Just wondering since don’t really get bothered by it usually, but yesterday was a rough night for me, and one of the last games got a 14% WR abby that just sits and AFK. Lets say out of 10 games.
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around 50% of the time, it’s the games algorithm to make sure the game is lost
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It depends on the game mode. I see it more often in ARAM than QM, and rarely in ranked. Unless you consider main tank Illidan to be trolling. Overall, it is fairly rare for me, although I typically play with friends.
I did have a QM last night that was unwinnable since our random Anduin either DCd or Alt+F4d right at the start. It was weird comps (hello QM!) so he may have left on purpose. My friend and I played it out anyway, as if nothing else, we could see who could keep bot Anduin alive the longest!
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After about 5-6 days of decent ranked games, I’ve had absolute sh1t games today in ranked, 6 times in a row. Apparently after getting the better players for a while, I am only getting 0/7 bots. Maybe hots is having a bad time.
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Did 2 QM games and everyone played. Ofc comp was not optimal on the last one but people still tried.
Those times are when you win some games but not extremely one sided, you start getting comps that are against you or a couple of players that will weight you down. Happens.
QM is mostly just full of dps mains so you cant expect to have balanced games all the time.
Its like in the good old days in WoW when groupe finder was still not made yet.
People signet up for an instance and you had 7-8 dps for every 1 tank/healer that was in que to get an invite to a groupe.
Now with Hots is in a decline then chances you get a tank/heal on your team is much lower now. Which means unless you play that class yourself you will end up in a full dps team with no heal or tank to peel.
And when you factor in that some dps have more hp then others and have self heal aswell then you can quickly find out who wins. QM can be enjoyable when the comps are right. But when its not then it quickly gets boring.
The most important part of playing a game is: Are you having fun or not ?
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Full on AFK people in the A.I ballpit is not rare but a single one just ensures that everyone else bloats their stats and KDA numbers.
Usually those accounts are recognizable. I ran into the same one four or five matches in a row earlier this week that would queue up, go afk, and would try to reconnect near the end of the match. Once they did on Mei to then waste their time taking a bruiser camp.
Once in a blue moon someone does so out of spite to try and force people to take an L, but unless the other four are doing horribly, have a bad comp, the bots are Elite, and the bots have a really good comp it rarely if ever happens.
Edit: Write of the demons, and they shall appear. Recent game a serial AFK player was in game with the Artanis rage quitting half way through.
It as annoying, but it was on my daily xp bonus, so there was that.
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It happens more often than I’d like, but still the minority of games, probably around 10-20% or so. I feel like it’s way too easy to skirt the afk safeguards. It takes way too long before it kicks you. And it’s super easy to bypass, the ones who just relog but do nothing are particularly egregious because they know exactly what they’re doing, and that should be something that’s easily detectable. No matter how bad you are, you should have a higher APM than 1. I wish QM could cycle in different players for those that get kicked, but the way the game is designed with locked in heroes and talents, that wouldn’t be feasible. Haha, but if you select the purple man, that might be fun an option lol.
But honestly, I think what’s more frustrating is just how small the population is. There’s almost no semblance of getting people around your skill level. Just constant rainbow matches. There are players that are so bad, I’d rather get the bots. And for a “dead” game, I get matched with a surprising amount of new players, considering there’s supposed to be a new player queue. On the one hand, it’s great to see that new people are trying HOTS, but new players are just awful, through no fault of their own. it can’t be fun for them to be matched with veterans like me that are annoyingly wondering wtf are they doing.
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This is reflective of my experience too. So many “new” accounts jump right into ARAM, and as there is (little) MMR or points on the line, ARAM seems to attract players who give up easily, or are there just to troll.
“Just play with friends”, is a typical refrain here, but it really does improve overall game quality to do so. I noticed the quality of my matches declined the more I play solo, when you’re with friends, you don’t have to worry about them deliberately dying or going AFK.
Playing with friends, is also simply more fun, even a loss streak is often easily shrugged off with good friends, as you can laugh together at your own bad luck, or mistakes.
Finding a core group of friends around your skill level, that you can play with on the regular, isn’t always that simple, particularly as Hots is in stasis. I’d be a hypocrite if I said it was easy, as suffering from social phobia as I do, can make it quite difficult to engage with, and trust new people.
As a man of science, it’s witches!
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While I do say yes to this! The amount of sweat stacks here in ANZ mean playing in a group with friends runs a risk of running into them.
Spend more time in queue dodging or waiting for a game to form 
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Did you call for me, my feet are feeling a little toasty?
OIC, never mind.
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Guess it just depends on how bad your own server is. On EU i rarely see it. Actually seen more afk players in ARAM then QM even for the normal ARAM games with no mirrors. You always have one who goes afk.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/8kpv17/hots_is_way_too_easy_on_feeders_and_trolls/?rdt=54336
Hopefully the great thing for blizcon 2026 won’t be a new hots that’s worse, but asking LoL for the secret recipe for the working report system.
Edit: tried a ranked, seems hots might be back to its normal. Got a non-stomp match.
More people are playing Ranked at least in NA for what I’ve been able to see.
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Well, it’s the the closest mode to a decent moba experience. Still a long way from it (today ranked is awful again), but at least there’s a chance of getting 10 people of similar skill.
This is why I stopped 4 man as well. May as well go solo because half the time even that one last person is a perpetual AFK, disconnector or even intentional troll.
A premade in this state of HotS feels pointless if it’s not a full 5 player one.
It’s not about getting high ranked or very skilled teammates, it’s about being guaranteed nobody on your team leaves and never comes back at minute 1. Or suddenly snaps and starts dying to enemy towers for no reason.
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And then you got those 4 stacks that troll around and bully the solo player. But that is another story.
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Just about every single game.
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