League Of Legends AFK Kick System Is Finally Here
Riot Games is making good on its promise to punish players who go Away From Keyboard in League of Legends with the introduction of a new AFK kick system. Back in August, Riot said it was looking at complaints about continuing problems with AFK. Players have repeatedly called out a growing number of gamers who play the multiplayer online battle arena game with an intent to lose.
It's virtually impossible to get rid of all AFK players, but in terms of reducing the number of issues, LoL is finally tackling this at its root. Lead Champion Designer Mark "Scruffy" Yetter has been busy thanks to the latest patch notes being an epic six hours long, but now, he's expanded on what is a crucial quality of life improvement.
The latest Patch 10.24 will give teams the chance to trigger an early surrender vote if they're plagued by an AFK player. Although the vote is only available on Summoner's Rift and has to be unanimous, the ability to trigger an early surrender at the 10-minute mark is a welcome feature.
According to Riot, a second vote can be triggered at the 15-minute mark if the first isn't unanimous. When it comes to the second vote, it only has to be a majority to trigger the AFK kick. Anyone detected as AFK or leaving a match might have their team's LP loss reduced.
Premades who have disconnected or AFK players in their provisional series will be excluded from loss reduction. If your provisional series has an AFK or leaver, you'll still get a loss.
Riot reiterated that the AFK kick system will be open to fan feedback, meaning it could change over the course of the pre-season. Developers will be looking closely at LP to make sure there aren't any negative trends.
Cody "Codebear" Germain previously discussed the AFK system and how it won't give you a free pass when it comes to LP reduction. In August, Germain explained, "We’re going to be rolling out a new system that reduces the LP you lose from a defeat where an AFK or leaver was detected on your team.
"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, and how often it’s been happening". We'd guessed the AFK kick system would be going live this month, so it's great news that Riot has stuck to its schedule.
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