League of Legends runs LeaverBuster across eight tiers, from a one-minute queue delay at tier zero to a two-week lockout at tier seven, and a flagged game always counts as a loss. Overwatch 2 suspends after 4 leaves in your last 20 games for 10 minutes, and 6 in 20 for 30 minutes, with a fixed 50 SR deduction for leaving a competitive match. Repeat competitive leaving can end in a season-long or permanent competitive ban.
League of Legends counts the tiers out loud
LeaverBuster is the oldest leaver system in competitive games, and it publishes its ladder. It runs across eight tiers, starting at tier zero with a one-minute queue delay and climbing to tier seven, where the penalty is a two-week lockout. The climb is driven by frequency, not by a single bad night, so one disconnect in a month of clean games barely moves the needle, while a pattern of quits in a week moves it fast. The system also punishes the account in the match itself: a game flagged for leaving always counts as a loss, whatever the score was when the player left.
The part that stings most is not the queue delay. After a leave, the player's LP gains are reduced for the next several ranked games, so the climb back is slower than the fall was. Teammates got a break in patch 26.7, when Riot started giving the full LP refund to the players left behind in a game with a leaver, but the leaver keeps the loss and the reduced gains. The design is deliberate: the penalty has to hurt the person who left without punishing the four people who stayed, and the tier structure means a repeat offender feels it more each time.
Related reading on this site: Home and Aim Assist in Cross-Play Lobbies: Why Console and PC Players Keep Arguing cover the neighbouring problems in more depth.
Overwatch 2 counts your last 20 games
Overwatch 2 runs a simpler window. The game looks at your last 20 matches, and leaving 4 of them triggers a 10-minute suspension. Leave 6 of 20 and the suspension stretches to 30 minutes. The window rolls, so a clean stretch of games pushes old leaves out of the count, but a player who leaves twice in a weekend is already halfway to the first suspension before Monday. The math is visible in the career profile, which is why regular leavers usually know exactly how close they are to the line.
Competitive leaves carry a separate cost on top of the suspension. Leaving a competitive match deducts a fixed 50 SR, no matter how the match was going, and that deduction is not refunded when the suspension ends. The SR hit is what makes a single leave expensive in a ranked climb, because 50 SR is roughly two wins of progress for most players. A player who leaves to dodge a loss they can see coming loses more rank by leaving than by staying and losing.
The part nobody reads: the season can end early
Both games escalate past suspensions for repeat offenders, and that is where players get surprised. In Overwatch 2, repeated competitive leaving can end in a season-long competitive ban, and in the worst cases a permanent ban from competitive play. The account is not closed, but the mode that matters to the player is gone for the rest of the season, and the ban is applied to the account, not the match. There is no appeal that works by arguing the leaves were accidental, because the system counts frequency, not intent.
League handles the same problem with the tier ladder and with linked penalties. A player who reaches the top tiers faces lockouts measured in weeks, and the LP reduction that follows each leave makes the climb back longer than the ban itself. The practical rule is the same in both games. One leave is a warning with a small cost. A pattern of leaves is treated as a decision about how you play, and the penalty is sized to match that decision, not the single match.
Frequently asked questions
How many leaves trigger a suspension in Overwatch 2?
Four leaves in your last 20 games brings a 10-minute suspension, and six in 20 brings a 30-minute suspension. The window rolls, so clean games push old leaves out of the count.
What is LeaverBuster in League of Legends?
It is Riot's leaver system, running across eight tiers from a one-minute queue delay at tier zero to a two-week lockout at tier seven. A flagged game always counts as a loss, and LP gains are reduced for the next several ranked games.
Do my teammates lose rank when I leave a ranked match?
In League of Legends, teammates have received a full LP refund since patch 26.7 when a game has a leaver. The leaver keeps the loss and the reduced LP gains.
Can leaving matches get me banned for a whole season?
Yes. In Overwatch 2, repeated competitive leaving can end in a season-long or permanent competitive ban. In League of Legends, the top LeaverBuster tiers impose lockouts of up to two weeks.