League of Legends introducing near-instant punishments for verbal harassment

Riot has long been interested in making sure League of Legends provides a fun, welcoming environment, and a new system being tested in the European Union will be able to punish players for negative behavior nearly instantly.

"The system’s initial tests in EU kick off today and take aim at verbal harassment," the blog post states. "The system delivers reform cards (notifications that link evidence of negative behavior with the appropriate punishment) that help players address their negative behavior. Your reports help the instant feedback system understand and punish the kind of verbal harassment the community actively rejects: homophobia, racism, sexism, death threats, and other forms of excessive abuse."

The new system moves quick: Players can be punished with a two-week or permanent ban within 15 minutes of the end of the match.

"The player behavior team will be on deck, hand-reviewing the first few thousand cases the instant feedback system sorts through," the post explains. "If the test goes smoothly, we expect instant feedback to roll out to all regions shortly. Like we mentioned up top, this test marks the beginning for instant feedback. Upgrades will allow it to shoulder more reform and punishment responsibilities and even reward positive play."

The post gives some idea of what's coming to the system in the coming days, including updates sent to players who report others as well as rewards for positive play.