Gab Hernandez 
The honor system is one social aspect of League of Legends that’s meant to combat toxicity, and Riot Games has revamped it significantly.
Honor can be the last thing on the minds of League of Legends players, especially in public games. However, even the unluckiest of players can be blessed by great teammates. The honor system allows players to acknowledge these extraordinary comrades and give them a chance at unique rewards.
It’s also a way for Riot to encourage good behavior among players, at least in theory. In practice, the old honor system was basic, only allowing players to honor a single player per game. It also didn’t detect the honored players’ skills and behavior accurately.
Riot revamped the honor system significantly for its latest patch.
How is the new honor system different in League of Legends?
Players can now honor multiple teammates, and brought back the ability to honor opponents.
Riot explained these changes will encourage players to reward good behavior, not just pure skills. In the old system, pure skill sometimes mattered more than other honorable traits, such as teamwork and good behavior. Being able to reward multiple players for good behavior means the team aspect matters more for honor, not just singular achievements.
Honoring opponents is also a theoretically effective way to complement the enemy team. Some fans on social media immediately joked it was the perfect “BM” tool, honoring opponents who performed poorly during the game. After all, the fans reasoned, these enemies played a crucial role in their team’s victory.
While Riot hasn’t responded to these suggestions, it did touch on the topic of in-game griefing. The developers are improving griefing detection, to better differentiate between bad players and malicious players. “Intent is key here, everyone has a bad game, and trying an off-meta pick like Bard mid isn’t griefing when it’s a strategy you’ve been having success with—but picking Yuumi mid because you don’t care is,” developers said.
In theory, this should also curb “false flags” on honoring players who performed poorly or intentionally badly. While imperfect, the system should help Riot manage the worst-case scenarios. Once the changes to behavioral detection and the honor system go live, Riot hopes it will encourage fans to play better and kinder than before.
