League of Legends will severely punish AFK repeat offenders

League of Legends Gamers, especially those who regularly quit their keyboard or a game in progress, are on the verge of severe doom, as an update to the popular MOBA makes clear.

Developer Riot Games described the problem with the AFK players (colloquially referred to as “leavers”), a segment of the population of players who quit or outright surrender a game. The studio said that while new tools have helped reduce the frequency at which most go AFK, about nine percent of League of Legends gamers around the world unabashedly continue to “adopt consistent AFK behavior”.

In an effort to target these players and reduce the number of departures, Riot Games is implementing a new disciplinary system in MOBA.

In addition to queue delays, which have been added tk when tk and throw a short whenever an AFK penalized player attempts to start a match, League of Legends will see a new feature called queue locks. As the name suggests, those who participate remain inactive for long sessions will receive a pop-up message preventing them from joining a game for an extended period of time. This could last up to 14 days, with Riot “removing the player from the population for a period of time.” There is also a “maximum level queue delay” of up to 15 minutes.

Riot described the levels people will fall into after repeated AKF behavior:

• Level 0: No queue lock, no queue delay
• Level 1: No queue lockout, five-minute queue timeout for five games
• Level 2: No queue lockout, 10 minute queue delay for five matches
• Level 3: No queue lockout, 15 minute queue delay for five matches
• Level 4: Queue lockout for one day, 15 minute queue timeout for five matches
• Level 5: queue lockout for three days, 15 minute queue timeout for five games
• Level 6: Queue lockout for seven days, 15 minute queue timeout for five games
• Level 7: Queue lockout for 14 days, 15 minute queue timeout for five matches

According to Riot Games, it’s not a time-based system. It seems that the timer only resets after repeat offenders have played matches with good player behavior, like ending a game, regardless of the outcome. However, it’s unclear how many matches players are expected to complete before lowering their level, and Riot didn’t specify.

Riot said the new sanctions system would be rolled out “in a few regions” before making its global debut. The studio also said unintentional AFK behaviors, such as connectivity issues and other gaming issues, will be addressed.

Meanwhile, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing issued a notice in August alleging that Riot Games continues to delay its investigation in harassment and gender discrimination at the studio. Although Riot was faster to solve League of Legends activity rather than its problems in the workplace.