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WAY Too Many AFKers Lately, Any Solutions?

Bomberman06·2/20/2016, 7:25:23 PM·7 votes·1,294 views

Has anyone out there been experiencing a lot of AFKers lately? Today, I just had TWO FREAKING GAMES IN A ROW with an AFKer on my team, both games in which my team would have had a decent chance to win if all players were present. I have also had TWO OTHER games in the past week before today when there was an AFKer on my team, both games which my team lost.

In total, I think I had experienced FIVE games so far this season when a player went AFK for a long period of time on my team. I have played about 40 games so far this season, which means there is about a 1 in 9 chance that there is an AFK player on my team. This is a LOT considering that the difference between winning and losing those games is about 40 LP. That's up to TWO HUNDRED LP potentially lost because of AFKers. I am trying to climb out of Bronze, and these AFKers are making it EXTREMELY difficult to do so.

And don't say its because I am not "good enough" I have been playing very well so far this season as an Ashe ADC main (The only game in which I did bad was that 2nd AFK game but that's because I was too frustrated from being faced with 2 AFKers in a row to play my best). In fact, I CAN handle feeders and can still win about half the time when my teammates feed badly by carrying them (Which I did manage to do in the game that got me to Bronze 3 yesterday).

However, winning with an AFK is borderline impossible. I just have no words for it. I started playing ranked last season in August, and from August till the end of Season 5, I only had to deal with very few AFKers. This season? I think I already had to deal with about as much AFKers in 3 WEEKS this season than I did for 4 MONTHS last season, if not MORE already this season.

And guess what? The past week I have also experienced 3 games this week where the other team had a player AFK for a significant period of time. While you could say that the luck balances out overall, it still doesn't change the fact that I lost 4 games that I had a good chance of winning. Also the fact that I have played 7 games this with at least one player being AFK shows just how often players are going AFK so far this season.

Obviously, there has to be something wrong. How do I prevent there from being AFKers on my team? Is there a specific time of day where AFKers are most likely, or least likely to be present? Please, I need an explanation. I am now in danger of falling back to Bronze 4 because of these AFKers, and I am sure my MMR must be falling as well.

15 Comments

SilegVader2/20/2016, 10:36:18 PM2 votes

Thresh The mind is a wonderful thing to tear apart.

Maybe that's what's happening. Maybe some of those folks are just overcome by the team comp. Maybe they don't know how to exit a game. Maybe they were forced to leave the game by someone (family) or something (computer/network connection). Sometimes it is, in fact the player. Sometimes, it is beyond their control.

Maybe if the player is AFK for more than 5 minutes RIOT could serialize a routine to identify that, remove them from the playing party, and sub in the next player waiting in the queue instead of leaving the playing team in a harder situation. It might not be ideal, but it would be better than leaving a team stranded.

I've had to leave a game or two due to emergent situations -- I don't ever start a game if I even think I might be interrupted -- but at the same time, life does happen. I just don't think its fair to everyone waiting to play a match here to be stuck in the bad situation. I understand the need to balance life and gaming, so there has to be a medium ground. Articulating and discouraging the errant gamer effect while actively supporting the active players is important, and I am sure RIOT is trying their best to achieve the most effective balance they can.

I would like to know from a RIOT moderator/staffer, have you considered removal as I've noted above from an ongoing game? Can there be a way to accomplish this? Does there need to be a way for in-match players to identify those AFKers and have them removed from that specific match, as long as RIOT tracking systems support that claim?

To anyone in general, should I expect a response? And what do YOU think about the idea? Please reply below.

And, BTW, I played in a game just yesterday with 2 AFKs. We still won.

Thresh

dolphinosplash242/20/2016, 7:51:40 PM1 votes

While i dont have a solution to your problem i do have an answer to why there are more afkers this season. Before this season my brother could play without much issue on his laptop. When season 6 started he could on play on low quality and now playing on it is pretty impossible. People are using laptops that arent powerful enough for season 6 while hoping mayyybe they will get in a match. Why they are doing it on ranked... idk. Dont forget that its not always the afkers fault. Some players are young and have parents that don't tell him the are going for a drive until 10 mins from said drive(aka mine). hope i helped :)

FrankerX2/20/2016, 7:59:02 PM1 votes

played 3 games today, 3 afkers. that leavebuster warning aint doing shit, if i had to wait 20min i'd watch a lets play or streamer while waiting. we need actual banns!!!

Jötunheimr2/20/2016, 8:02:38 PM1 votes

Best solution to AFKS:

Play with other people

ULTaholic2/20/2016, 8:37:47 PM1 votes

Report them. I've seen a lot of AFKers, especially in co-op matches. I think about 50/50 are bots probably for account sellers.

MasterSomething2/20/2016, 9:28:15 PM1 votes

I haven't seen a single AFK in recent memory. Maybe I am just lucky.

Marshbouy2/20/2016, 10:04:41 PM1 votes

cant agree with this more. had over 7 afks in the past two days, had 4 afks IN ONE GAME

Rurik X2/20/2016, 10:11:53 PM1 votes

Because the reasons to not waste 20+ minutes of your time keep increasing with every patch.

Here's a few reasons why I'll leave:

  • Cancer picks in normal games (if I queue up for a normal and Zed mid and Fiora top is on the other team, I'll just alt+f4)

  • Premades vs. Non-Premades

  • The current state of the game in regards to weak towers and snowballyness. Often times even if the score is 1 to 27 and a team has all of their turrets down and has taken non of the enemies, that team will not surrender and would rather waste 40 minutes getting destroyed and styled on by the enemy team. No thank you

  • Riot's behavioral system has snuffed out everyone but the feeders so its all too common nowadays for some retard to walk to their lane and die instantly over and over again, making their opponent a literal God who can 1v5. I'd rather not stick around and get raped by the 14-0 Master Yi compliments of a brain dead Garen who decided to queue for a ranked game and not even try. But hey, at least he's not toxic xD

That's just to name a few. I will not be held hostage by Riot.

Tridem2/20/2016, 10:12:12 PM1 votes

I had one game where I had a Lucian AFK and we had me(as Fizz) and an Alistar, Ammumu and Shen. They had a Vayne

It was still suprisingly close.

MalaceX2/20/2016, 10:18:53 PM1 votes

This will continue to be an issue. The only solution is to start a petition to get Riot Games to actually make quality of life improvements to the game.

RainbowFegg2/20/2016, 11:08:52 PM1 votes

i dont know whats going on aswell past week i have around 80% of games where one of my teammate is always afk

dolphinosplash242/21/2016, 12:48:35 AM1 votes

If you hate it the team up with friends who you can rely on to not afk. besides the other team has afks too

Karn Bishop2/21/2016, 1:36:50 AM1 votes

This is what happens when a system like dyanamic queue is introduced that invalidates ranked, people stop caring and if they do not care then its no biggie to go afk during a match.

TL: this behavior will only get worse so get used to it.

supersonic22/20/2016, 7:46:07 PM1 votes

actually one game where i had an afk we won

Iqqi2/22/2016, 12:09:37 AM1 votes

The problem is Riot does not implement policies that negatively impact their player base count or their potential revenue.

So for Riot how do they punish AFKers, legitimate or Ragers without getting them to quit? That is the question you have to think about solving. Forget what is morally and justifiable for the greater good of the game. You have to look at the problem from a business perspective. At the end of the day is a for profit business now owned by a Chinese company. Any solution to the problem can not reduce their revenue.

Riot wont take HOTS approach to the problem because those who get punished and have to only play with other AFK ragers will ultimately quit. The HOTS version of the system is terrible. Queue times coupled with the fact they punish you for bot games and you have a failed system.

I do not have the solution. Personally I would like to see Riot implement a new solution that REWARDS players for completing and finishing games, that rewards players for good behavior and acting like actual people. Today that do not have that. Their "ribbion" system is very poor and as we can tell it didnt do anything.

Again the solution for reporting can not be based on players clicking the report feature. Everyone knows this is grossly abused and non-violations are reported all the time out of butt hurtness.

Riot needs to start punishing toxic players in other ways AFTER they broaden the definition away from this very extreme 1% or 1% version they have today.

I would like to see the AI system expanded to also track pregame and post game chat. I would like to see the system reduce the LP gained in ranked if you are a toxic player (again new definition) I would like to see them get less IP. It also shouldn't be on a game by game basis. Instead of punishing by Q you need to punish their rewards. If they want to play fine. If they cant behave then they shouldn't be rewarded. If the team loses and they are being toxic, their loss punishment should be greater in ranked, and they shouldnt get any IP for the game.

People will learn if your team is losing just shutup. If you dont, then you really have wasted the last 20-40 minutes of your life because you wont get anything for it.

The next part of the solution is to reward those with good bahavior. Create a new system that actually has significance for good people. A ribbon doesn't cut it. They need a custom graphic for their name plate in chat, pre-game and post game. They need summoner icons, skins, and a special emote in game. Something actually worthwhile.

Now the interesting thing here is I know it is not in Riot's current business model to simply give away skins and I am not suggesting they start now. Instead I would like to see Riot reward good behavior by giving them refund credits. They can create whatever system they like but my point is Riot does not actually lose money with the refund system. They already have the money, this would just let people who are the kinds of players they want to promote, have something significant that is extra.