LoL devs add new punishments to crack down on queue dodgers

League of Legends is implementing new punishments to crack down on players who are dodging queues by not accepting matches, with faster-acting penalties across the board.

League of Legends developer Riot Games is constantly looking at ways to improve player experience in their MOBA. Whether that be by implementing new tools to reduce toxicity or taking in feedback about the game, the devs are trying their best to make the experience better for all.

Of course, this can be tough when your player base is known as one of the most toxic within the gaming sphere. Players will throw heinous words at one another, actively grief their games, or just continuously dodge matches for nefarious purposes.

Riot is cracking down on the latter, with new punishments being introduced in Patch 14.15 aimed at putting a stop to these behaviors.

One of the more subtle changes from Patch 14.15 can be found all the way at the bottom of the patch notes. Aside from the myriad of Arena, Swarm, and other alterations, comes an adjustment to queue declining.

“Recently we’ve noticed more players abusing the decline button to manipulate which games they will get into for nefarious purposes… Due to this, we’ll be making the required amount of declines to trigger penalties less lenient. We have a few other plans in the works, but they aren’t quite ready yet.”

Now you’ll only be allowed to decline two matches before you’re locked out of queueing, with a warning popping up immediately after the first decline. This crackdown on leniency means that when you are queueing into a game of League of Legends, you’re pretty much locked into whatever match you are put in.

These changes apply to all game modes too, not just ranked, so make sure the next time you’re queueing up for a match you’ve grabbed water and headed to the bathroom first.