LoL Fans Furious At Riot Games After Thebausffs Is Banned For ‘Feeding’
There's drama over at Riot Games as League of Legends (LoL) favourite Simon "Thebausffs" Hofverberg has reportedly been banned for "feeding". Safe to say, the LoL community is up in arms sharpening its pitchforks toward the game's moderators.
For those who need a 101, feeding is the act of repeatedly dying in a game where it ends up benefiting an enemy team. While feeding can be done accidentally, there's a growing number of players who are doing it on purpose - either to grief the home team or as an underhand way to help the opposition.
The idea of intentional feeding is one that's plagued multiplayer online battle arena games like LoL and Dota 2, which has led to mods clamping down on those accused of it. Unfortunately, the uptick in bans has also led to a growing number of false positives - including Thebausffs claiming he's been caught in the crossfire.
Why was Thebausffs banned?
Posting on Twitter, Thebausffs simply wrote, "I just got banned for intentional feeding". This led to an outpouring of support with fans and other players alike calling Riot out for the move. Caster Christy "Ender" Frierson said, "@RiotSupport ya dun goofed", while Boyuan "bobqin" Qin demanded, "Free this man".
Not everyone was Team Thebausffs though. One follower added, "I like ur content but kinda deserved, u were inting during last match. Instances include optionally letting Darius corner you away from your own tower while being 0/4 knowing you lose 1v1, going deep into enemy jg while behind w/ 0 vis, not R'ing away 1 HP after failed tower dive. This isn't just a 'bad game', it was you being tilted repeating 'get me out' while making plays way below your actual skill level. In other words, throwing. 0/9/0 in 8 minutes if I remember correctly".
Another critic said, "Your play style is fun to watch, but if you go 4/15/0, you ruined the game for your team and deserve a temporary ban". Looking at Thebausffs' last two games he had 4/10/3 and 4/15/0. On paper, it might look like he's feeding on purpose, however, the argument against points to the face he doled out the most damage to the opposition in his last game. Intentional feeders tend to have low damage output, while it's also hard to see why Thebausffs would be a feeder in the first place.
What's next for Thebausffs?
In September, Riot detailed how the Patch 10.15 dealt with problems in detection. Although updates had led to a 500% increase in detecting those who were feeding, there was also a alarming number of false positives. 10.15 aimed to fix this by dialling it back a little. Still, it seems things might be turned up a little high.
While some expected Thebausffs to be banned until January 23, he's since posted on Twitter and confirmed he's been unbanned. In a rare move, Gameplay Design Director Mark Yetter admitted mistakes had been made when he wrote, "If you didn’t know – our automated atk and int detection systems do 90% of the work, but in some cases they get false positives. Our player support team reviews and fixes cases where the algorithm makes a wrong call.” With Thebausffs back in the game, it was a short-lived case of him being sent to LoL jail.
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