League of Legends: Behavioral Systems Update 2021

In a blog post today from Riot Games, they address issues in the community surrounding intentional feeding, queue dodging and, AFK's in-game.

Late last year, Riot talked about plans to test their new system 'Reporting Confidence'.

League of Legends: Behavioral Systems Update 2021

This technology has now been rolled out to detect players who intentionally feed and is starting to detect players who grief their teammates whether that be in the jungle or in lane.

This system is still new and evolving over time so players shouldn't expect it to work perfectly straight away and while some players might still slip through unpunished, Riot assures us that the technology will improve and pick up more disruptive behaviours.

Queue Dodging Penalty Escalation

Queue dodging is a serious issue in the League community, which doubles the time it takes for players to just enter a game. As the ranks grow higher, players often say it is better to take the dodge penalty than it is to play a game they believe is lost in champion selection. While Riot assures us they are working on a way to fix the issues as to why people believe this, in the meantime they have updated the penalty for dodging.

• 1st dodge in 24 hours: 6 min lockout (15 for ARAM) and -3 LP in ranked. (unchanged)
• 2nd dodge in 24 hours: 30 min lockout and -10 LP in ranked (unchanged)
• 3rd dodge in 24 hours: 12-hour lockout and -10 LP in ranked (new)

Read more: League of Legends: 2021 Patch Schedule - When Is The Next Update?

AFK Penalty Escalation

Much like queue dodging, AFK's in-game can be a demoralizing experience, and Riot is committed to improving the penalty to reduce how often it may happen, while still being lenient to those players who might just suffer a random disconnect or internet outage.

Today's Tiers:

• 1st Tier: 5 min lockout and auto-loss
• 2nd Tier: 10 min lockout and auto-loss
• 3rd Tier: 30 min lockout and auto-loss

Revised Tiers:

• 1st Tier: 5 min lockout and auto-loss
• 2nd Tier: 30 min lockout and auto-loss
• 3rd Tier: 14-day lockout and auto-loss

There is also an escalating LP penalty for going AFK and leaving a ranked game, which has been live for a few months now:

• Tier 1: -2 LP
• Tier 2: -3 LP
• Tier 3: -5 LP
• Tier 4: -6 LP
• Tier 5: -8 LP

Leaving a game increases what tier you are on, so if you leave a game twice in a row, you must complete 2 games to reach 0 again. With these changes, we should see a substantial decrease in AFK's.

Riot Games are planning to address further issues later in the year and we can expect a new blog post in July.