occurence, and you are unlikely to get banned on that leave alone. However, you're likely to get banned for things that you have done in-game that violated the Summoner's Code.

It was also a pretty bad week for me connection wise.

That sucks. But your other four teammates probably don't appreciate you d/cing either. Considering that the wants of four players outweight your desire to play the game, guess where this is going.

I just, I cannot agree with a system that puts decisions like that in the hands of the players.

Ultimately, society and customs are decided by humans and their peers. This system is no different. If people don't appreciate you picking your boogers in front of them, they'll either let you know (hopefully politely) or they'll just avoid you. If people don't appreciate others calling them "dumb fking brazilian", they're going to report the offenders.

There are no hard and fast rules to how to conduct yourself in society. What may be fine in one city may be a (unwritten) criminal offense in another city. The same thing applies to different tiers of players in LoL. The best of the best can get away with trashtalking each other, because they're used to it, they know they're not dumb, and they kinda don't want to ban each other due to the rarity of such quality players xD Low tier players on the other hand probably won't take the same type of trashtalking.

Report abuse, AND Vote abuse, also compound my personal issues with the system.

These are valid concerns. There are multiple measures in place to help prevent these issues.

If someone is just spamming reports on random people who did nothing wrong, then when their Tribunal case comes up for review, people will see that said random people have done nothing wrong. Consequently, the people that made the reports will have their reports be valued less and less. It's just like the boy who kept on crying "wolf". If you abuse your privileges, eventually people will stop paying attention, and they might even revoke your privileges.

What measures are in place to stop someone from voting to punish someone simply because the voter was in a foul mood?

A person that ends up in the Tribunal requires a vast majority of "punish" votes to be warned/banned, and they need a profile case of at least a couple of games in X amount of time before they even show up in the Tribunal. If judges consistently vote against the final decision (as decided by all reviewers, including you), then they will lose Tribunal privileges.

Is there anything in place to ensure that the voters are completely unbiased in how they vote?

Not really, but when you think about it, that's where everyone starts. At the very least, to participate in judging other players in the Tribunal, you must not have been banned by the Tribunal for a period of time, and you must be summoner level 30, which means you've had enough experience to know what goes on in the game.

It's just a pomegranatety system in general.

It's a tradeoff. I'm pretty sure they don't want to have to pay an army of 300 moderators to do the job that thousands of players are willing to do for free. And since the players are the ones that decide who absolutely sucks to play with, there's some sense in utilizing the power of the masses. For more severe sentencing, Riot's player support specialists review the cases themselves personally before they hand out the punishment.


Oh, and there is actually a completely automated banning system called LeaverBuster. This system detects how many games you have left or AFK'd significantly in. If you afk/leave too many games, you get the banhammer. Simple as that.

No offense, but I do question your "story" about how you got banned in the first place. In other words, you're definitely hiding something that we don't know about (and feigning innocence at the same time). Driving your friend to the hospital (and having to bail out of the game as a result) is an understandable emergency, an extremely rare occurence, and you are unlikely to get banned on that leave alone. However, you're likely to get banned for things that you have done in-game that violated the Summoner's Code.

You're right
i'm sorry
i

 Spoiler

[video=youtube;Q1vhUm7qxSc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1vhUm7qxSc&feature=related[/video]

but yeah, to be dead serious, it was mostly from disconnects. They were doing some infrastructure work in my area at the time and my connection would randomly just die out for about half an hour or so at a atime. Back when I played seriously, it was a bit annoying, to say the least. Felt bad for my teammates, because of the dropping. It's not like I would have been able to warn them ahead of time, due to the fact that comcast didn't even notify us when they were doing the service.

And then the last time I disconnected, well, I didn't disconnect.
A little backstory on this whole situation.
My friend's folks were out for the weekend, he was in the house by himself.
I was talking to him one day over skype while I was playing, singed, I believe. Fun as hell champ to play.
Anyway, he starts complaining about chest pains and a headache, I ask him if he's alright, when all i hear is a thud over the mic, and some heavy breathing.
I just kind of ran out the door, got in my car, and bolted to my friends house to see if he's alright, and get him to the hospital if needed.
I couldn't call an ambulance for him, because the defense of "My friend just passed out over a skype call after complaining about chest pains" isn't a good report.
The reasoning behind that being that since I wasn't there to physically witness it, it wouldn't be a valuable eyewitness report of the event.
I mean anyone could just call up 911 from a payphone and say "Yeah, my phone died, but my house is on fire. It's at the corner of sixth and main, send a few fire trucks please"

@KajitiSouls: It might have been leaverbuster that gave me the hammer then, read what's in the spoiler to understand what happened with me.

Regardless, I still am not very comfortable with the whole tribunal system. Made the metagame feel too much like an episode of survivor.
Also, a lot of websites have a pretty good moderation team, for example, and I feel like this will be a bit of a drama starter, but here I go.

 Spoiler

GaiaOnline.
Their moderation team is on a volunteer basis, except for, I believe, the Omni-Mods.
Omni's being the ones who handle account inquiries, bans, and what not.
but for their regular moderation team, they have to sign several NDAs, go through months of training, and prove that they're dedicated to the commuity as a whole before they even get the beginnings of access to power of their own.
I'm actually good friends with a few of them, and several members of the staff of the site itself.
The community gets a lot of flak, but the people who run it are genuinely nice folks.

Anyone found a member of southperry on tribunal yet? lol

Anyone found a member of southperry on tribunal yet? lol

no, cant actually say ive looked at more than ~15 cases... doesnt seem worth the effort at 5 ip / case when i could play (lose) a game in the amount of time it takes me to reach the daily allotment of cases and get more ip (thanks to how well i judge the communitys/riots reactions to each player). id just rather be playing than judging how other people play badly.

(dont get me wrong, i think the tribunal is a useful system. i just dont care about it.)

Anyone found a member of southperry on tribunal yet? lol

Haven't seen or heard of a SPer being in the Tribunal just yet, lol

(Then again, I remember someone on SP saying that if any one of us see a SPer in the Tribunal, we should take a SS and post it here for the lulz and giggles. xD)

I couldn't call an ambulance for him, because the defense of "My friend just passed out over a skype call after complaining about chest pains" isn't a good report.
The reasoning behind that being that since I wasn't there to physically witness it, it wouldn't be a valuable eyewitness report of the event.
I mean anyone could just call up 911 from a payphone and say "Yeah, my phone died, but my house is on fire. It's at the corner of sixth and main, send a few fire trucks please

[COLOR="#cc8899"]You're wrong, actually. You can and SHOULD call emergency services if something like this happens and you know:
A. The person is/is most likely alone
B. You can't get there quickly/at all
C. The person may be depressed or suicidal

I've done so once for someone that claimed to be swallowing a lot of pills. The person hates me for it, and says they weren't actually swallowing pills, but I'd rather have called in on a false alarm than ignored it and possibly have someone die that I could've helped. You have no idea why someone may randomly pass out like that, and there's a good chance the hospital or police (whoever you call) will contact the person's neighbors first to attempt to check on them if you ask (to potentially spare them the embarassing and costly ambulance visit). [/COLOR]

I did happen to see Aynia on the Tribunal once.

Lololol.