There are many reasons not to leave a League game. Beyond the fact that it's nearly impossible for your team to win a 4v5 against decent players, you'll also have to contend with the LeaverBuster system. After leaving or idling in a certain number of matches, which varies depending on the total number of games played and the time between each leave, your account will first be warned and then placed in a low-priority queue for a set number of games. While the automated system cannot suspend accounts, leaving or idling in enough matches can lead to temporary or permanent account suspensions.
LeaverBuster is an automated system in League of Legends designed to penalize players who frequently leave or idle in matches.
If you're looking to avoid the frustration of low-priority queues, starting fresh with a level 30+ unranked smurf account could be a great solution. These accounts allow you to reset your gameplay experience without dealing with unnecessary penalties.
The LeaverBuster system tags you as a leaver if you spend more than three minutes idle in a game, regardless of whether you're connected to the match or not, or if your match was remade due to your inactivity.
As of patch 14.16, a new penalty system has been introduced in ranked play to address issues such as stream sniping and game manipulation in high elo. Now, if you fail to accept the ranked queue twice in a row from your last four queues, you will receive an immediate 5-minute penalty before being allowed to queue up again.
After leaving or idling in several games, players are placed in a low-priority queue for five games. While in the low-priority queue, players must wait an additional five minutes before they can queue up for a match. Continuous leaving or idling will increase the AFK tier by one. These delays and lockouts apply to all queues except for Clash and TFT. The low-priority queue should not be confused with the phenomenon of the losers' queue.
When a player is placed in the low-priority queue, they face restrictions and penalties to their normal game experience. The main punishment is a timer before matchmaking starts, beginning with a one-minute delay, which increases as the player leaves more games. While in the low-priority queue, leaving games will increase your AFK tier by one until you have cleared all the low-priority queue games for your tier.
In the higher tiers, players are immediately locked out of queuing for an extended period.
| AFK Tier | Punishment |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1-minute queue delay for 1 game. |
| 1 | 5-minute queue delay for 5 games. |
| 2 | 10-minute queue delay for 5 games. |
| 3 | 15-minute queue delay for 5 games. |
| 4 | 15-minute queue delay for 5 games + 24-hour queue lockout. |
| 5 | 15-minute queue delay for 5 games + 3-day queue lockout. |
| 6 | 15-minute queue delay for 5 games + 7-day queue lockout. |
| 7 | 15-minute queue delay for 5 games + 2-week queue lockout. |
The number of games required to complete the low-priority queue depends on the severity of the player's recent offenses. For example, abandoning just one match may incur a five-game requirement, but a player with a consistent history of toxicity could be required to complete 20 or more games. This teaches that more egregious behavior results in harsher low-priority sentences.
In general, the system considers the highest AFK tier you have achieved and how long ago it was achieved when deciding which tier you will fall into if you idle or leave a game.
A queue delay is the amount of time you must wait before entering the queue. The timer appears when you first attempt to enter the queue, and it will reset to its full duration if you do not wait through the entire time.
If you dodge out of champion select after your delay is complete, your queue delay will reset without reducing the total number of games remaining in your penalty, and you'll have to wait again. If another player dodges after your delay is complete, however, you'll be able to enter the queue immediately.
If you have left enough games to reach Tier 4 or higher in the chart above, you will be fully unable to play any of the affected game modes until your penalty has run its course. After that, you will downgrade to Tier 3, where you'll experience 15-minute queue delays for five consecutive games.
In addition to the queue lockout and delay, you may face Ranked Restrictions for repeatedly leaving or going AFK. This will prevent you from joining the Ranked solo/duo or flex queues until you've completed enough games in eligible modes.
The actual math behind how much LP the player loses, and for how many games it applies, is not public, but it seems to correlate with the highest AFK tier the player has had in the past.
There is no way to avoid the low-priority queue if you are already in it. You need to complete at least five matchmade games without leaving them early. Not accepting or declining a match will also reset the queue’s timer. And be careful: dodging a match during champion selection can land you back in the low-priority queue.
While the low-priority queue applies to Co-Op vs. AI game modes, playing these matches doesn't seem to reduce the number of games you need to complete to remove the restriction.
For those who want to jump back into ranked games without delays, consider checking out our ranked-ready accounts. These accounts are set up to get you back in action immediately.
