Leaver Buster is an automated system that Riot implemented to discourage players from leaving League of Legends matches.
- Leaving the game during champion selection:
- Punishment:
- 1st offense - Player is unable to join the matchmaking queue for 6 minutes.
- 2nd offense - Player is unable to join the matchmaking queue for 15 minutes.
- 3rd offense - Player is unable to join the matchmaking queue for 1 hour.
- This counter resets after 8 hours without leaving during champion select.
- If the game was a ranked match, the player is unable to join the matchmaking queue for 30 minutes, but loses no elo.
- Punishment:
- Leaving the game before the match is over:
- The Leaver Buster system will automatically kick players who remain idle for 5 minutes.
- Punishment: No XP/IP granted for the abandoned game and a leave added to the player's profile.
If a game doesn't end (for example for server issues, or because every player left the match), no penalties are given out.
After receiving a certain number of leaves, which varies depending on the total number of games played and the distance in time between each leave, the player account gets first warned and then suspended for increasingly long periods of time, resulting in a permanent ban for re-iterated offenses.