Leaverbuster -- how exactly does it work?

Niyumi·Sep 18, 2015·2 votes·424 views

So, today my computer crashed in the middle of a game (normal) at ~5-8 minutes in. At ~15 minutes I got back in and finished the game (we won), but then I was told that Leaverbuster kicked in, and now I have a 10 minute wait for 5 games. I haven't left any games in a long time, and the most I'll do is restart my game (it takes like 10 seconds) to fix a bug or something. So I don't understand why I got Leaverbuster-ed.

How does Leaverbuster work? What does it keep track of? Would it be counting a leave or two from months ago?

4 Comments

Matthias9119Sep 18, 20152 votes

If you are either disconnected or deemed to be "not playing" (eg running in circles in your base, but it can catch more subtle things than that too) for more than ~3-5 minutes in a match, you get a "strike" against your account.

Too many strikes without enough "clean" games in between and you get a punishment.

Multiple punishments without enough "clean" games in between gives escalating punishments.

Ranked "strikes" are considered worse and get you punished faster/more harshly. Custom games don't give "strikes".

FredartSep 18, 20151 votes

Leaver buster is ritos way of saying videogames are more important than real life, even though we all know they aren't, its no big just wait 20min and you're good to go.

ShaithiasSep 18, 20151 votes

I feel league needs a hard reset button that will stop trying to connect you over lag and just redo the connection from scratch. For example, lets say you have two wireless networks and someone hops on. Or lets say your connection get sputery because your roommate is torrenting and you want to use neighbors connection. Lol totally needs a button JUST for that. Or perhaps your modem got reset, or your wifi card got accidentally knocked off, or your tinkering cousin pulls the connection to plug his xbox in over wired.... So many possible reasons to get offline! And leaverbuster recognizes none of them! give us a button!

Matthias9119Sep 18, 20151 votes

If you want to switch WiFi networks mid-match it should pick back up (I've done this once or twice). As long as you reconnect quickly (you have ~3-5 minutes) you wouldn't get a LeaverBuster strike. Even if you did, you don't get banned for a single game unless you've had other connection issues recently.
Riot's position is that the stability of your computer and Internet connection is on you. You can't let people DC excessively or it really starts to affect the quality of matches in general. People already bitch and moan immensely about how many AFKs there are.