Boards›Player Behavior

Why the Leavebuster System doesn't work

GreatWhiteNorth·7/21/2017, 11:43:53 PM·2 votes·270 views

I've been off and on leavebuster for years now. When I first went on leavebuster, I deserved it. I would warm food up in champ select, or order food and then have to get up in the middle of the game to deal with it. But I've been honestly trying not to leave games for two years now. I would also afk for 5 minutes in games with toxic players. It shut them up for the rest of the game.

First, I kicked the habit. This took me a month or so. I thought I was good to go, and was going to be able to enjoy not having a 20 minute wait everytime there is a networking issue with Riot's servers. I planned to never leave a game intentionally ever again and that is what I did.

I was on a roll. I hadn't left a game in MONTHS. Then, suddenly Riot decided to move their servers from the West Coast to Chicago. My ping stayed the same but the packet loss went way up. This caused plenty of disconnects in the game, by the time I realized I had to stop playing until they finished the move I was already at the point where leavebuster gives 5 20 minutes waits for a network related disconnection.

Again, I was on a roll. I hadn't left the game in months. But then I decided that it would be a good idea to try playing it while I was up North. Bad idea. Before I realized that I couldn't play league up there I was back on leavebuster.

Once again, I hadn't left a game in months. Then Riot decides to release a new client - with issues preventing the game from launching. Took me a while to figure out that this could be fixed closing the game and the reopening it from client, and later how to go back to old client. But I was already back on leavebuster. At this point Riot has fixed this issue if anyone cares.

A month or so ago, there was increased interference with the wifi. But while I fixed it, I was back on leavebuster.

But it's too late. The flaming in game for connection issues makes the rest of the game unfun. And because of the flame AND the unforgiving nature of leavebuster I'm starting not to see the point anymore.

I am being penalized for temporary issues outside of my immediate control, all of which I have worked hard to fix. But I'm starting to ask myself: If I'm going to be punished no matter what I do, why not be punished for actually leaving a game?

Riot, if your system was working I would not be asking this question.

6 Comments

SuicideAll7/22/2017, 12:01:41 AM2 votes

You were on a "roll" not "role".

Leylania7/22/2017, 1:04:24 AM2 votes

Riot, if your system was working I would not be asking this question.

The system is working exactly how it is intended to work. Punishing people who ruin the game for other people by beeing afk. I understand that you do not leave intentionally and all, but this doesn't change the fact that 9 other people waste their time because one guy doesn't do a ping test or go into a bot game beforehand to test if his internet is working properly. Whenever I have an afk in my team I seriously don't give a shit about why you left. If it is an emergency, that's totally fine. But there is no excuse to ruin games again and again. Test your connection before you play, it's a matter of seconds and will help preventing punishment and the annoyance for everyone else. I had Internet problems for years myself and whenever I start playing I always do a quick ping test and go into a bot game first. Never got a single leaverbuster.

GreatWhiteNorth7/22/2017, 4:32:11 AM1 votes

I'm glad what you are saying works for you. But unlike you (as you said), when I disconnect I do not go away from my keyboard. I toggle my wifi. If that doesn't work, I switch to my phone's internet. If that doesn't work I go back to wifi and wait.

The fact that I'm asking myself why I even bother to try to stay in the game is a problem that this system, coupled with the incessant flamers is creating.

And please. I have tried what you described. My ping is always lower before starting the game. Even given that, I described in my post having fixed the wifi issues. I have perfect, stable ping. And don't kid yourself. One game's lag is not a good preditor of lag in the next game. Time of day is. Especially considering that I seldom lag out and never for longer than 5 minutes or so. Unless I lagged at the end of the game, I'm more likely than not to not lag at all in the next game.

The issue could easily be fixed if Riot implemented a simple system based on the proportion of dcs in the past year, instead of since the beginning of time. I had just come out of a game where for the first time, during a long dc, I just decided I had enough and left. Later I made this post. The team was particularily toxic and I had no incentive to try to reconnect because of the additional wait time after the game to get into a game with sane players.

This is about whether players should be encouraged to reform or not. The situation is so hopeless right now for anyone who has made an honest effort to reform that it did make me think that it would be nice to get penalized for something I actually did, instead of something out of my control.

GreatWhiteNorth7/22/2017, 6:40:47 AM1 votes

What does this have to do with lagging once every 70 games or so in league? Haven't done an actual count, but it is damn low.

And no, I do not get pissed of in traffic and frankly think that people that do shouldn't be allowed to drive.

edit

More like ideally wouldn't be driving, but you get the point.