How to Disable Autofill in League of Legends?

Let us start by simply explaining what autofill is and how it works.

Many players in League of Legends are familiar with the “Autofill” mechanism. It is a tool that helps players quickly to find matches in any ranked or draft game by pushing them into empty slots and allowing the game to find more people for the current match faster. 

Although this doesn’t sound so bad, as it lets you play sooner, it does pose a problem for many people. For example, for players who only play one or two roles, like top or mid, the “Autofill” mechanism picks up support for them. 

Honestly, for them, this is the worst possible outcome. If you have specialized in mainly playing one or two roles. Or using a specific champion, then getting sent to a different lane is quite hard to accept. In moments like that, you can see how some players become toxic and even threaten to troll your game. The thought mechanism will push them into the wrong role, causing the game to be more difficult to play, and they might perform much worse than they would in their favorite role.

It is a necessary evil unless you are ready to wait 10+ minutes for a match that may last 20-30 minutes. This is very problematic in ranked games where your LP is on the line or in high ELO, where you have to wait a lot more than in the mid-tiers.

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How to Avoid Getting Autofilled?

When it comes to autofill, many, if not all, players are of common opinion about it. No matter the differences, we all agree that it’s not nice to be randomly put in a role or lane you can’t play or don’t enjoy playing. 

Although public opinion has its weight over Riot’s decisions, the autofill is something they will not remove, simply because the system is helpful. Although people don’t like playing random roles with champions they can’t use, it works for setting up matches faster. That solves the problem with the insufficient number of players queuing at a specific time of the day.

It is honestly hard to think about how we can disable it. Many have come up with various theories, tricks, etc., which have been proven wrong or are just not working. With all the “theories” in the online forums, we stumbled upon one that claims to disable autofill, and it may work when you think about it.

Although we have not confirmed this 100%, it does appear to work in some cases. So take the following information with a grain of salt and try to apply the tricks in your game lobbies to confirm it. We bet some of you are already doing it without even realizing it.

The trick is simple. Let’s say that you queue for a game match. As usual, you pick your roles, and you start waiting for the game to find you a matching session. Unless you have guaranteed autofill protection, you may get autofilled for any of the five in-game roles.

To make this trick work, you have to check the estimated time for finding a match. Let’s say that it is a minute and a half, and you do not have autofill protection. In this case, you have to wait, and if the time passes, just cancel and enter the queue again. That is very important as once the time passes, you will be set up as a priority in the system and will be sent in a random match session, which will start soon. To avoid waiting, the system will put you in the currently open positions of a game lobby that already have 8-9 people.

If you cancel it on time, before the estimated time passes, all you have to do is, as we said, queue again and wait. If the game finds you a match before the estimated time, just accept it. Chances are that you will play the roles you have selected.

We have to say that this is applicable when someone dodges or leaves a champion selection. Having to pick your champion, set up the right runes, and just wait and then have someone simply leave is the worst. Or so you think. Now imagine you queue again. You get autofilled, but you can’t pick the chapter you wanted. This is the worst possible outcome. You got autofilled due to someone else’s leaving.

To avoid this, do, like in the previous case. You have to cancel and queue again. The big change is that you will get autofilled after someone leaves a match, as the game will try to send you into a match as soon as possible. This is why you have to cancel the first match you find, start searching for a different one, and accept it, paying attention to the estimated queue time!

Let us give you some positive news regarding the autofill system. We dare to say that Riot looks out to the players’ feedback. They are implementing changes, not only to this system but to many more related to their games. As a company that listens to its player base, they do great in that direction.

During the summer of 2021, they announced their plans to rework the autofill tool, reducing the waiting time and increasing the autofill rates for players. Thus, implementing some changes for all players, regardless of rank or how good or bad their MMR is. That appears to be the best solution for all. Being great news,  it is still something in the distant future, as there have not been any big changes in the system so far.

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Conclusion

We did talk about autofill and what it is. We pointed out that it is the only working trick in our opinion. Most of you probably know about it or do it unintentionally, but it’s the only one showing any results. The future changes that the company may make to the League of Legends autofill system are on their way, and although they are planned, it may take some time to implement. 

Considering how many projects Riot has introduced recently, it will not surprise us if it takes a year or two to see any changes in the autofill system. Lastly, we want to say that even if you get angry during a match, it’s not the end of the world. You’ll gain experience on a lane you don’t usually play on with a champion you don’t usually pick, and your match will start sooner if you don’t use the trick we discussed. We hope the article was helpful, and till the next one!