The best internet trolls know not to let on that they are being an ass. By pleading ignorance, they always have a defense to fall on, and it makes them far harder to prosecute in any system. Enter Elave, a troll who intentionally feeds games to keep his rank and MMR artificially low.

The face of evil

There are few things more frustrating in League of Legends than a troll, but often there is some small recourse. Most trolls get bored of feeding or go away if they are ignored, but Elave trolls so he can continue to fight less skilled players in ranked, so there’s no making him go away.

As shown in this video, Elave does everything possible to ruin a game, and he is far more clever than just feeding. He steals the jungler’s camps and experience, essentially putting them in an insurmountable hole, then he moves to lane and does the same, last hitting minions, smiting them, or using Nunu’s Consume ability (his favored troll champion). This is not only more effective than simply feeding, but far harder to prove maliciousness. It doesn’t help that in the video, he can plainly be seen stealing mobs from his team and flashing his mastery after every successful theft.

There wouldn’t be anything wrong with this in many other games. After all, you can just quit a match of TF2 or Call of Duty and find another one. But LoL won’t allow that without a penalty. It forces players who may only have one game of the day to have it ruined, and for as long as Elave has done this, no one has seemed to stop him.

The frustrating thing about this issue is it cements for many players what they already feel – that trolls can get away with anything and not be punished. So long as a troll doesn’t curse and pleads ignorance, they will simply be allowed to continue ruining the experience.

However, at this point in time, Riot has little excuse for not banning Elave. Videos prove his guilt, his account record clearly shows an intention to lose on numerous champions, and he has been reported numerous times.

Considering the positive steps Riot has recently taken to try and combat toxicity, it seems like a misstep to not listen to the community and ban someone clearly so in violation of the spirit of the game. We’ve contacted Riot to see if they have any thoughts about Elave, but we have yet to hear back at this time.