Riot combating AFKs in LoL with LP mitigation, earlier surrender

Riot Games’ changes to the League of Legends behavioral system seem to be working. 

The publisher discussed some of the planned changes to the behavioral system set for September and also presented a few things it wants to add to the game before the season ends. This includes an earlier surrender system and LP mitigation. 

The improvements in the behavioral system have been implemented in some test regions, where Riot is seeing players hit the AFK punishment threshhold faster. This means an increase in penalty application for players who AFK several times in the same play session. 

In other regions, Riot has seen a decline in both AFK detection and penalties, after an initial burst right when the update launched. This signals a reduction in repeat offenses and therefore less AFK players in games. 

Intentional feeders and griefers have also been detected much faster in the test regions. According to Riot, a 500% spike in detection and punishment occurred, even though it included some false positives. 

LP mitigation will be added to games with AFK players

LP mitigation is something fans have been wanting for years and now it finally seems to be happening. Riot will be giving compensation to players who get an AFK player on the team. The current system doesn’t take into account when players lose a ranked match after one or more teammates go AFK during a game, resulting in the same LP penalty. 

Therefore, Riot will be rolling out a new system that reduces the LP loss from a defeat where an AFK or leaver was detected. Riot points out that this won’t be abusable. 

“This doesn’t mean that every game with an AFK player is a free mulligan. We’re going to take into account how the game was going before the player AFKed,” Riot said in the report.

The LP mitigation system is expected to hit the live servers in patch 10.24. 

Earlier surrender will be added to League of Legends

As Riot improves its detection system, it will also be looking at new ways to quickly end games where someone has left for good. Games with an AFK will almost always result in a loss, so having the ability to get out of the game and queue up again will help a lot of players in the future. 

The way Riot wants to do this is by updating the surrender system to account for AFK players. The system will refresh the surrender cooldown and alert the whole team when an AFK player is detected, allowing them to surrender immediately. Also, games with an AFK player can also be surrendered earlier. 

The new surrender system will be implemented a bit earlier than the LP mitigation in patch 10.22.