League Dodge Penalty (2026): LP Lost, Queue Timers, and When a Dodge Is Worth It

A dodge is leaving champion select before the game starts. Riot's queue dodging page gives this table for ranked, and we copy it as it stands:

The apex line on Riot's page reads: “Rather than -5 LP loss, queue dodge penalties apply a -20 LP loss, along with an impact on MMR scoring.” It replaces the first-dodge figure and says nothing about the second and third, so we leave those cells open rather than guess.

The three rows are tiers, and you move between them by time. From Riot's page:

• It takes 24 hours without a dodge to drop one tier.
• A new dodge inside that window moves you up a tier and “adds another 24 hours to your penalty tier”. Riot's own example: after two dodges “it'll take 24 hours to drop back to the 1-dodge tier, and another 24 hours to return to normal (48 hours total)”.
• Normal dodges count. “If you dodge in a normal game and then dodge in a ranked game, the penalty for the ranked dodge will be the same as if there were two dodges.” So a normal dodge in the afternoon makes an evening ranked dodge cost 15 LP and 30 minutes.

In plain terms: you get one cheap dodge per day, and it is only cheap if you haven't dodged anything in the last 24 hours.

• Leaving champion select, for any reason. Riot: “Queue dodging happens when a player in champion select decides to leave the lobby for any reason.”
• Not locking in. “Failing to ‘lock in’ during Champ Select also counts as a dodge.” Letting the timer run out on your pick is a dodge, with the same LP cost.
• Positions you already placed in. Riot adds: “You lose LP in any positions for which you've already placed.” During placements the LP cost still applies for the queue you are placed in.
• Not a dodge: declining or missing the ready check. Riot treats that as a separate penalty that applies to the whole account across queues; it carries no LP cost on the page.

If somebody else dodges, your game is cancelled and you go back to the queue with no penalty. In ARAM there is one exception, below.

No LP is lost outside ranked, but the tier you earn counts toward your next ranked dodge, as above. In ARAM, Riot says you “are not guaranteed a third champion option (Blessed Card) if you had it previously”, and that this “also applies to a situation where somebody else dodges the game”. Riot's page says nothing about Quickplay or Swiftplay, so we don't either.

Below Master, no: Riot's page lists an LP cost and a lockout, and no game is played, so there is nothing for your rating to move on. In Master, Grandmaster and Challenger, yes: the page says the 20 LP loss comes “along with an impact on MMR scoring”, and Riot's December 2025 ranked post went further, saying that at Master and higher “a dodge will count as a full loss”. The page also describes the autofill carrying over into your next lobby at those ranks.

So for most players a dodge changes your LP and nothing else. What moves your LP per game afterwards is the relationship between your rank and your hidden rating, which Riot describes on its MMR, rank and LP page: LP gains explained walks through the three cases.

The arithmetic is simple as long as you use your own numbers. Riot publishes no formula for LP per game, so the comparison is between the dodge cost on its page and what you usually lose:

• First dodge of the day: −5 LP and 6 minutes. If you normally lose around four times that in a defeat, a dodge is worth it whenever you are fairly sure the game is lost in champion select. That is a high bar: most lobbies that look bad are not.
• Second dodge: −15 LP and 30 minutes. Now the dodge costs most of a loss and you can't win it back for half an hour. Only a lobby you would not queue into at all qualifies.
• Third dodge: −15 LP and 12 hours. Your session is over. Treat the third tier as a wall, not a price.
• Master and above: −20 LP, an MMR hit, and Riot's “full loss” framing. Almost never worth it.

Two habits make the decision cheaper. Decide before the lobby opens what you would dodge for, and check the same things every time: your lane matchup, whether the team has a tank and a damage mix, and a duo you don't want to play with. LazyElo's champ select page and scout show you the lobby in the client, so you count the cost from the table above instead of from a feeling. And remember that a normal-game dodge spends the same tier as a ranked one. Who you can queue with in the first place is in Solo/Duo and Flex queue rules.

Search for the dodge penalty and the first page is full of other figures. Here is where each comes from, so you can date it:

• “3 LP, then 10 LP.” Riot's rules from 2021 to the mid-2020s. Its July 2021 dev post Tackling Queue Dodging set the tiers at −3 LP and 6 minutes, −10 LP and 30 minutes, and added the third tier at −10 LP and 12 hours. Older forum threads from 2013 quote the same 3 and 10. The current page says 5 and 15.
• “Dodging doesn't cost LP anymore.” A claim from 2022 videos. It was never true for ranked; Riot's page has listed an LP cost throughout.
• “−5 to −10, up to −15.” A boosting site's mix of the old and the new tables.

Riot's English page was not in Google's organic top ten for “league dodge penalty” when we checked on 30 October 2026; only its German and French copies were. If a page gives you a number without a date, check it against Riot's queue dodging page. For how dodges fit in the rest of the system, from tiers to the yearly reset, see League of Legends ranks explained.