Players who leave ongoing games ruin the experience for others since they won’t get any enjoyment from playing 4v5. To prevent this, Riot Games has the LeaverBuster system. If you are one of the wrongdoers in League of Legends, you can expect your low-priority queue penalties to start from 5 games.
Tiers of Low Priority Queue
If you leave the game or AFK too many times in League of Legends you will be placed in the low-priority queue. This means you have to wait for additional 5 minutes for the next 5 games before you can actually queue up.
But if you carry on leaving or dodging the game while in low priority, your penalties will harshen. You will increase your low-priority tier with severe punishments that can even result in a temporary queue ban for up to 2 weeks.
These are all the low-priority tiers in League of Legends and their penalties:
- Tier 1: 5 minute queue delay for 5 games.
- Tier 2: 10 minute queue delay for 5 games.
- Tier 3: 15 minute queue delay for 5 games.
- Tier 4: 15 minute queue delay for 5 games + 24 hour queue lockout.
- Tier 5: 15 minute queue delay for 5 games + 3 day queue lockout.
- Tier 6: 15 minute queue delay for 5 games + 7 day queue lockout.
- Tier 7: 15 minute queue delay for 5 games + 2 week queue lockout.
This system applies to classic ranked, draft, and blind queues, as well as Co-op vs AI game modes. On the other hand, the penalties do not apply to TFT and Clash.
Leaving Penalties
If you leave the game, your penalties do not end with the low-priority queue. You will also receive LP or XP penalties depending on the game mode you were playing.
These are all the leaving penalties in League of Legends:
- All matches: No XP granted
- Normal match: The game is added to your history and your LP gains in ranked games will be reduced
- Ranked match: The game is added to your history and your LP gains in ranked games will be reduced
As you can see, leaving a normal match will still affect your LP and ranked games. This may not be an issue for players who don’t play ranked, but we strongly encourage you not to leave the game even if it won’t affect you much.
