Introduction
Sometimes a member of your team decides to role-play a real tree, standing perfectly still in the fountain and soaking up precious nutrients. Other times they make like a tree and leaf. Just so you know, you're not alone, and Riot is well aware of the issue.
Check out their response to a complain earlier today:
The Complaint:
"I've been playing this game for a few years now, from Silver to Diamond. One of the biggest problems I have with this game is when someone in ranked is AFK from the start. This immediately raises tilt-esque behavior in players because it simply isn't fair.
When this happens we as players are forced to play out the remaining 20 minutes, knowing full well that the game is lost (95% of the time). Not only is it very difficult to win a 4v5, it's even more difficult to convince your team to pick up the pace and try. I'm not gonna lie, 4v5's make me feel defeated from the very start, regardless of the fact that I've won several.
The problem is that one can not simply AFK these games. Doing so result in Leaverbuster getting upset with you, not to mention the countless players that will report you for this (I guess, deservedly?). But once again, the compounding feelings of defeat when this happens affects the rest of your gameplay for the day.
Do you have any ideas or any plans in the works to try and alleviate this? Simple (yet presumptively flawed) plans such as if one person is disconnected for 10 minutes, allow surrendering for 75% of the LP loss."
RiotLyte, (The People's Champion) Response
We agree that starting a game 4v5 is an incredibly frustrating experience, even if it happens rarely. Right now, we're working on the LeaverBuster system which addresses leavers/AFKs more aggressively; however, we do have some work in the pipe to allow players to restart a match if a player fails to connect or is AFK at the start of a match. The leaver/AFK would of course receive leaver/AFK penalties, but the rest of the players in the game can just restart the match.