Break the Dota rules, pay the Dota price with the low priority queue.
There's a special place for those who play up and misbehave in Dota 2 — low priority. It's here where the worst offenders (and a few unlucky souls who disconnected a few too many times) end up, and every Dota player is bound to land here at some point in their careers.
But what exactly is low priority in Dota 2? How did you get here, what will you need to do to get out, and how can you avoid coming back?
What is Dota 2's low priority queue?
Dota 2's low priority queue acts as a penalty for those who have been misbehaving in matchmaking. Your behavior score doesn't matter for low priority; if you receive a sharp burst of reports across multiple games in a row, you'll be placed into low priority and must earn the right to rejoin the rest of the community.
You likely ended up here after multiple games in quick succession that included reports of communication abuse, griefing, feeding, or abandoning matches. Don't worry too much about connection issues; Valve has assured players that one or two abandoned games due to disconnecting won't guarantee you low priority.
That said, if you have constant connection problems leading to abandoned matches, you'll be punished with low priority accordingly. You're still ruining the game for nine other players!
Several restrictions are placed on your account when you fall into low priority:
- You can only queue for the Single Draft game mode while in low priority.
- Achievement tracking and/or seasonal quests will not progress.
- You cannot earn Compendium levels, battle pass points, or any other seasonal currency.
- Queue times will be longer.
You can't get out of it by queueing with friends that aren't in low priority, either: They'll join you in low priority whenever you search for a match.
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Tips for getting out of low priority in Dota 2
The only way to get out of low priority is to play the remaining Single Draft matches. You can't leave the matches early, otherwise more will be added to your queue.
Most players will need to win between one and five matches to get out of low priority. All we can suggest is to play through each game to completion and avoid copping more reports along the way.
Since you'll be playing Single Draft, you'll get a small selection of heroes to choose from. You get a choice of one hero from each of the three attributes - Strength, Agility and Intelligence. Pick the hero you're strongest with, and if none are offered, treat the match as a chance to learn a new hero.
How to Avoid Low Priority in Dota 2
As for getting through the matches and avoiding low priority in the first place:
- If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it! Communicate positively with other players (in voice and via text) and don't abuse anyone.
- Don't grief in games! Don't sell your items, feed, or throw games on purpose.
- Don't abandon matches under any circumstance. Only leave a match if it is safe to do so (after another player abandons or disconnects for long enough).
- Play fair and don't abuse any bugs or abilities. Don't use any illegal third-party programs or cheats.
- If you're suffering from connection issues that is causing you to abandon games, investigate and fix the problems before queuing up again.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Dota 2 news and updates.
