Voyboy claims Riot Games have ruined League of Legends SoloQ

Alan Bernal

The League of Legends community is voicing concerns at the lack of response from Riot Games to keep “malicious players” from ruining Ranked and Solo Queue gameplay.

Even though the conversation has been alive for years at this point, former pro and successful Twitch streamer Joedat ‘Voyboy’ Esfahani slammed Riot for being silent in addressing a longstanding problem affecting the MOBA.

“The state of the community and the player base has gotten progressively worse over time,” Voyboy said. The problem isn’t a matter of evolving metas or game-breaking bugs in League, instead, it stems from the consistently toxic players ruining games.

Since the new season, League of Legends has had an influx of problematic players ruining games without consequence.

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In this regard, toxic doesn’t only mean an openly aggressive player. It also includes people who aren’t interested in cooperating with the overall team, those who let finicky egos purposefully affect their play by getting offended over something like in-game chat or incessant pings (you can mute those), stream sniping/ghosting. This includes players that go out of their way to inhibit their team’s success.

This is happening on a large scale across the high tiers of Challenger to the lower ranks as well as normal Draft game types. But Riot are ignoring the worsening player experience in League of Legends, according to Voyboy.

“There’s no point of even reporting people,” he explained. “No one is scared of getting in trouble. No one is scared of being banned. Riot has really made it clear through their actions… that they don’t really care.”

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These problems have been prevalent for years, but it was prominently noticeable in Season 9 and especially in the time since Season 10 premiered January 10.

Many in the League community are starting to be convinced that Riot’s lack of initiative to quell the situation is going to result in a boiling point for players to outright abandon the game.

The most troubling aspect for streamers, players, and pros alike is that the people being “malicious and ruining games” aren’t getting hit with significant repercussions, according to Voyboy.

Through the years, the general atmosphere in League of Legends has changed. Some think it’s the worst it’s ever been.

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“I pushed for changes through and through at Riot over the last eight years through many different channels,” Counter Logic Gaming founder and former LoL pro George ‘Hotshot’ Georgallidis said. “Riot hasn’t made any effort because they don’t want to or they’re not capable… Competitive spirit is dying more and more every day and it feels [like a] monotonous grind is being promoted.”

At this point, a routine community update from the devs might not be enough for a frustrated League of Legends community that’s expecting meaningful changes to fix the state of the game.

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About The Author

Alan is a former staff writer for Dexerto based in Southern California who covered esports, internet culture, and the broader games/streaming industry. He is a CSUF Alum with a B.A. in Journalism. He's reported on sports medicine, emerging technology, and local community issues. Got a tip or want to talk?