Leaver Buster Needs Re-Work

The concept and idea behind leaver buster is good and well intentioned, but it severely needs to be reworked. Don’t get me wrong. I’m for making the game have rules to encourage teamwork and friendly play, but I think it needs to be re-worked.

This is why I believe so:

Problem(s):

Leaver Buster punishes good-willed casual players - because punishment level never goes down or resets. People keep saying it’s about time management, but it's not! It's about the fact that 1 of every 5-6 games I play I end up having to leave due to being a good parent and husband... not because I rage quit. My kid needs me, I leave (kid is more important than a game...) My wife needs me, I leave (wife is more important than a game). I can plan out a 40-60 minute interval to play, but if something important in real life comes up, I have to leave. Even if this type of scenario doesn’t happen often, eventually I’m going to end up being banned permanently just for being responsible (due to the punishment level never receding or resetting).

Resolution(s): The punishment level needs to either: a. Recede after so many games played without leaving, or b. Reset once per year (at least for Normals).

Leaver Buster is too strict on what’s considered “Leaving” I had to run upstairs to check on my kid because he was crying. I informed my team of what was going on, I got him taken care of, then came back down to my PC within about 3-4 minutes and helped my team achieve victory. I hadn’t gotten booted from the game due to inactivity, I didn’t quit, and I didn’t disconnect, yet after that game finished, I still got punished by being put into a lower level queue and having to wait longer.

Resolution: Leaver Buster should only enact punishment if the person actually leaves the match completely, or disconnects entirely.

My final thought. Perhaps Leaver Buster can be left how it is for Ranked Play (I understand that it can really hurt players who seriously want to rank up and have a team member leaving [even for a short bit]), but it should be reset or at least recede over time for regular (normal) play, otherwise Riot is essentially saying “If you have responsibilities outside this game, we don’t want you to play”.