'League Of Legends' Update: Riot Games To Mete Stiff Penalties On Quitters, AFKers

Most online mobile games these days rely on good internet connection to be successful. But in some cases, some gamers purposely resort to abandoning matches where they are losing or miffed over how games are played. Riot Games is putting their foot down for “League of Legends.”

Aware that some “League of Legends” players do this on purpose, offenders are now put on notice. Riot Games has outlined plans to mete sanctions to erring players, particularly quitters and AFKers. For those who may not know what AFK means, it stands for “away from keyboard” or uninitiated.

The punishment is better known as the “3rd Tier” of punishments to “League of Legends” players. While the initiative makes sense, it is a bit tricky. Given that players from anywhere in the globe suffer from erratic connections or truly need to leave the game for an emergency, Riot Games may be in for some rough days once the punishments are handed out.

Riot Games issued an official statement on the matter.

“Again, we don’t want to overly punish players who have rare disconnects out of their control, but through monitoring, we've learned that repeat AFKs/leaves are relatively rare and tied pretty directly to game-ruining behavior,” Riot Games’ behavioral systems team explained.

“So, we're opting to increase the lockout severity of our existing higher penalty tiers, rather than add new ones. When players AFK or leave games they increase their penalty tier and when they play games without AFK they will slowly decrease it back towards 0,” their official statement added.

The first two Tiers under the Riot Games behavioral system are a bit light. However, “League of Legends” players may not want to earn the third strike since this will mean not only an auto-loss but also a two-week suspension. Aside from that, there is also an escalating LP loss penalty for leaving or going AFK in ranked games.

According to Riot Games, this system is already implemented. Only time will tell if “League of Legends” players would seriously try to avoid severe gameplay interruption that could last for two weeks.