Hey guys, I recently got banned until 10/16 for supposedly "trash talking" and so I learned my lesson, and decided to never talk again. I'm afraid of getting banned if I chat, since most of my offenses were like, "you're not that good", "practice more with bots", and most of all, "Next time, help.". Nowadays, you can get banned for saying the slightest thing.

But, since I've made a choice to rarely talk or chat in-game, could this be an offense and get you banned if you refuse to chat with the team through the chatbox? All I really need in game is pinging, and so if someone were to tell me something, and I didn't respond, could this be considered as an offense?

Yep, you could be reported for refusing to communicate. If your offenses were as minor as you claim, it doesn't seem likely you'd be banned for them - perhaps you could post a link?

Regardless, your best bet is to simply be polite. Respond when necessary, call mias and such, and don't be critical of people, even if they aren't doing well. You'll have bad games yourself, every so often, and while perhaps you think you could take whatever you give, the fact is that comments like that don't do anything to improve your team's teamwork and attitude, so try to avoid them.

Just because you think it, doesn't mean you have to type it. You have to actively stop playing the game to trash talk someone, while a simple "mia," or "gj" or "drag" or "baron" or a ping takes a second and a half.

You should have a reform card that tells you the games that were reviewed. Post it, and show if what you say is actually the worst you've said. Most of the time, folks deserve the bans.

If you are doing your best to win while responding to and using pings, you have nothing to worry about.

Did you get a Reform Card? If so, post it here and we can discuss it with you. Without it, all we have to go on is your 'I totally didn't say anything banworthy!" Now I'm not saying yours wasn't an edge case, or even one that fell through a gap, but it's just really hard for us to really know what to say.