A Riot dev has responded to concerns from the community on the new League of Legends AFK detection system, which players claim is triggered too quickly.
There’s nothing more infuriating than an AFK teammate, and sadly we’ve all probably had to deal with it at some point or another.
It happens in virtually every game across the board, and there’s no perfect solution to prevent players from going AFK.
However, Riot is looking to change that, and tackle the issue head-on in League of Legends with a penalty structure and other features that look to punish disruptive behavior.
Riot dev responds to AFK detection concerns
In a Reddit thread on November 20, a League of Legends player kicked off a community-wide discussion on the new AFK detection system that warns players after a minute of inactivity, which prompted a response from the devs.
“I’ll play Teemo. At the start of the game, I’ll go hide in dot bush or something and stay invisible until minions are getting to lane. In that time period of a minute, I get the popup for afk warning,” the player wrote.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
“That’s a little too quick that it’s going off,” they added. “Go into a game and test it, it is easily recreate-able. I don’t stream and the replay function won’t show this otherwise I would provide video evidence of it.”
Other players chimed in with their thoughts, with one fan suggesting that the warning should only trigger after a brief amount of time. “Should be 30 seconds minimum,” they said. “Some people go grab water or food before game starts and getting to the game at 30 seconds in isn’t going to change much unless your team really wants to invade.”
However, the devs hit back with a response, noting that the new AFK warning only triggers after 60 seconds since your last input, adding that it’s not unreasonable to expect players to click something to stay active.
“The pop-up is at around 60 seconds since your last input and it takes 90 seconds of no input to trigger a remake option, and we think it’s a reasonable ask for folks to click something in a 60/90 second window,” said LoL producer Chris ‘Auberaun’ Roberts. “Could potentially move back the popup. 30 seconds for water should be fine (but also the game does start at 0:00!)”
With the goal of building a healthier and more enjoyable game for players, it is understandable why the devs are so fixed on making sure players don’t go AFK. Though, the community clearly feels the new warning is a bit excessive.
