Riot is changing how LoL loss mitigation works to stop early AFKs feeling so bad

The Riot Games development team is looking into changing how loss mitigation will work in League of Legends matches soon after player complaints surrounding AFK gamers and how they spoil matches reached critical mass this week.

League players have been crying foul over recent issues with ranked loss mitigation and hefty LP reductions despite early AFKs or leavers affecting matches—and Riot has taken notice.

Senior design lead Jordan “BarackProbama” Checkman, who confirmed Riot’s plans around the loss mitigation changes on Aug. 14, explained that the current system calculates the chance of winning at the point the player is detected as AFK. Depending on the difference and lower chance of winning, the affected team is given discounted LP compared to a regular loss.

However, in a case where a player AFKs at the start, the difference in gold is so minimal that the system believes the team missing a player is still in with a shot at winning. “At 3:45, you are probably 50/50,” BarackProbama said, adding the system would therefore reward the affected team with the minimum amount of mitigation.

BarackProbama sees the issue as “a bummer,” given the mitigation values have become outdated as the League devs continued to increase LP variance.

Fortunately, it’s something he and the team will look at in the coming days.

Before the Riot devs had confirmed they were working on possible solutions, players had again shared how upset they were at AFK gamers spoiling matches.

Related: League devs are making huge surrender vote changes to curb toxicity

One disgruntled League player shared a story that incensed other gamers, where they, fresh off a narrow, drawn-out win that netted them 21 LP, subsequently lost almost all of them again after a four-minute surrender that was out of their control.

This unfortunate story led to other gamers telling their own early-loss horror stories, with many sharing that they too had fallen foul of LP and MMR losses thanks to League’s modern mitigation system.

The newly-unveiled system changes also sparked complaints from other players in the community, who said they wish Riot would introduce a third-party system similar to what FACEIT or ESEA employ for Counter-Strike. It’s highly unlikely such a system could exist alongside Riot’s current matchmaking system, however.

In the meantime, the best we can hope for is fewer LP losses and swift punishment for those League quitters who abandon matches.