Riot Games has revealed a third tier of punishment designed to reduce wasted queue time and harshly punish AFK players in League of Legends.
The original system of a six-minute ban followed by a 30-minute ban will still be instituted. A third dodge within 24 hours will unlock another, much harsher punishment. Serial queue dodgers will get hit with a 12-hour lockout and an additional 10 League Point loss. This is a significantly harsher punishment than the previous system.
In addition to longer lockouts for dodging, Riot Games also intends to increase the penalties for players who step away from their keyboard. The previous AFK penalties scaled from five minutes up to 15 at three abandons. Now a serial AFKer will face a two-week ban for their third offense. This is an incredibly drastic, but necessary step towards preventing griefing in LoL. The stacking LP reduction for going AFK will still operate as normal.
Riot Games cited that queue dodging has become increasingly common over the past few years. While dodging is statistically uncommon, it only takes one declining a game to ruin things for nine others. The same applies to going AFK. League of Legends is often held up among the most toxic online gaming communities. Maybe these revisions will help civilize the rabid members of LoL’s player base.
The exact motivation behind dodging in League of Legends matches varies from person to person. Sometimes a player genuinely has to leave the game due to unforeseen circumstances. More often, players dodge League of Legends matches because of the draft.
Lane matchups are extremely important in LoL. If an Akali player notices that the enemy team picked Lee Sin, they might disconnect from the match to avoid a likely loss. These players “dodge” the matchup by disconnecting and queueing again. The same idea can also apply to individual players at higher rankings.
Many League of Legends players also consider themselves “one-tricks.” This means that they play only a single champion out of the available 156. If a teammate picks their favorite champion first, some players would prefer to dodge the match altogether and wait for another rather than play as anyone else.
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