great when played free, but do not spend money on Riot products
League of Legends is a fantastic game when played truly free, as in do-not-spend-money. At least not more than a trivial $5 to buy one skin or something.
The problem with spending money on the game is that Riot has compete control over banning accounts without cause, no matter how much money is spent on the account.
They have chat bans, so why permaban accounts? The answer is so they can get addicted players to spend more money on new accounts. This is the only logical answer. Otherwise they could just perma-chat-ban accounts and be done.
However, chat toxicity is not the problem. It's just the excuse. Riot has an automated system where players report each other. Do something other players don't like, you get reported. Play jungle, you get reported. Type in chat you get reported. Get reported enough, you get chat banned. Eventually your account gets permabanned. It's inevitable. guaranteed.
I didn't believe it.
I heard stories from nearly everyone I duoed with about how they had accounts banned. Surely they did something really bad to justify getting an account banned. I had to believe this because I've spent over $400 on my main account. I never swear, I never insult. I'm 45 years old, and I don't have time for that kind of stuff. I do type fast, and I do state facts, and sometimes those facts are critical or something players don't want to hear. Such as "top 0/10, gg". Certainly I can't be banned for this right? WRONG.
My main $400+ account was just banned.
Don't feel bad for the money I lost, I have plenty of it. I'm telling you this to warn YOU not to give Riot any money, for any reason. Enjoy their free to play games. Let them make ad money off your esports viewing, but do not spend a dime on any of their games, because they will take it from you and flush your account down the toilet. Their games are very slow very expensive slot machines waiting to take spin snake eyes and take your money with an account ban.
Why was my account ultimately banned?
There isn't an explanation. I looked at the chat logs, and as near as I can tell, I got reported because I'm actually capable of typing. I didn't swear, I didn't rage. I didn't sling insults. In a game near the end I pointed out that our mid didn't ult twice when I ganked his lane, and asked him if it's okay. He didn't respond. Eventually he was just walking around the map randomly hitting his active item. Not playing the game at all. I pointed this out ("look at viegar") and asked my team to report him. However, they were all raging at me, because I was typing, and because I was jungle, and everyone loves to blame the jungle when they are losing a game. Not the mid who was feeding, never used viegar's ult, and had never played a ranked game in his career. Presumably they all reported me and this was what got my account permabanned.
Unless there is another explanation? I started playing kayn more than usual because I was tired of playing mid, and inspired by KerasMai. Maybe they thought I was being boosted? I only went 3/5, hardly some big boosting run. Or maybe there is some other explanation. I honestly have no idea, because they didn't give me an explanation. It didn't even say why the account was banned. It was just banned.
Don't get me wrong, I still love League of Legends, and I will still play it. I will just never spend another dime on anything owned by Riot, ever. Because there is something wrong with a company that sells you things, creates a toxic chat environment (Why does chat even exist? I normally play with it off), and and a toxic reporting system, and then when other players report you enough, you get the random ban hammer and lose everything you bought on the account.
I hope this review doesn't discourage you from playing League of Legends, but I do hope it prevents you from spending any money on it.
