New League of Legends Punishment Forces Toxic Ranked Players Into Unranked Queues

League of Legends players who can't behave themselves in ranked matches will now run the risk of getting kicked out of ranked queues entirely, at least for a little while. Riot Games added in the latest League update some new behavioral systems that make it so that if you're punished for problematic behavior while in a ranked game, it's possible that Riot will kick you out and make you play what were previously referred to as "remedial" games. That means that f you're issued a new Ranked Restriction, you'll have to press pause on ranked and play something different like Blind Pick or ARAM until your Ranked Restriction falls off.

The ranked changes are live now following the release of Patch 13.19 earlier in the week with the patch notes for that update outlining exactly how this all works. A player support article on the topic provided a bit more in-depth info beyond the brevity of the patch notes.

League of Legends' New Ranked Restrictions

"Ranked Restrictions are issued for repeated or severe violation of our code of conduct," Riot said about these changes. "They prevent you from queuing up in any ranked queues until a certain number of unranked games are played. You will have to play five games while upholding our code of conduct before you are able to return to the ranked queues."

Games that'll get you out of your ranked penitentiary include Blind Pick, Draft Pick, ARAM, and Rotating Game Modes like Urf whenever that and other game modes are available. It doesn't matter what combination of modes you play so long as they're among those options.

In the patch notes, Riot said it's implementing this in ranked because the Ranked Solo/Duo Queue has "the highest rate of disruptive behavior" when it comes to fussy players. By making it so that players have to actually play unranked games to remove the penalty, Riot said this measure will also make it harder on players who have multiple accounts and boast in-game that they don't care if they're banned since they'll just play on a different profile.

"Ranked Solo/Duo tends to be the queue with the highest rate of disruptive behavior," Riot said. "The added intensity of every game mattering is fun, but sometimes the pressure proves to be too great. We want to give players who are feeling the pressure of the ranked environment a way to reconnect with a more relaxed version of League of Legends, while at the same time introducing a penalty that is hard to work around by switching accounts for a week."

The image above shows what someone's client would look like if they're hit with a Ranked Restriction with info displayed that pertains to how many more unranked games players have to play before being allowed to rejoin the ranked society. Riot said that Ranked Restrictions aren't the only punishments that players can get either, so it's possible you can be hit with one of those as well as chat restrictions and low-prio queues all at once.