Those who leave or go AFK during a match will be punished

Nov 25, 2014 09:26 GMT  ·  By

Riot Games confirms that it's rolling out a brand new version of its League of Legends LeaverBuster system that comes with tougher punishments for those who leave games or go away from keyboard (AFK) during a match, so that the phenomenon stops and players can have a good time in the online experience.

League of Legends is one of the most popular free-to-play experiences currently available online, allowing tens of millions of people to embark on epic battles against others all around the world as part of the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) title.

Unfortunately, as with any multiplayer experience, there are cases where some players might just leave a match or become inactive, thereby ruining things for their teammates while making victory much easier for the other team, which has one less champion to worry about.

In order to curb this behavior, League of Legends featured for some time a special system called LeaverBuster that punished those that left active matches. However, many players weren't that thrilled with the mechanic, as it often failed to detect or properly punish those that ruined games.

A new version of LeaverBuster is now available

Now, Riot Games confirms on its website that a fresh and much tougher version of LeaverBuster is now available in League of Legends.

According to the developer, players will be warned upon their first leave from a match, and if they continue this behavior, the punishments will get tougher and tougher.

"The first time a player leaves a game, they’ll see a pop-up explaining that leaving is not okay and then have to manually agree to not leave future games. If they continue to ruin other players’ experiences, they’ll enter lower-priority matchmaking for a number of games. While in low priority queue, players will experience queue times that are 5, 10, even 20 minutes longer than a player who hasn't left games."

Groups with a serial leaver will also be punished

Players who continue leaving matches won't be able to escape punishment by joining pre-made groups, as all members will be notified that they are playing with a chronic leaver and will face the same lower-priority time penalty as a team.

The LeaverBuster system doesn't stop here and will even issue bans for those that continue to leave games despite all these warnings and punishments, so you might want to ensure that you have a stable Internet connection and enough time for a League of Legends match before joining one.

League of Legends artwork (6 Images)

Riot is taking a tougher stance on LoL players
LeaverBuster is coming for leaversExpect punishment
+3more