Riot tweaks League of Legends Ranked Rewards policies

As part of its ongoing, and frankly Sisyphean, efforts to combat toxic behavior in League of Legends, Riot Games offered a "mystery gift" to players who managed to get through 2014 without being a jerk to other people. It will do the same thing this year, but as Riot's Jeffrey Lin explained on Ask.fm, there are going to be some changes to its policies.

"We always want to encourage reform, and celebrate players that successfully reform by the end of the season. So, players that got a Chat or Ranked Restriction during the season, but manage to reform and DO NOT HAVE active Chat or Ranked Restrictions by the season end cutoff will still get their Ranked Rewards," Lin wrote. "Players that still have active Chat or Ranked Restrictions by the season end cutoff will not be eligible."

Players who have received a few Low Priority Queues will also be eligible for Ranked Rewards, because Riot doesn't want to punish anyone who may have simply had problems with their ISP or hardware. "Extremely chronic leavers" will not be eligible for the rewards, however, nor will anyone who's received an escalated (seven or 14-day) ban at any point during the 2015 season.

"Players that have received these types of bans have shown some of the most egregious behaviors in the game, and we have a zero tolerance policy against things like racism, sexism, homophobia and other kinds of hate speech," Lin wrote. "These players WILL be eligible for Ranked Rewards in future seasons if they reform and are not flagged for excessive behaviors in future seasons."

It's safe to assume that Riot will be true to its word: In March, it lifted a two-year-old permaban against Nicolaj 'Incarnati0n' Jensen, declaring that he "has continued to demonstrate behavior in game that is well above the normal standards of good behavior across all of his accounts since at least January 2014."

Thanks, GamePolitics.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.