LoL Low Priority Queue: Every Penalty Tier, Ranked Consequences and How to Get Out

LoL low priority queue is a LeaverBuster penalty for leaving games or going AFK: before each matchmade game you wait through a timer, from about 5 to 15 minutes at the common tiers, until you finish a set number of games, usually five. Repeat offences escalate to queue lockouts of a day, three days, a week or two weeks. Champion select dodges do not cause it.

What is the LoL low priority queue?

It is a waiting room. When LeaverBuster, Riot’s automated system for leavers and AFK players, flags you, every queue you enter starts with a timer before matchmaking begins. You still play normals, ARAM and other matchmade modes with regular players; you just wait longer before each queue starts, for a set number of games.

The point is simple: leaving a 5v5 game ruins it for nine other players, so the penalty costs you the one thing a leaver was trying to save, which is time. Riot’s systems treat it as a behaviour penalty, separate from chat and toxicity penalties. That separation matters: put simply, you can sit at Honor 5 and still land in low priority queue after a run of disconnects.

What triggers LeaverBuster?

Not finishing a match you already loaded into, in any matchmade queue, whether you meant to or not. In practice that means one of these:

• Leaving a game in progress (closing the client, quitting, or simply not reconnecting).
• Being AFK for long stretches; the game warns you first and then flags inactivity.
• Repeated disconnects, even accidental ones, because the system cannot tell a crash from a quit.

What does not trigger it: dodging in champion select. Dodges have their own penalty (a queue lockout timer and, in ranked, an LP loss), but they never put you in low priority queue. Remakes are also handled separately: in a ranked or normal queue, the player absent at the start of the match is the one penalised, not the four teammates who vote.

LoL low priority queue tiers and timers

Riot does not publish an official tier table, but the escalation players report is consistent. The commonly reported ladder looks like this:

The exact numbers can change with Riot’s tuning, so the timer the client shows you is always the real one. The shape matters more: a first leave costs you a short wait, and the system only starts locking you out of the game after a pattern of leaves.

LeaverBuster tiers decay over time when you finish games without leaving, so one bad week in ranked does not follow you forever. Thing is, nobody outside Riot knows the exact decay speed, so the safe assumption is that a leave stays on your record for weeks, not days.

How do you get out of LoL low priority queue?

Finish the required number of matchmade games without leaving or going AFK. That is the only way. Each completed match counts down the remaining number in the client, and the queue timer applies to every one of those five games.

A few practical points:

1. The games must be matchmade PvP games; custom games and the Practice Tool do not count.
2. Leaving or going AFK during the penalty games makes it worse, not just longer.
3. Pick a mode you will actually finish. ARAM is often the quickest way to work through five games.
4. Do not close the client during the timer itself; wait it out and accept the queue.

Can co-op vs AI clear it? Riot’s matchmade definitions have changed over the years, and players report mixed results, so check whether the counter drops after one co-op game before relying on it. In doubt, play ARAM or normals.

Does low priority queue affect ranked?

Yes, in two ways. While you have an active leaver penalty, ranked is usually not available until you clear it, and leaving a ranked game also costs LP for the loss on top of the penalty. Repeated leaving can add a ranked restriction, which means playing a set number of normal games before ranked opens again.

Low priority queue does not lower your MMR by itself. The loss from the game you left does, exactly like any other ranked loss. To be fair, that is often the bigger cost: the timer is annoying, but the abandoned game is a guaranteed defeat.

Our LoL climb calculator shows how much a few extra losses stretch the road to your target rank, which puts a single rage-quit into perspective.

What happens during the low priority timer?

You sit in the client with a countdown before the actual queue starts. The timer runs before each penalty game, so with five games at 10 minutes you spend 50 minutes waiting on top of the matches themselves. Once it ends, the normal matchmaking queue begins.

Queuing with friends? The whole party sits in the queue timer of its most penalised member (one leaver slows down four friends, which is a strong argument for not leaving). Honestly, that part stings: your friends do not get a penalty on their own records, but they share every minute of the wait in the lobby.

The timer only runs while you are in the queue lobby. Close the client and the countdown stops with it, which is why logging out never makes the penalty shorter. Use the time for something useful: a replay of your last loss, a look at the next champion you want to learn, or our random champion picker if ARAM-style variety sounds better than another five games on the same pick.

Myths about LeaverBuster

A few ideas keep circulating on forums and in post-game chat, and none of them hold up:

• “Reporting the leaver more often makes the penalty bigger.” LeaverBuster is automatic and based on the leave itself, not on reports.
• “A crash does not count.” The system cannot see why you left, so crashes count; reconnecting quickly is what helps.
• “Logging out during the timer resets it.” It does not; the games still have to be finished.
• “One leave gets you banned.” Bans come only after a long pattern of leaving, well past the queue tiers.

Can you get banned for leaving games?

For a persistent pattern, yes. The ladder above ends in lockouts of days and weeks, and players who keep leaving after that can face longer suspensions or a permanent ban. Real talk: it takes a lot of leaving to get there, but the system does keep count. Our guide on how to check a LoL ban explains what each penalty notice looks like.

How to avoid LoL low priority queue

Most leavers are not trolls. They are players with a bad connection, a crashing client, or a life that interrupted a 35-minute game. Fix the cause and the penalty disappears with it:

• Check your connection before ranked; our LoL ping test shows whether your line is the problem.
• If the client crashes, repair it from the Riot Client settings before queuing again.
• Queue only when you have time for a full game, which can run 40 minutes or more.
• If you disconnect, reconnect immediately. Coming back counts for a lot, both for LeaverBuster and for the four teammates still fighting 4v5 while your champion stands in base.
• When you are tilted, mute and finish the game rather than leaving.

Short sessions? Swap ranked for ARAM. Games are shorter (often around 20 minutes), and you can still play when the evening is tight.

What about starting a new account?

A new account does not erase your history on the old one, and it does nothing about the habit that caused the penalty in the first place, and making accounts to escape penalties is not what accounts are for. The honest fix is clearing the queue on the account you have. Five games, a bit of patience, and the timer is gone for good.

That said, plenty of players keep a second account for other reasons, such as playing with friends at a lower rank or practising a new role. If that is your situation, our ready level 30 accounts are hand-leveled and checked before handover. Just do not expect any account to stay clean if the leaving continues, because LoL low priority queue follows behaviour, not accounts. Either way, the timer only counts matches you finish, so the fastest exit is simply playing the required games out.

FAQ

How long does LoL low priority queue last?

Until you finish the required number of matchmade games, usually five, with a queue timer of roughly 5 to 15 minutes before each one depending on your tier.

Does dodging put you in low priority queue?

No. Champion select dodges have their own timer and, in ranked, an LP loss, but they do not trigger LeaverBuster.

Can I play ranked while in low priority queue?

Usually not. Clear the leaver penalty first by finishing the required games in other modes.

Does ARAM count for low priority queue?

Yes, ARAM is a matchmade PvP mode and a common choice for clearing the penalty quickly.

Does low priority queue affect MMR?

Not directly. The game you left counts as a loss, which affects MMR like any other loss.

Do LeaverBuster tiers reset?

They decay over time when you finish games without leaving. Leaving again pushes you back up.

Can you appeal low priority queue?

LeaverBuster penalties are automatic and rarely reversed. If a client or server bug caused the leave, contact Riot Support with the details.