Simply put if I get stuck in another game with the instant AFK, I'm going to be irritated. Why should I be punished with a losing game cause some guy queue up to troll? How about open surrender after five minutes with the afk automatically voting for? Seriously though fix it some way, because waiting twenty minutes of constantly losing is not fair for the people that actually wanted to play.
The problem with this is the same one for any early surrender or "ease of loss" mechanic dependent on someone leaving. Riot is very wary to implement a system that can encourage flaming. In this case if a game isn't going well and someone wants to leave early they can either a) leave themselves or b)flames someone else until they leave. It wouldn't happen every game sure but I think we can all agree we've had games with someone who really would do this. And the thing that started that behavior was a mechanic that Riot introduced. It's not a bad idea, but we as a community need to be clever and think of a way to implement "ease of loss" mechanics that do not leave the possibility of toxic behavior stemming from the mechanic's existence.
In theory, this would help, but there are so many reasons why it couldn't work, which is why Riot hasn't implemented anything of the sort yet. Because AFKers are such a major cause for frustration, Riot are obviously trying to come up with some sort of solution, but it is easier said than done, e.g. if someone were to be AFK from the start, their team would surrender at 5 minutes, but what if that person were connecting at the 6 minute mark. They would only be 4 minutes behind on cs, which is salvageable with teamwork, but they wouldn't get the opportunity with a 5 minute surrender timer.
However having someone AFK on your team from the start should at least count as 'Loss Prevented' imho.
My opinion on fixing surrender for ranked: Disable surrender for ranked.
If they're going to win, make them win. If they're going to throw because "4v5? We got dis", let them throw. I've lost 5v4 multiple times and I've won 2v5 so I'm a firm believer that a game isn't over until the nexus pops if you have good teamwork and a positive attitude.
Giving an early option of surrender if someone never connected might be a decent idea.
The other option would be to also set a time limit based on game mode. For instance Twisted Treeline and Howling Abyss, Twenty minutes is absurdly long. That pretty much is the game. Especially if it is a situation where the lack of teammate is causing a huge dearth. I was in Twisted Treeline and the guy never connected. I was still at level 3 when the enemies had hit 6 already. It was just a huge slide down to the inevitable loss. But I still couldn't surrender before they had won the game. I had to just sit there and wait for other team to finish it.
