Disconnecting Players in Ranked Games

Achîllés·Mar 15, 2015·2 votes·860 views

So, this is probably going to be a bit of a rant because of my night of ranked games, but I have a serious question/concern about the ranked system.

First, here's my background in League of Legends: I started playing about a year and a half ago. I started playing with friends from college as a way to stay connected over breaks. Long story short with that - I fell in love with the game. Fast-forward to now, I play, watch, and talk about League of Legends constantly, both with and without my friends. I like to consider myself a real student of the game. This game actually means a lot to me and I thoroughly enjoy playing. As far as ranked goes, I got ranked at the end of season four and was placed in Silver V. I thought this was a good representation of where I was then. However, this season, I got placed in Bronze I (I admittedly did not play well in my placements and I figured I could climb out). Now, I've dropped to Bronze III, climbed back to Bronze I, fallen back to Bronze III, and now I've made my way back to Bronze II. Now you're all caught up on where I'm coming from.

Now, my question/concern is this: why is it that I still lose significant LP in my ranked league when someone on my team disconnects and I lose? Anyone who has played in Bronze knows that people disconnect, AFK, and downright rage quit all the time in those leagues. Frankly, it really, really, upsets me when I just got to 68 LP in Bronze II after a hot streak and then fall back down to 24 LP after two games where someone left the game. This is an issue that I know many people have encountered.

So here are a few questions about this issue:

Is anything being done to these players that disconnect other than the simple timed ban? If so, what is it? If not, why the hell not?
Why do games even continue after someone has left? In ranked, wouldn't it be better for everyone if the game just stopped and no one got anything from it? Because the team who has the player who leaves is almost guaranteed to lose, and the other team is almost automatically given a win (which gives them LP that they probably don't actually deserve).
Is there any discussion being had about possibly not punishing the players on teams of people who disconnect? If so, what are those discussions? If not, why the hell not?

If anyone could give me any insight into this issue, or even a source where I can find more insight, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for reading!

10 Comments

TheGrandAllianceMar 15, 20151 votes

Why? Because its RIOT.

Also... if people knew that they could dc to avoid losing as much LP it would be heavily abused by anyone who isn't retarded.

AchîllésMar 15, 20151 votes

Is the current system not being abused by constant trolls and AFK's?

TheGrandAllianceMar 16, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=HYFR Achilles,realm=NA,application-id=LFfTlAky,discussion-id=5rglrEdm,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2015-03-15T17:42:30.311+0000)

Is the current system not being abused by constant trolls and AFK's?

No, because trolling doesn't get you higher in MMR/ranks it only demotes you.

ll badboy llMar 15, 20151 votes

what i hope is atleast half of these players stop playing this game so i can see how much money they will loose then they going to pay atenttion to players demand

and i mean players who got afks in theyr teams

TheGrandAllianceMar 15, 20151 votes

BTW people who AFK a lot are probably too casual to pay RIOT any money (and are not profitable). People who encounter lots of AFKing are also probably of low MMR (Bronze; the like) and also don't buy RP.

So no harm no foul there...

-#BronzeLivesMatter

AchîllésMar 15, 20151 votes

Ummmm that's just not true because, in the past year and a half that I've been playing, I've spent over $500 on League. So, I am a paying customer. RIOT has made money off of me. Frankly, I think I deserve a real answer just because of that.

TheGrandAllianceMar 16, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=HYFR Achilles,realm=NA,application-id=LFfTlAky,discussion-id=5rglrEdm,comment-id=00020000,timestamp=2015-03-15T17:45:16.343+0000)

Ummmm that's just not true because, in the past year and a half that I've been playing, I've spent over $500 on League. So, I am a paying customer. RIOT has made money off of me. Frankly, I think I deserve a real answer just because of that.

I said probably I didn't say 100% of time: Yes; of course there are going to be lower skilled players, such as yourself, who spend a lot. Alas this is of no concern to RIOT because the point I was trying to make was that the most profitable customers are the highest (MMR) skilled players due to their loyalty that is required to get high MMR in the first place...

Matthias9119Mar 15, 20151 votes

They get more and more severe low priority queue, followed by time bans. I believe you can also get a Ranked queue ban if you keep DCing from Ranked games.
The shorthanded team can surrender at 20 minutes if they want. I would really like to see Riot allow an earlier surrender option if a player is absent for an extended amount of time near the beginning of a match (maybe after 5-10 minutes of absence).
You cannot give reduced/no LP losses to the shorthanded team but full LP gains to the full-strength one. This causes "LP inflation" that breaks Ranked over time. It would be unfair to the full-strength team to give them less LP gain if someone rage quits in the middle of a match.

You could potentially cancel the match or give reduced LP and MMR gains/losses to both teams if a player leaves right at the beginning. This is what DOTA2 does.

AchîllésMar 16, 20151 votes

The option of cancelling the match or giving reduced LP and MMR gains/losses would be perfect. Those are actually matches I was talking about - when someone leaves right at the beginning. I understand that there isn't really anything to be done about rage quits and mid-late game disconnects, which is still frustrating, but there has to be something that can be done about the games where someone leaves early on (I would say within 10 minutes of the game starting).

Do you have any insight as to why RIOT hasn't at least tried implementing something like this??

Matthias9119Mar 16, 20151 votes

Do you have any insight as to why RIOT hasn't at least tried implementing something like this??

I think it's ridiculous that they don't at least offer an early surrender in these cases.

They've mentioned that they want to try things like restarting or pausing the match rather than just cancelling it. But I haven't seen or heard much about that lately. :-/