In League of Legends , players who go AFK in the middle of a match and no longer participate in the action are a nuisance. Riot Games has finally had enough of this and is imposing even stricter penalties against AFK players and leavers in LoL. Those who leave matches too often will be banned for up to 14 days.
What is the problem with AFK players?
- In LoL, you can’t simply “forfeit.” Although there is an option to “surrender” after 20 minutes, it requires a vote. Many matches in LoL are decided after just a few minutes. Some players, seeing that they are losing, simply go “AFK” and do nothing until the match ends. Others just leave the game – the so-called “leavers.”
- When players do this, it is even more frustrating for the rest of their team to play, as they are outnumbered and have no chance of winning. Riot Games states, “AFKs and leavers are the biggest disruptive factor” in LoL.
- According to Riot Games, 9% of all players “regularly go AFK” or leave a match prematurely. Riot Games is now imposing stricter penalties against these players.
So-called “rage quits” are frowned upon in LoL, but they still happen, as seen with Twitch streamer Ninja:
Those who waste the time of others will have their time wasted by LoL as punishment
Here is how LoL has punished AFK players so far: Until now, LoL’s penalty for AFK players was a “queue” delay. AFK players must wait for a short time before they can sign up for new games.
This was intended as a kind of “hurdle in the road.” This penalty remains in effect over several games, so it must be served. One cannot simply stop playing LoL for 5 days and then have it removed.
The idea was: If players waste others’ time, they will realize how foolish their own behavior is in wasting others’ time and will stop.
Riot Games states: For most players, the punishment works quite well, but 9% of players worldwide would continuously go AFK, and for these, a stricter penalty is needed.
This is the new punishment: If a player overdoes the AFK behavior, they can now be banned for several days. Up to punishment level 3, players will receive a delay of 5 to 15 minutes before they can join the next 5 games. So these are still the old penalties.
However, the new penalties also include bans from 1 day (Tier 4) to up to 14 days (Tier 7).
Riot Games states: Players will no longer just be “slowed down” but will be temporarily removed from the player base.
Furthermore, Riot Games aims to look into the root causes of going AFK and leaving. They are considering giving players more opportunities to turn the match around when they are behind.
While some players even use going AFK to help their team:
LoL player defeats the evil Baron while sitting AFK on the toilet
