A new patent filed by Riot Games hints that the developers may be bringing back an old, retired system. Brought to light by the patent, it seems that the developers intend to make a return to the Tribunal of old.
For newer players that may not be familiar with the Tribunal, the system was an out-of-game platform that was meant to help keep the game from becoming toxic. Players that had been reported would have their cases filed with the Tribunal for judgment.
The special thing here was that the Tribunal’s judges were the players of League of Legends themselves. Players would go to the Tribunal outside of the game and read over the reports to pass judgment.
In reading the report, players were given access to the chat logs of the game, as well as the scores, but were never given the name of the players involved. They would see everything said from both teams and see all concurrent reports.
Moreover, if someone was a repeat offender, they would be given all reportings. If a player had earned their spot in the Tribunal by being reported for offensive language multiple times, those reports would be available!
To incentivize players, rewards were given for accurate judgments. Players judging would say whether the player was guilty or not guilty, with Riot themselves deciding a punishment from there. Players that went through and simply spammed guilty to punish players blindly were unlikely to receive rewards.
Unfortunately, the system was eventually scrapped for that very reason. Increasingly high results of inaccuracy ended up making the player base turn against the Tribunal, as a report was often to be punished much more harshly than needed by players simply spamming guilty for rewards.
Now, however, it seems that the developers intend to bring the Tribunal back into the fold. The recent patent filed shows a screen for the statistics of a game, as well as chat logs and the comments of the reporter.
It all seems strikingly similar to the original Tribunal, so it’s unknown how exactly the developers have improved upon it – or if this is simply old news resurfacing.
Either way, as time goes on we’ll likely see whether the rumors of the Tribunal’s return are true or not. As Riot branches out to more and more genres of gaming, it makes sense that they would want to bring back ways for players to help them keep the game safe.