Riot increases LP penalties for AFK losses and leaving games

Feb 12, 2021

Reading time: 2 min

Players will now be punished with greater LP penalties for leaving or AFKing during solo queue games as of patch 11.3.

According to gameplay design director Mark “Scuffy” Yetter, additional LP penalties for AFKing and leaving games have been added to the current patch. Engaging in either of these violations repeatedly will ramp up the associated penalty over time. The additional penalties have been added to make potential leavers think twice before ruining a game for the rest of the team.

PSA – in 11.3 we added additional LP penalties for AFKing or leaving games. Repeatedly AFKing will ramp this penalty up over time.

With a little more skin in the game, hopefully a potential leaver will think twice about ruining a game for their team.

Leavers never prosper

— Mark Yetter (@MarkYetter) February 11, 2021

Leavers and AFKers in solo queue have been a problem for years and developers at Riot have tried to fight against the trend. As it’s still a big problem in 2021, and players get away with leaving games easily enough to continue engaging in the act, it only seems right that Riot is now further punishing LP. Players usually play ranked to gain LP and climb the ladder, so being punished hard in the climb might make leaving or going AFK less desirable.

A few months back, Riot implemented other features to improve the game’s behavioral system. The features included a new early surrender that allows teams to forfeit the game after just 10 minutes when a player leaves or goes AFK. To help players who run into leavers, there is now an LP consolidation that reduces the LP losses for those not involved in the act, while the leaver will lose additional LP for their actions.

Pairing those features up with what has been implemented in patch 11.3, leaving games is starting to be a very expensive act.

What is LP in LoL?

League Points, also known as LP, are the points that players earn when playing a ranked game mode. The LP makes up a point system that decides when players are ready to promote to the next division or demote to the division below. When climbing the ladder, 100 LP is the goal to reach the next division. For players ranked in Master or higher, LP is used to decide who gets the top ranks. The player with the most LP is also the player at the top rank in Challenger.

What happens if I leave a LoL game?

As Riot is increasing the LP penalties for leaving a ranked game, it also has other consequences. Players who leave games will be placed in a “low priority queue.” To get out of the low priority queue, players must play five consecutive matchmade games without leaving.