The Tribunal - A User's Guide

The Tribunal has been seen as... well, a divisive topic in the League of Legends community, with some people thinking it's the best thing since sliced bread and others shouting out that Riot is a bunch of lazy fascists for instituting it. Now, discourse about the Tribunal is something that should be encouraged! The Tribunal is supposed to be the community instituting their own standards of behavior, and if the community didn't talk about such an important topic, I'd be worried.

However, I've been browsing reddit and the League forums, and I've become a bit shocked by the number of misconceptions about the Tribunal that are floating around. So I've decided to write up this article as a user guide for a player's introduction to the Tribunal. There will also be a second part of this article about the process of punishment and reform that I hope will answer the questions that some punished players may have. I warn you now, this is going to be long and it is going to be not that exciting, but its something I think is necessary due to the large number of misconceptions.

I also warn you now, as this is an article about offensive behavior, there will be allusions of offensive language and behavior in the following article, as well as some discussion about offensive language.

First, lets go with what gives me the right to talk about this at all. I've been a member of the North American Tribunal off and on since its inception, and for a time was one of the top 500 "rated" members of the Tribunal (currently I'm in the top 1000). I've judged numerous cases, and I'm incredibly active on the Tribunal Ban Inquiries section of the forums, where players attempt to explain to those that have been punished by the system why they were punished and how they can improve upon their behavior. (For those that are active on this forum, they know I'm staunchly in the "pro-Tribunal" camp, as I've seen an improvement in the behavior of players since its institution. However, I'm not going to deny there can be improvements to the system, and that the system can fail upon occasion.)

Introduction to the Tribunal

So, you've decided to think about joining the Tribunal? Great. The Tribunal is Riot Game's attempt to allow the community to institute its own standards of behavior in League of Legends, and it accomplishes this goal in three ways. The first is that it removes players that are identified as "toxic" from player pool. The second is that it attempts to allow these "toxic" players to reform their behavior and rejoin the community. Last, but not least, it acts a conspicuous deterrent to... well... deterr "toxic" behavior. Now, that's all well and good, but what the heck is "toxic" behavior? If you ever go into the Player Behavior forum, you'll see the term thrown around like a frisbee, with no one ever taking the time to really define it. 

Well, "toxic" behavior is behavior that the community deems as abusive and unacceptable. Perhaps a better term for it is unsportsmanlike conduct. However, what comprises unsportsmanlike conduct is left open for a purpose. It is our choice as a community to determine what falls into the definition of "toxic" behavior. That isn't to say Riot has left it to the dogs, however, as they have given us a guide in the Summoner's Code, which is supposed to be what each player strives to follow.

After you read the Code, you might think its a bit idealistic to think every player will embrace the Code every game, but WookieCookie (a member of Riot's Player Behavior and Justice [PB&J] Team) summarized it best in four words: "Don't be a jerk". Now, its a bit oversimplified, but the principle is sound; when someone is injuring another player, he's being a jerk. Part of the reason that Riot doesn't give a straight out code of conduct is that while that might remove those players with poor tempers or a lack of empathy from the game, those that are attempting to purposely ruin others' experiences would use it as a guide on how to ruin people's games from within the rules.

However, with more fluid guidelines, it stops such players from rules lawyering themselves out of a deserved suspension.

The Justice Review

When you enter the Tribunal you're going to hit a screen that looks like this: 

I've always thought Kayle was a bad representative of the Tribunal... She's all about "retribution", not "reform".

Now, we're going to talk about the actual cases in a second, but I think its important to mention the Justice Review right now. In the Justice Review, you get to see the results of the cases you have voted on, as well as looking at your accuracy compared to the rest of the Tribunal and other statistics...

This is viewable by you, and only you.

Now, as wonderful as these statistics are, their main goal is to prove that your vote matters. The number of cases correct, the streak, the toxic days prevented, and permabans are only displayed to give you transparency in the process. I bring up Accuracy and Ranking specifically, however, because it has become vogue to game the system to increase these two numbers. However, you shouldn't care about these numbers. You need to judge by your standards, not the standards of the community, because if you choose to judge by the standards of the community, you're slowly undermining the entire system and selling your soul for internet points that only you can see and that have absolutely no value. But then what are your standards? Think on that for a moment, while we segue over to Tribunal Cases.

A Tribunal Case: Composition

A Tribunal Case is a bit more complicated than it first appears, so first lets talk about how a Tribunal case is developed. First, the party that's case is up for a case needs to have been reported at minimum in 10-15% of the games they play. This flags that player's case for review by the Tribunal. The Tribunal then randomly takes 2-5 games from that sampling of reported games and displays them for the Tribunal judge to make a decision on. I figure now is the time to answer two frequent misconceptions about Tribunal Case formation.

Duo-Queues and Pre-Mades are able to abuse the report system to force players into the Tribunal. Well, if the system was based on number of reports, this would certainly be true. However, the system is based on the number of games the accused has been reported in, and as such two or three reports in a single game has no more weight than one. However, these multiple report games do give the Judges more information on the case and give them a general idea of the other nine player's discontent with the reported player. 

Spam Reporters will cause us all to enter the Tribunal one day, the end is nigh... This is actually a legitimate worry. However, each player has their reports discerned as credible or non-credible. I don't know the exact algorithm (and no one outside Riot does), but a player whose reports are found to be oftentimes off the mark will have the weight of their reports weakened. Also, in the past, players who abuse the report feature have been suspended. And as the trigger is based on the percent of games you have been reported in, older reports weight decays as you play more games.

So, now we have a case in front of us...

And how do we judge it?

Your Standards and How to Judge

Tribunal cases come in multiple types and styles, but they often times involve three major issues: Verbal Abuse/Offensive Language, Negative Attitude, and Griefing. Your stance on each of these is going to help you judge these cases.

Verbal Abuse/Offensive Language: This is perhaps the issue that different members of the Tribunal have the biggest divide over and the most variety in their judgments. Starting with Verbal Abuse, the real question is, what do you think is too much trash talking? Look at this excerpt for example:-

Do you think anyone went over the line of acceptability there? At first glance, perhaps, but when you read the rest of the chat log, you find that it's been in good fun the entire time. Context with these is key, and after reading the entire log I personally believe that's all in good taste and no one there crossed the line of acceptability. However, in this case:-

I personally believe they did. Again, at first glance, it doesn't seem as bad, but Yi had been well a giant word-that-Poppy-said the entire match, and everyone else was getting sick of it. The real question is, at what point do you think trash-talking crosses the line into taunting? And at what level do you believe that it has become unacceptable behavior? 

Language is another thing that Tribunal users debate over. Most Tribunal users find the use of ethnic or homophobic slurs as completely unacceptable. Recently, people have stated that the use of the word "retard" is equally as offensive, and state that they punish for that. Others have a knack for reporting people who overuse the word "noob". However, with me, it often comes down to context. I have pardoned people who have used the n-word as a term of endearment, and those that use "retard" in the sense of the verb. But again, its your own standards on what language is unacceptable.

Remember, however, that Riot has stated that they're not out to eliminate all "adult language" from the game. People cussing out of frustration or out of reaction aren't really attempting to use that language to be a jerk or hurt anyone else's experience. Someone saying, "Holy fuck, did you see that" , isn't in the same boat as someone who is using the same word to describe his experiences with your mother last night (which according to him, was all... night... long...). Think of it this way, does this player remind me of the archetypical 12 year old on Xbox Live? Or is he just a guy who used a strong word to express frustration?

Negative Attitude: Now we're getting into more abstract and difficult to judge concepts. The question here is when is a player's negative attitude having an undue effect on his team's chances for success. We all get down in the dumps when we're losing, but someone playing a funeral dirge and whining incessantly is not only a net negative to the team, he's making everyone else miserable too. The player that spams "gg" after every time his allies die isn't playing the game any more; he's gaining amusement from the misery of his teammates. However, at what line does this depression turn into misanthropy? A player's negative attitude is by no means always depressed, however, as this is also the category in which a number of ragers get involved in.

Another key thing to look at when thinking about negative attitude is whether that player has brought it out into all chat. Once he brings it into all chat, he's making not only his teammates miserable, but he's forcing the enemy team to suffer his ravings as well. For example:-

The incorrect response here is "Umad?"

Now not only does his team have to bear with him, the lunatic has now made the entire game a hostage for his rant. In general, Tribunal voters are not okay with this. With negative attitude reports, the main thing to ask yourself is would you ever want to meet that player in a game? If not, usually the Punish button is the one to hit.

Griefing

Griefing is getting away from this negative attitude stuff. Instead, when you look at cases that are reported for griefing you are looking at a long and impressive laundry list of how people can be jerks: Intentional feeding, rage quitting, following the Jungler around taking his creeps, telling the opposing team where their teammates are, spamming wards in base, mashing on the /laugh key to irritate everyone. This guy's goal is to merely ruin everyone else's day, and unlike the other two, where the person has a definite attitude problem but still wants to win the game, this person is purposely ruining his team's chances to win. Now, there are multiple motivations for people to devolve into this behavior. They could be someone who's berserk button has been pressed or simply a sociopath; whatever their motivation, however, they should not be allowed to ruin other peoples' games.

However its important to note that some of these forms of griefing are difficult to determine purely through the chat log. Intentional feeding is notoriously hard to determine in a vacuum, as newer players will oftentimes have lopsided scores, as will player who are simply having a poor game. Of course, there are warning signs of such behavior. Multiple pairs of boots, stacking Zeals, and an incredibly low level when compared to their teammates. While your instinct will guide you to punish certain summoner spells, such as Summoner: Revive, that doesn't take into account that most newer players don't have access to a wide variety of spells to start. However, if someone took Revive and Summoner: Clarity on Garen, and the enemy team is talking about what league they're going to be promoted into, its a good sign that the Garen is at least griefing, if not feeding. 

Context is Key

In all these cases, you aren't going to be able, most of the time, to look at the case for twenty seconds and make an actual decision. Sometimes the context of the game will alter what acceptable behavior is. This is most prominently the case in certain custom game types such as All Random All Zeal or Find the Teemo, where the rules of what is acceptable behavior have been changed. Custom games should still be treated equally as Normal or Ranked games when judging, but one needs to be aware that such changes in the rules do occur. A second point should be made about who is the person doing the reporting. In some cases, a player's behavior will be reported by an enemy player, but the behavior that is questionable is within the allied team chat. In these cases, you have to use the context to think whether the player was actually behaving poorly or just joking around with his teammates.  

Common Misconceptions

He was good in more cases than he was bad, so he should be pardoned. Not really. Look, I will not fall into the trap of comparing being in the tribunal with a crime, but there is a difference between acting "good" and acting "poorly". If acting "good" is just being a decent human being, we've lost our dignity. That should be the expected baseline of a player, not what is striven for. We don't expect a player to be Honorable, we just want people to not break the rules. Now, if you see a single outburst in one game, and the guy is apologetic about it, I wouldn't personally hit the punish button, if his other games didn't show similar outbursts. But if in two out of five games the guy was a hemorrhoid to his team, and in three games he was our baseline "decent human being", being a decent human being shouldn't excuse his poor behavior. 

You guys ban for any use of poor language. Again, this is a bit of a misnomer. We do not ban only for poor language. While certain slurs sometimes draw instant punish votes from some members of the Tribunal, it's oftentime how language is used. Take for example, the word "fuck". By itself, it does not draw an instant punishment from the Tribunal. Its used quite a bit by players as either a term of frustration or excitement, e.g. "Holy fuck, did you see that ult". However, when the word is used to berate or insult someone, we punish. But we aren't punishing because you called the person a "fucker" in particular, its because you insulted them.

You aren't allowed to criticize your teammates. This is really all about tact. If you have some criticisms for a player, you're allowed to tactfully bring them up. Heck, you don't really need to be constructive about it. We don't expect you to be giving your teammates advice all the time, that's Honorable behavior. If you say "Jayce, can you hit a Shock Blast?", you haven't crossed a line, nor have you if you inject a bit of humor into it. However, when you decide that criticism means that you are allowed to attack them, it becomes an issue. Approach criticism tactfully, and there won't be an issue.

If a whole team decides to troll, they shouldn't be reported or punished. This comes down to whether you think that a team trolling ruins the enjoyment of the other team as well. If the other teams enjoyment comes from merely winning, then sure, the other team's enjoyment of the game hasn't been ruined. However, it is clear from the reporting player that if a player's enjoyment comes from actually playing the game, such behavior ruins their enjoyment of the game. Therefore, did they commit the offense of being a "jerk"? I'd say yes, but you are allowed to have your own opinion on this situation. 

I've Been Punished And I Don't Know Why!

If you've been punished by the Tribunal, Riot will send you an e-mail that will have a link that leads to a screen like this...:-

with the chat logs from each game below it. It will tell you the decision (punish) along with the number of people that agreed with the verdict and the resulting punishment. To learn the time of a time ban, I believe you need to go onto your client, which will tell you until when you are banned.  Now, there are three levels of agreement: Majority, Strong Majority, and Overwhelming Majority, and these all deal with the level of Tribunal agreement over the verdict. Majority cases can be manually reviewed by Riot before their approval, and all permabanned cases are manually approved by Riot. But you don't want to talk about the past. You want to talk about how you can "reform". Well here are some frequently asked/stated things on the Tribunal Ban Inquiries forum.

I'm Angry! Well that's understandable. Any amount of frustration would be expected after you were prohibited from playing a game. What's key here is that you aim that anger at the right thing: your previous behavior. But don't take that as you cannot vent your frustrations out.

No, I'm Angry at the Tribunal for Banning Me! Let's start by saying that Tribunal itself does not do the banning nor does it pick the punishment. The Tribunal simply chooses to Punish or Pardon. If the Tribunal chooses Punish, the punishment a player gets is determined by the number of offenses the player has committed in the past. The normal progression is warning into 3 day into 7 day into 2 week alongside a manual review by Riot. After that, everything is a manual review by Riot, determining whether you should be perma-banned. The Tribunal NEVER chooses the punishment. 

Why Is All My Honor Gone? I Had 60 Honorable Opponents, etc...! Honor is a program that is meant to give recognition to players that go above and beyond the call of duty and are positive influences on the community. An Honorable player is one that works well with his team, is helpful, and is a generally friendly guy. For most offenses, a player "toxic" enough to be punished by the Tribunal is not really conducive to being a positive influence on the community at large. As such, Tribunal punishments come with a removal of Honor as well. 

Well, Doesn't My Honor Matter? For the purposes of the Tribunal, no. Tribunal judges are not given your Honor totals when considering your case. While your Honor totals might matter for other things, it does not excuse negative behavior that you may show in your Tribunal case.

I Never Got a Reform Card! Well, the first thing to do is check your e-mail's Spam/Trash folders and then make sure the account you're using is actually attached to that e-mail. However, then you're going to want to check your ban code against this list. If you've been banned till the year 2286 or 2287, or a year near those, that's a common Tribunal toxicity permanent ban. If you've been banned till another year, your account might have been locked for a different reason, whether it be suspicious activity on your account, inappropriate name, a charge-back from your credit card, or more serious disciplinary actions. In those cases, your best bet is to make a ticket to Riot Support so that you can figure out what happened. 

Well, I Was Banned by the Tribunal for X. But the Others Were Doing X Too! Just because someone else was acting the fool doesn't excuse your actions. Look, even in kindergarten, "He started it!" wasn't a valid excuse, and both people were put on the stoop/in the corner in time-out. Just because the other players started the mudslinging doesn't mean that you were in the right to go and call their mother a whore. Quite simply, retaliation is not okay. By retaliating, all you are doing is adding a second "toxic" player into the mix and making everyone else that isn't involved in your pissing contest miserable. If their behavior was really so heinous, they'll be up in the Tribunal here too.

So I Just Have to Take Someone's Abuse? No. There are two reasons for this. The first is, responding to someone is not equal to retaliation. Telling the two players that are in a pissing contest to "shut up and keep playing" is not retaliating, nor is telling someone whom is harassing you to shut up. However, once you cross that line to attacking another player, you've become part of the problem. The second reason is that you have two features that will allow you to ignore the abuse a player is throwing at you. The ignore function (which is brought up through TAB and clicking on the speech bubble on a player's name) and the report function. The ignore function disables the chat, and reporting them gets them on track to being warned for their behavior.

I Shouldn't Be Banned for Language/Verbal Abuse If There Is a Mute Function! This is completely untrue. If a player is forcing someone to pull up their tab, they've already done two things. The first is that they've already injected negativity into the communication of their team, which as we know is a fragile and endangered thing in solo-queue. The communication will not recover from that point, as two players now have no contact with each other. The second thing they've done, is that they've already made a player's experience negative. Finally, the mute function doesn't tell the person that's performing the unsportsmanlike behavior that its causing other players discomfort, and therefore does nothing to discourage the behavior. 

I Was Banned For Doing Something thats a Feature In the Game! Thats Not Fair! This argument often comes up when two subjects are debated: the spamming of emotes and the use of exploits. In the first case, by saying its in the game isn't a defense at all. Chat is in the game, boots are in the game, feeding is in the game. Just because you've decided to make a deal with the devil and spam Lux's laugh doesn't mean that you're exempt from being reported or punished. Now, if you were never asked to stop, there isn't a problem. But if someone asked you to stop, and you continue to do it despite that, you've moved into the arena of doing it to purposely irritate them. Its similar to spamming ping, but with more personality to it. 

As for the use of exploits, or using the game against its purpose, we get into more shady territory. Currently, there's a big hullabaloo about "proxy Singed", which uses the decreasing rewards for killing a "helpless" target. Now, the concept of a proxy Singed, or any proxy farming has existed for a while now. Champions like Garen, Singed, or Rengar, who can get out of tight spots with five enemies closing in, have been used to farm behind enemy lines and create distractions in the past. However, not many players have actually embraced abusing the decreasing rewards for killing a "helpless" target. The current craze is to use Singed and farm one, or even two if you're feeling crazy enough to go into their base, turrets behind the outer turret, and farm until the enemy team closes in and kills the proxy farmer. Ignoring the actual strategic value of such a strategy, an argument has broken out whether this is considered "intentional feeding" or not.

Well, they're certainly not attempting to avoid death, and the fact that they're running into enemy bases with boots and a tear isn't making it easier on our consciences to Pardon. However, they're "intentionally feeding" with the intention to win, and normally the reports aren't oriented on the fact that people are "intentionally feeding". Oftentimes, cases involving proxy Singed also show that the Singed is completely unwilling to cooperate with their team, and continues his mini-game of proxy farming, even as his team is losing their tertiary towers and inhibitors. It is this refusal to communicate or even cooperate that often gets the player in trouble. For a strategy that's entire goal is to free up his teammates so that they can push objectives and cooperate, proxy Singed players that end up in the Tribunal sure are a non-cooperative bunch.

You Just Banned My Pick Because Its Not In the "Meta", Didn't You? Absolutely, unequivocally not. Look, non-meta picks aren't usually a problem, whether it be Soraka Mid, Ashe Support, or even the widely feared double Jungle. Non-meta picks and strategies are what ferment innovation, and allow the metagame to evolve and develop! What I'm trying to get across here is that the Tribunal is not against non-meta picks as a rule and, personally, I think we should encourage it. That being said, players aren't banned for merely not picking in the meta. This excuse is often used in a few cases. The first cases are those players that are attempting to hide their griefing by claiming its a "new meta" or "non-meta" pick. These players are those that lock a Jungler after one has been picked, due to him "calling it first" and then claim that they're going to run and do the "Double Jungler" new meta. Generally, this happens in the Jungle and Mid the most, but you'll see double ADC lanes where they're both fighting over kills and farm, or double tops, which hilariously end up with the other team's top laner the most miserable person in the game. In these cases, "new meta" is just an excuse after the fact, to attempt to cover up the mistake they made in their anger.

In the other cases, where the pick is actually just a non-meta pick, normally there won't be a problem. However, it needs to be made clear that you need to communicate your intentions with your team. While Caitlyn mid is a perfectly reasonable and powerful pick, you need to make it clear to your team before one of them locks in an AP Mid. The burden lies upon you, as you are acting out of the ordinary, to inform your team about your intentions. And if your team says no? I'd suggest you don't do it. I understand, you want to play your innovative strategy, but don't forget that this is a team game. If your pick or strategy requires teamwork, and your team is reluctant to engage in it, its not going to succeed anyways. 

Oftentimes, this response garners a "Well if your four teammates all wanted to go mid and ordered you to come with and you refused, would it be reportable?" Well, lets start off with, it doesn't matter if its "reportable" or not. For some people, the simplest swear might trigger their itchy report finger. It matters if the behavior is punishable, and ignoring the fact that it is an obvious strawman argument for the moment, no it wouldn't be, as they're the ones acting outside the meta and you've expressed your reservations. The metagame is the expected behavior and should be considered the norm and baseline. If a player isn't comfortable with a unconventional pick, its not a generally good thing to force them into it.

I Was Banned For Leaving Games, but It Was a Legitimate Reason! Help! LeaverBuster is a system that is seperate from the Tribunal, and acts to stop the bad habit of leaving games. Unlike in other games, leaving a team in LoL permanently cripples that team and stacks the odds greatly against them. As such, LeaverBuster is an automated system that is used to break that habit by giving automated bans to players that increase in severity if the behavior continues. However, you'll have a grace period of a number of games that depend on your level and number of games played, with older players having a longer period than newer players. You cannot contest LeaverBuster bans, unless the fault is upon Riot, not you or your ISP.

All that are lost can be redeemed.

Well, Say I Want to Reform... How Can I Start? Well, if you want to improve, it really depends on your offense. If you tend to get angry and resort to verbal abuse or offensive language, attempt to mute yourself. Unbind your Enter key using a third-party program (as the client does not allow you to), drink something cool when you're playing, scream at your computer screen instead of deciding to type it out. Perhaps streaming will cool you off, as people are less likely to act the fool in front of a potential audience, and take a break between games, so that anger built up in one game won't carry to the next. Play with friends, especially one that will leash you in and remind you that you need to calm down. Remember that its okay to be frustrated, but its not okay to let that frustration lash out at others.

If you're being reported for negative attitude, try to remember this is just a game. Yes, winning is important, but realize that you're only dragging your team down by saying "gg" at 12 minutes in. Resist the urge to type "bg" at the end of games, reminding yourself that being a poor sport will only result in people walking away with their ball and refusing to play with you. Play with friends, as you're unlikely to just be a gloomy gus if you're in a party with buddies and making inside jokes. Play some custom games and get the mirth/fun back into your game.

If you're griefing... just stop. If the only enjoyment you're getting out of the game is making other people miserable, its probably time you go and seek a new game. If you're griefing out of anger, try to calm down. Remember that you're not only making the person that wronged you miserable, but the other eight players in the game as well. 

Even If I Reform... I'm Afraid I'll Be Permabanned. Every permanent suspension is manually reviewed by Riot, and they look at your entire account history. This includes your behavior between your last suspension and the potential permanent one, and if they see you honestly attempting to improve (and your behavior is utterly and irredeemably abhorrent), they're not going to pull the trigger. Permanent bans are saved for the worst of the bunch, players Riot doesn't want in their community any more. If you're attempting to reform, and making strides towards doing so, Riot isn't going to want to kick you out. 

Well... That Helps, but I Want More Help. Well, everyone's scenario is different. If you decide that you want help with dealing with your issues and reforming, feel free to come to the Tribunal Ban Inquiries forum on the official League of Legends forums and ask us there, or come onto the chat room we have on the Adobe Air Client, "The Lyte Brigade". (This is not officially sponsored by Riot, and the only reason a Rioter's name is in the name of the room is my own love of horrendous puns.) We're more than willing to help you deal with your problems if you come with an open mind and are willing to hear some uncomfortable truths. 

Conclusion

I'd like to thank all the guys on the Tribunal Bans Inquiries forum for sticking with the forum for so long and helping banned/warned players improve their behavior. I know we delve through quite a bit of abuse, impersonation, and vitriol, but in the end, we make a difference, even if its a small one. Special thanks to Griffor, Billy, Shiister, Shelzin, LittleDi, and Lord Ferret for being there, and to Hoboslayer for being very cordial and polite for one that detests the Tribunal as a system.

If you have any further questions about the Tribunal, try your hand at going through some of the gathered information in this thread by JohnnyOmega, ask on the Player Behavior or Tribunal Ban Inquiries forum, or feel free to comment on this article or on Reddit. Heck, if I get enough questions, I might write up a follow-up for this to answer them. And if you've gotten to the bottom of this article, I'd like to thank you for taking an interest in the Tribunal.