I sort of brainstormed this last night, and I wonder if it is possible.
If a player leaves a competitive game, and the timer expires before they are able to rejoin - the match is completely reset or canceled and all players are sent back to Assembling Heroes/Waiting For Players (Skirmish).
If it’s not possible to reset the game, or if a certain amount of time has elapsed without finding a new player to backfill, the game closes out and the remaining players are given a priority queue for a new game.
If a player is however successfully found for competitive backfill, the game resets and returns to Assembling Heroes - with all player stats, etc reset to zero - and the players are allowed to rematch.
I believe fully resetting the game is the fairest way to handle backfill in competitive. I’d love to hear your thoughts on something like this being implemented. And with the new rules being enforced, players should be completely disincentivized from throwing a game by leaving mid-match to force a reset.
Also, if resetting the same game isn’t a viable option - meaning keeping the same players and the same map/mode - then simply canceling the match, or tallying it as a draw after a player leaves is more than fair.
I think “fairness” is more important than “victory/defeat” and when a player leaves a competitive game (and doesn’t rejoin within a certain amount of time) then it results in an unfair matchup for both teams. I hope the idea of a full competitive match reset is favorable to the alternative, where a team is forced to fight in an uneven 4v5.
This has been suggested multiple times in the past, and is the primary issue is that it allows grouped players to “take one for the team” so their buddies dont get a loss, or pressures a random teammate into leaving for the benefit of everyone else. In many cases it also denies the enemy team their rightful win if someone rage quits late into the match.
The best option is simply what they already do: If you leave enough matches you get banned from comp. Otherwise leavers aren’t really a problem, because you’re statistically likely to benefit from leavers on the other team as well, so it pretty much balances out. It sucks when it happens, but isn’t the end of the world.
I think with the new rules and holding players accountable for those they routinely group with, such as cheaters but in this case leavers, where grouping with known leavers can result in penalties for those seeking to reap the benefits.
As it should be an extremely rare thing that happens, and if people are grouped and someone from a player’s group is frequently leaving matches - the entire group should be held accountable.
I do agree that statistically things will average out, with leavers being outliers in terms of frequent occurrences.
However, with the new systems in place I think we can start to take a more direct approach in finding a real, practical solution to the leaver problem. This can extend to grouping known players with a high “trust” value - players who complete the vast majority of their games - into the same lobbies, as well as compliments to the existing reporting system from trusted players onto players with low trust.
That can help combat bad actors who might try to circumvent the system by creating new accounts. However, even then, there are many ways to detect such bad actors - IP address and hardware/machine configuration detectable by Blizzard’s systems, which is already in use to detect ban evasions.
I am rather optimistic that we can find a workable solution. And I think that implementing some sort of reset feature will go a very long way in making the overall competitive experience more fun!
Truthfully, I kind of feel like it’s a solution to a problem that doesn’t really exist. Leavers suck but as long as there is an appropriate punishment/deterrent, I dont think they nerd to go out of their way to try and create some complex system to try and make things feel slightly more fair when your teammate leaves.
Additionally, as I said, there are cases where you wouldnt want this to happen. If the match is 90% over and a nearly guaranteed win, wouldn’t you be pretty darned upset if someone on the losing team rage quit and the match had to reset, thus denying you your win? That’s certainly not fair by any stretch of the imagination.
But simply punishing and banning leavers should already slowly remove these bad actors from the pool and resolve the issue on its own without any sort of “trust” mechanism or anything like that.
Also FYI, IP bans not only do not work and are very easy to circumvent, but also occasionally punish the wrong player. IP addresses are leased out and can be reused. Also as far as I’m aware, blizzard does not use any form of IP/hardware ID based ban mechanisms to detect ban evasion.
Neither case is fair though. It’s unfair that you were denied a win that you deserved, but the matchup itself is just as unfair for the team without their teammate. It’s a sucky situation for both sides.
Maybe the current rulesets are still not sophisticated enough to implement a viable solution, however there are still many factors to consider. And I agree, resetting a game that is 90% complete is absurd - however in such a case, there should still be enough time left in the game to determine a winner. I think the timer is set for 2 minutes IIRC, so if your team is already steamrolling 5v5, your team is only going to steamroll harder against the remaining 4. (Assuming it’s the enemy team with a leaver)
Also statistically speaking, the rules should systematically root out all of the bad actors over time. So players who would leave are eventually removed from the player pool, and kept away from players with high “trust” values. The trust system works inversely to how the existing leaver penalty system works, rewarding trustworthy players with trustworthy teammates and opponents.
On paper, and from a big-picture perspective, it’s not a bad idea although it requires players to suspend their ego/pride for the win and trade that for sportsmanship and fairness. For example, for a game with a leaver both teams can each opt for a draw - thus resetting the game for all players. The idea mostly stems from this mindset.
i agree with you, but they won’t do it because either team is equally as likely to have a d/cer or leaver so it all balances out…
IMO they should just give everyone who DIDN’T d/c a draw and let them move on after 2 minutes. The offending player (the person who left) should get a loss. I don’t see the sense in punishing/rewarding 9 other people because 1 person disconnected. I don’t like that the offending person getting shafted but such is life you know? we’ve all had a d/c here and there.
2 minutes is too much. In koth that is a lost round, on payload/hybrid depending on the leaver ie. Tank it means 1-2 free checkpoints.
Maybe 1 minute, maybe but even that is a little too much.