League of Legends (LoL) developer Riot Games this month began handing out Mystery Gifts (free champion skins) to what it recently described as ‘positive’ players who have not received a chat restriction, ranked restriction, 14-day ban or permanent ban in 2014.
However, some of those banned players are still receiving their free skin. So what gives?
In a post made back in September 2014 by Riot, they actually state that “of the chat and ranked restricted players, the ones with the worst behavioral records will not earn rewards” (thanks, Reddit).
It’s not clear what exactly determines such a bad behavioral record, but what’s clear is that toxic or negative players are still being rewarded. That’s hardly what Riot first set out to do – reward positive players to help encourage negative gamers to change their tune and stop harassing/flaming/abusing others.
We’ve seen several players who were hit with bans in 2014 step forwards and say they still received their mystery free skin. One screenshot posted in the League of Legends UK Facebook group clearly shows that one person who has a 49-game chat restriction still in place has received a free skin (see screenshot below):
On top of this, several players have been waiting for weeks to receive their free skin, and many positive players have taken to social media and the League forums asking whether they will receive one or not.
If Riot really wants to clamp down on negative players, it needs to ensure its initiatives really do reward the most positive players and not just 99% of the player base.
Hey, we’re not complaining about our free skin, but really, what’s the point in handing them out to encourage decent behaviour if some serial offenders are getting them anyway?
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
