Blizzard we need harsher punishments for leavers

OtakuSama-11161 · April 1, 2018, 7:42pm

I have been getting nothing but leavers which caused my SR to take a nose dive. Can we make perma bann a thing after the 2nd or 3rd leave

Kaedi-11739 · April 1, 2018, 8:32pm

It is a lot more complicated than that… read this for more details:

Matchmaking and the Perceived Problems of Competitive Play, A proposal

The first problem is when players leave a competitive match. While many times when a player leaves it may be due to rage-quitting that match. However, it is far more complicated than that. Players are also marked for leaving a match for reasons including, being pulled away from the game due to personal issues, disconnections from the game server or the internet entirely, computer crashes, and power outages. This means some of these problems are due to causes that the player had no immediate control over. However regardless of the reason, when a player leaves they are still penalized.

This is, unfortunately, the core of the leaver problem. The penalty for leaving a competitive match must start small with only a 10-minute suspension and a match loss with a fixed 50 skill rating deducted from the player. The reason it starts small is that the penalty must account for those who have technical issues such as disconnections, game crashes, and power outages and give them a fair chance to repair the technical issue before they play Competitive again. In fact, a high percentage of our community has encountered at least one technical issue during their time of playing Overwatch.

The system does quickly escalate in penalties with consecutive leaves. In fact, it takes as little as six consecutive leaves to accumulate to a season ban. When a player is season-banned, they lose all end-of-season rewards including bonus competitive points. Furthermore, players who get three season bans will be banned from Competitive Play indefinitely. Season bans and permanent bans from the Competitive Mode of Overwatch cannot be appealed. The system, however, does work to lower suspension time if the player completes a majority of their matches and shows consistent reliability as they participate in the season.

It is because of this precarious balance of penalizing leavers but being fair to give honest players a chance to redeem themselves, that makes the Competitive Leaver Penalty System as balanced as it can reasonably be. Unfortunately, it still allows leavers to be a perceived problem in Competitive Play.