How Long Can You AFK and Still Get Win Credit? Leaver Buster Penalties?

Disconnected and reconnected? Can you still get a win?!

Earlier today I played a game where a player disconnected for 10 minutes and came back only to complain that they couldn't get LP even if they won. 30 minutes later, the nexus blew up and surprisingly, the usual AFK leaver busted icon wasn't on their name.

Turns out the system doesn't work quite the way that some players think.

Disconnected and reconnected? Can you still get a win?!

Earlier today I played a game where a player disconnected for 10 minutes and came back only to complain that they couldn't get LP even if they won. 30 minutes later, the enemy nexus blew up and surprisingly, the usual AFK leaver busted icon wasn't on their name and they received LP for the win.

Turns out the system doesn't work quite the way that some players think.

Doing some digging - Leaver Buster Details

A quick google search shows Riot hasn't made all the details public. We know that Leaver Buster kicks players who are AFK for 5 minutes and issues punishments as follows:

• No XP is granted for the abandoned game
• Normal - A leave is added to the player's history
• Ranked - A loss is added to the player's history (even if the player's team wins)

Additionally, Leaver Buster gives a few additional penalties including:

• 1st offense: Unable to join queues for 6 minutes - 3 LP loss
• 2-4 offenses: 15 minute queue time out - 10 LP loss
• 5 offenses - 20 minute queue time out - 10 LP loss

What it's Not

• Percentage of game does not count
• Plenty of posts online show that even after long games players that DC'd near the end for a few minutes and reconnected right before the nexus exploded did not receive LP, even if they did something helpful like stealing Baron or Elder.
• End of game does not count
• Players commonly purposely disconnect right before the nexus blows up on both wins and losses to speed up the end game screen and still get credit (plus no leaver buster)

What We Know

Putting together some unofficial anecdotal sources and what we publically know about the Leaver Buster System, the way this works is as follows:

• If you are disconnected or afk for more than 5 minutes in a row at the end of the game, Leaver Buster kicks in and it's a LOSS
• If you are disconnected or afk for more than 5 minutes in a row, reconnect and immediately win, Leaver Buster kicks in and it's a LOSS
• If you are disconnected or afk for less than 5 minutes in a row, Leaver Buster does not kick in.
• If you disconnect for however long, but come back and connect for more than XX minutes, then Leaver Buster does not kick in and you can still win the game and LP.

Although the exact number of minutes isn't public information, signs and unofficial sources indicate that 5 minutes is still the sweet spot for the XX.

On the other hand, there are also reports of people disconnecting multiple times, playing for over 10 minutes to the end game and still getting leaver buster. This may be a result of the multiple disconnects.

Conclusions

If you disconnected from your game and reconnected after you got the AFK message, it's still possible to win the game and gain LP. However, you need to be connected to the game for at least XX minutes before you can get points for the win.

There may be other criteria that we don't know about, but won't be able to piece it together without some more data.

Thoughts? What are your experiences with Leaver Buster? Comment below!