One of the new updates that Riot Games wanted to implement in the upcoming 10.8 patch was to increase penalties for players who frequently disconnect during champion selection. The reason Riot provided was that limiting the act of quitting during the ban/pick phase would help improve the gaming experience. Other players are less affected when they are about to start a match and then get quit on just because someone left the game.
However, this update sparked outrage within the community, leading to a wave of posts on Reddit in opposition. It wasn’t that people supported quitting games, but rather that Riot Games’ solution was completely unrealistic. In reality, no normal player wants to do that, but when faced with disruptive players, they would rather sacrifice 3 ranked points and 5 minutes of waiting than play a match they are certain to lose.
It was these practical and highly convincing opinions that made Riot Games rethink their approach. They also have the intention of enhancing the gaming experience and player awareness, but it seems their method was not quite right. Riot’s Mark Yetter – lead game designer for League of Legends – recently announced they would retract the update related to penalties for disconnecting during champion select for further study.
Riot Mark Yetter: “We are postponing the increase in penalties for disconnecting during champion selection. Listening to your feedback about why players disconnect from matches has convinced us that Riot can extract more value by studying that issue first. The entire team is refocusing on minimizing negative behaviors such as trolling and improving the matchmaking system.
Notably – We discovered a flaw in the disconnect penalty system and are still planning to fix it. Once corrected, it will allow the system to accurately detect and penalize players who intentionally disconnect from matches to sabotage games in the past.
We are always working to make the game better together with you – the community – and by sharing our plans, we can react and implement measures based on the positive or negative feedback we receive. We are committed to maintaining transparency and openness in our future plans.”
Riot’s mistake in this update was that they only looked at the surface of the issue, which was the act of disconnecting during champion selection, while neglecting the real causes. As mentioned above, normal players never want to disconnect after waiting for a match; however, there are times when they encounter trolls and know for sure that the match is a loss, so they would rather disconnect early and lose just 5 minutes and 3 ranked points.
Our story once again returns to the issue of player awareness. League of Legends is a team-heavy game; it requires all 5 players to work together to win, not just in skills but also in player attitude. When players are truly serious and have good awareness, the act of disconnecting during champion selection will significantly decrease.