Upcoming changes to League’s early surrender vote may decrease the prevalence of in-game hostage situations

It may soon be a bit easier to successfully leave a League of Legends game that seems unwinnable from the start without penalty.

Riot Auberaun, producer on League’s Game Loop team, revealed that the team will be testing changes to the early surrender function in Patch 13.2, which is scheduled to release on Jan. 24. Starting with this patch, early surrenders in blind pick and normal draft will only require four votes yes instead of five unanimous, though as the change is in testing, it may not last longer than this patch.

Previously, early surrenders—which can normally only be started after 15 minutes have passed within the game—required all members of a team to vote yes, then ending the game immediately and resulting in a loss for the team that surrendered. If not all of those players on the same team unanimously voted yes, they would likely have to wait until the 20-minute mark passed, in which only four votes yes would be required.

The only other way for a game to end before 20 minutes would be through a remake vote, which can be started if a player AFKs for an extended period of time, normally right when the game begins. This vote is much more lenient, requiring only a majority of the players remaining in the game to vote yes.

Riot Auberaun noted that the implementation of this change stems from internal data showcasing that teams who fail to successfully pass an early surrender vote oftentimes do not find room to come back into the game. Yet the team also wants to ensure that “opponents have time to feel powerful with a lead and games aren’t abandoned too soon.”

These changes to League’s early surrender system will begin testing alongside the release of Patch 13.2 on Jan. 24, though will only impact blind pick and normal draft. It is unclear if these changes will eventually be added to the game’s ranked queues in the future.