Leaver's and AFK's in ranked games.

ftlblackout·Nov 5, 2014·1 votes·592 views

To whom it may concern, I'm writing this sitting in a room of 5 other ranked league players who all feel the same way, and this post contains a concern that's been troubling us for a long time. We find it absolutely amazing that a harsher system is not in place for people who leave a game, more importantly a ranked game, halfway through. I'll admit, I'm still in bronze, and my friends are just silver, so I don't know if the system in place caters well to higher ranks (although I don't see how it could make a difference), but we've lost countless games as a result of people leaving halfway through. Look, I know it's just a video game, and video games are supposed to be taken lightly and serve no other purpose but to be fun (below the professional level that is). This, however, is exactly our point. Losing a close match because suddenly it's a 4v5 just completely takes the fun out of the game.

We understand that banning anyone who leaves any game halfway through would get ridiculous. At the very least, however, we feel that ranked should be taken more seriously, and therefore the punishments should be a bit harsher. The fun of ranked games is derived solely from its competitive nature, and if players are allowed to leave a game halfway through with what seems to be little to no consequence, is the competitive nature of the game not lost? Doesn't the fun get sucked out of a game like that?

Honestly, this issue is disheartening. I'd love to play this game competitively and attempt to work my way up to at least the gold level, but logistically this just isn't possible without putting an enormous amount of hours in. At least half of the ranked games I've personally lost have been due to someone leaving, and to be honest it makes me want to uninstall the client and advise anyone I meet to do the same. A game lost because of an AFK or leaver is a waste of whatever time you've just put in, and a major annoyance to boot. Then, on top of all of this annoyance, riot has deemed it necessary to punish us by taking away what lp progress we have made because of a loss that had nothing to do with our ability to play the game. This makes no sense anyone I've had this discussion with. This, for us, is the last straw. We can't think of any reason to keep playing a game that punishes us for other people's rule breaking. A loss forgiven for the members of a team with a leaver/afk in a ranked game seems to us the least riot could do to help solve a community problem.

We didn't know where else to send these feelings of ours to get a response, so we figured why not post them here. If anyone agrees with us, disagrees for some valid reason that we haven't thought of, or knows why a system like the one we want isn't in place, we'd happily try to understand and move past the issue. If not, I have to think that enough people agreeing with this post can't go ignored for very long because riot does really care about their community of users. The constant balancing of champions, items, and maps are proof of that. This issue just seems an obvious problem to us, and we can't see why a change here could be anything but good for the community.

If you read all of this, thank you. If you respond to this, thank you again. It means a lot. Sincerely, Someone desperately trying to get out of bronze.

5 Comments

Matthias9119Nov 5, 20141 votes

LeaverBuster is already doubly harsh in Ranked play. It's hard to make it substantially harsher without basically banning anyone who ever DCs once. They have said they want to try to identify and punish rage quitters much more harshly in the future.

Riot can't give "loss forgiveness" for the shorthanded team without also giving "win forgiveness" to the advantaged team. Otherwise you get massive LP inflation over time.

Getting less LP for a win where it was 5v4 the whole time might be okay. It would feel pretty crappy to have your LP gain reduced in a win because someone on the other team ragequit 20 minutes in. Plus this would be an incentive for the losing team to try to harass someone into leaving so the rest of the team gets less LP loss.

ftlblackoutNov 5, 20141 votes

I don't see how giving loss forgiveness automatically means you need win forgiveness. I mean, they did win it. Whether the opposing team was ahead the entire game, or behind and came back, they put the effort into a win. Even if it was an even game, they still have to keep playing with a considerable effort to win depending on who left. I don't think anything should be taken away from the winning team. I don't want the losing team to get any lp, that would be stupid, but losing the normal amount of lp for a 4v5 loss? In no way imaginable does that seem fair to me. I also get what you're saying about leaverbuster, and its true you can't just ban everyone who leaves once. Shit happens. But maybe some sort of temporary ban on ranked queues? Something that's not detrimental, but is absolute enough to make people seriously think twice about leaving no matter what the condition. Obviously, if something serious happens and you have to leave, no one can be mad at that, but if something serious does come up I can't think the player in question would care much about something like a week long ban on ranked queues.

ftlblackoutNov 5, 20141 votes

This is also where a harsher punishment comes in. If you know a definite punishment that will occur with no exceptions if you leave, no one on the team is going to take that hit just so 4 people that you don't know don't lose lp.

I also get what you're saying about leaverbuster, and its true you can't just ban everyone who leaves once. Shit happens. But maybe some sort of temporary ban on ranked queues? Or double the normal amount of lp lost? Something that's not detrimental, but is absolute enough to make people seriously think twice about leaving no matter what the condition. Obviously, if something serious happens and you have to leave, no one can be mad at that, but if something serious does come up I can't think the player in question would care much about league in that moment of time anyway.

Matthias9119Nov 5, 20141 votes

I don't see how giving loss forgiveness automatically means you need win forgiveness.

The short version is that it causes mathematical problems with the current MMR and ranking system.

Imagine that you played 10 matches. In our hypothetical world everyone has the same MMR, so you win and lose exactly the same amount of LP each match. 8 of the 10 matches have no AFKs and you go 4-4. One is a 5v4 that you win easily. The other is a 4v5 where you get crushed. If you gain LP for the 5v4 and don't lose it for the 4v5, you had a net gain in LP despite going 5-5!

If the same thing was happening to everyone all the time it would create "LP inflation" where everyone would constantly be gaining LP over time. If you also have reduced MMR losses for shorthanded losses you create MMR inflation where everyone's MMR keeps going up as well. Repeat long enough and everyone is in Diamond or Master tier. If it's just LP inflation at some point you won't be able to keep ranking up, but people who play a lot will end up ranked higher than they should be. With MMR inflation as well everyone can climb indefinitely with 50% winrates.

posty91Nov 5, 20141 votes

Agreed, and when you lose because it's a 4v5 (or in my case quite often 3v5) it still counts as a full loss so the system goes "damn you suck" and starts tacking on more lp losses and you get demoted faster down to the pits of bronze where people don't care enough to try a win "cuz bronze"