Comp Bans - Some insights to consider

Competitive Discussion
#1

Hi there!

I just wanted to discuss a few topics as permanent bans are possibly becoming a reality. I understand that when you form these rules you have to take many aspects into consideration. I will respect the outcome of this discussion, however I urge you to take into consideration the following issues as well:

a) I live, work and play from a place that has frequent power cuts (specially during the summer). I do have power backup, however - it sometimes does not last for over an hour. Lesser when you are playing a game on a rig that draws over 850W an hour. There have been instances where the power cuts have caused me to leave an in progress game even though I didn’t mean or want to. I figure this might be the case for a lot of people on overwatch.

b) When these power cuts do occur, ping rates sometimes significantly drop as our nearby DC’s are not always properly equipped to handle them. This is very area specific and it sometimes is really annoying. However, there is very little players can do when this does occur as it pretty much is out of our hands. If we don’t play we get kicked for inactivity. Play - and you get killed anyway. Either way the outcome isn’t great for anyone.

There might be more use cases - however these two are quite significant.

PS: No, I am not trying to make excuses, rather trying to explain situations I have personally faced and seen friends facing. If there are solutions for this, I would love to discuss them further.

#2

Blizzard support can probably answer this better, but I was looking up how suspensions (kinda) work since I also had a few internet drops not very long ago.

Apparently, they look at your last 20 (or so) competitive games and how many of those you’ve left. You’ll get a notice on screen, if that exceeds a certain percentage. Should that percentage continue to grow and eventually exceed a larger threshold, then you’ll get a season ban. If you have multiple season bans, well, then you might get banned from competitive completely.

So, let’s say you see the notice popping up on your screen. You could then wait playing the game until you feel confident that your internet is more reliable, and, playing more games will eventually make the notice go away. Rinse and repeat.

Hope this is somewhat accurate and helps.

2 Likes
#3

Thanks kim! I put this out there anyway so that the rules can be formulated better.

Cheers!

#4

Even with the considerations, I don’t think they can get too lenient for people who may not have those issues may be given passes.

#5

Its not a question of leniency alone. Its more about trying to find ways to better detect people who have genuine cases vs. people who just left cause they were upset about something.

#6

Well, yeah, but people can feign it easily. You just can’t be totally sure

#7

Well if there is a better prove-able recourse method then that would solve it to a significant level right? Feigning is easy when you have a limited no of defined independent things prove recourse.

When it is a combination of things - then that would give enough incentive to players who are genuine to make an appeal vs people who know they cant prove it. Again - I’m not sure what an ideal scenario set would be here - but thats what I’m hoping to discuss anyway.

1 Like
#8

They need to be careful when it comes to suspensions of any kind when it comes to comp. When you want to play so much comp there shouldn’t be much of a reason you should be worried about getting banned just from a few disconnects. Sure people who leave are a big problem but its not worth people not wanting to play more. Sure there are people who never have connection problems and never disconnect but the truth is so many people actually do. Its not like one in less than ten games, that is a problem. Its those that can play for hours and only have one disconnect where it makes little to no sense. Also many players seeming have been getting random disconnects from Blizzard servers for some random reason.

2 Likes
#9

I was playing today and I was on my third or fourth game and it was right towards the end I lost connection. My Comcast internet is sometimes sketchy and I’m pretty sure that was the reason. A few months ago I had a lot of dc issues and got a warning and I think a ten minute ban. But I hadn’t haven’t had any problems for a while now. I plugged a hard line into my laptop and was back in game pretty quick and the menu even said rejoining match but it wouldn’t rejoin because I had a ten minute ban. I am just trying to figure out what may have happened. I thought if you get back in within 2 minutes you go to rejoin. Also, I haven’t left a match ever and haven’t had a dc issues for months. I try to be decent and don’t think I do anything that would be reportable, but is there any way that could result in a ten minute ban? Would Blizzard warn me that I was being reported if that’s what the problem was? Again I’m pretty sure it was an internet issue because I had to turn the wifi off on my phone for a little while to connect to anything. I’m really just trying to figure out what might have happened. Is any one could enlighten me that would help.

1 Like
#10

Unfortunately all disconnections and game crashes counts as leaving the match and will be penalized appropriately. The game server has no way to discern a legitimate disconnection or game crash from one that is forcefully caused by a dishonest player to bypass leaver penalties. You can learn about this policy here:

#11

I get that you have policies on this. But it might be worth discussing internally? if nothing else it helps honest community members. From what I see, these are still issues that occur.

#12

What is with all of these necrobumps lately!?

FYI, I am just a player, but as a player I don’t want players with tech malfunctions in my games… like most of the community.

#13

I logged in after a long time to post something else. Saw replies on this. Thus brought it up.

Well then it just makes it harder for communities coming from developing countries. If that’s an issue for the company as well, then dont sell licenses to people in those countries.

#14

I understand frustration where the internet infrastructure may not be ideal (which is not necessarily limited to “developing countries”) but that is still purely your responsibility.

#15

That’s a very hard position to take. When a product is developed, you cant ignore your customers regardless of where they come from. We pay the same money as the rest of the world don’t we?

Sorry, I cant agree with that line of thought. Appreciate the engagement though.

#16

If you have a bad connection and other problems staying connected then YOU are the only person who can rectify that situation. But every time you play competitive with the aforementioned problems you’re ruining that experience for 11 other players, and yes the enemy team counts because taking a disconnect interrupts everyone’s flow.

You don’t get to sit back and demand that gaming companies drop what they’re doing and fix the infrastructure in your area so you can continue to play a $20 game. Not to mention you’re part of a tiny demographic of people who have absolute garbage internet and power. Nobody’s going to cater to your every need for the value of a Jackson.

Bottom line is, this is not Blizzard’s problem, it’s not our problem, it’s yours. Asking Blizzard to make an exception to their policies for you is like asking the police to give you a break on the broken tail light you’ve been pulled over 17 times for because you’ve been too busy driving around with no destination to fix it.

I pay the same amount for my cell bill as everyone else, yet I live in the middle of the woods with hundreds of miles of trees surrounding me and no line of sight to any towers. By your logic, AT&T should be responsible for coming out and cutting down all the trees and structures in the way so I can get perfect service at home.

This is not how the world works. You bought the game as a convenience to yourself, as entertainment.

“I bought a bluray and only have a DVD player. Please upgrade my device because I bought a product without first understanding the prerequisites necessary for enjoying it.”

#17

If every company had this thought process^, there wouldn’t be global products.

Did you even try and understand what I asked for? It was a discussion not an OUTRIGHT change. If you cant help, why salt someone? I posted a genuine concern.

By your logic, you should take what companies sell to you. Sorry but according to me purchases are a two way street no matter which category they fall in.

That being said, I get where everyone is coming from. I don’t outright have garbage internet or really messed up power, the problem is consistency. I wanted a discussion around a possible method of recourse when these issues do occur.

Tiny demographic? 1.3 Bil people and 380 Million internet users of which more than 40% game is not a tiny demographic in any way. Don’t assume you know everything out of a single thread that I have posted.

If its a mistake to want a discussion - then this is just a really disappointing place to have these interactions. I get why a lot of people are upset at this game and community now.