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League of Legends Season 2021 is set to rework AFK & game abandon punishments

New revamps coming to League of Legends punishment systems will hit AFK and game abandoning players harder, while softening the blow on their teammates.

TJ Denzer

January 8, 2021 8:35 AM

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You queue up in League of Legends with all the intention of climbing in Ranked, but a teammate has other ideas. As soon as the match starts to head south, they start to flame. Worse yet, they leave or sit AFK on base trolling the team. You lose the game and lose League Points because of one annoying player. If you’ve played League of Legends for any long amount of time, this has almost certainly happened to you at least once. Riot Games is aware that it continues to be a problem as well, and they’re doing something to soften the issue in 2021.

Riot announced its upcoming changes to AFK and game abandon punishments during the League of Legends Season 2021 Opening Day Livestream on January 8, 2021. According to the team at Riot Games, raising the severity for game abandonment while softening the blow to teammates will be the focus of the update. Specifically, the system will recognize when people go AFK for long periods or abandon the game outright and penalize them more heavily.

That’s not all. One of the worst parts of League’s previous setup was that even if a teammate goes AFK, the remaining team loses the same amount of League Points for the Ranked grind as if it were a proper match. Thankfully, this system is set to soften that blow. Remaining teammates of an AFK or game-abandoning player will lose less LP if the system recognizes the situation, meaning less stress when you’re caught up in a match with a player that intentionally sabotages your game.

Punishing game abandoners and easing the pain on those who stick it out sounds like it will go a long way in helping make League of Legends a better place to play. That said, there are plenty more changes on the way in terms of new Champions and an item system overhaul. Stay tuned for further updates and coverage on these improvements as League of Legends Season 2021 kicks off.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.