League of Legends to block toxic players from ranked play

If there are two things that, sadly, go hand in hand, it's MOBA games and asshole players. For whatever reason, spewing venom at other players for their lack of proficiency, real or imagined, has become a mainstay of the genre.

League of Legends developer Riot Games have been cracking down on what they refer to as toxic players for quite a while, including their player tribunal and permabans for vile behavior.

Their latest measure is putting restrictions on who gets to play in ranked games. Essentially, if you've been deemed a toxic player, you'll be unable to play ranked games until you've completed a certain number of Normal Draft games - without being a complete dick to everyone else, that is. You'll also be restricted from chat in all other play modes until you've learnt your lesson.

The forum thread announcing the change, which is already implemented on the live servers, has drawn a variety of reactions, from praise to condemnation. In particular, one poster first announced that he would quit the game, and then compared the new measures to Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews. Oh, LOL, what a strange beast you are.