20s to pick a hero, 60s before the game starts, if I instantly leave before the 60s mark, it’s still considered a leave. All right, wasted my saturday to get to lvl 4 just to drop back to lvl 3. So either I play with 5 dps or take the endorsement punishment, great. 
I’d totally get it if the punishment would only kick in if you leave in the MIDDLE of the game, but before it even started, with at least 60s to go? Holy fk.
I was in a game, it was ending. The cards had popped up and I was about to endorse people and it said you have been dropped from 3 to 2. I just got that yesterday and I didn’t even leave the match.
you have now possibly doomed your team to start with 5 people, maybe even someone else on your team leaving and then dooming everyone to wait for “not enough players, reinstancing”
That’s why the punishment is there. Don’t leave.
I didn’t leave my team. I was still in the game and they still took my endorsement level
replying to op. I have no comment for your situation other than: That really sucks. It’s strange you lost endorsements in the middle of a match. I can think of a lot of theories but without knowing the exact nature of the decay they’re just theories.
My team was doomed from the very beginning insta locking 5 dps. I certainly won’t waste my time with that, nor will the backfill take much time at all, experiencing quick backfills myself.
once you can choose a character the match starts
you abandoned your team and are penalized
But the game before the endorsement system never felt the need to punish players if they left during the assemble phase. If Blizzard has changed their stance on this, they should publicly say so and be consistent with their reward systems.
Edit: I know Blizzard is intentially keeping elements of the endorsement system private so people can’t abuse it so easily, but this kind of crap is unacceptable tbh. Blizzard has publicly stated before that leaving during the assembly phase was okay and you would not be punished. Either the endorsement system isn’t working as it should or Blizzard needs to change their stance on a topic that they have stated publicly.
It always counted as a game you played but it just didn’t give you a xp ding. Endorsements seem to work on a amount of games vs endorsements per game for the decay.
As you’ve said they’re likely avoiding specific announcements to avoid gaming the system. If you notice a detriment to what you want from playing a certain way, you can definitely change the way you play. I see no obligation to warn people that this new reward only system may not give them MORE rewards if they continue to behave in ways that are detrimental to the majority of the people in the game.
Then there goes your endorsement level. That’s the price.
Who cares about endorsement level? 3 is fine. If you don’t want to be in the game, quit. It’s nbd.
Dont leave games.
It’s not “dont leave unless you have a bad team” just dont leave games.
If bad team comps make you quit games, you probably should be level 3 not 4.
I’ve found the games with 5 insta pick dps games are also the games that are least likely to have people endorse you if you decide to be the guy that fills to try and save a sinking ship.
It’s ultra unfun though.
so kind of like playing a 5v6 because you left the team
You didn’t give them a chance to see 5 dps wouldn’t work and possibly change to fill in what is needed to win
Uh if it isn’t comp I should be able to leave whenever the f I want without punishment
you are still abandoning your team
they’re random people in a match. now, if there was no fill system like oldschool shooters, I see how leaving is very punishable. but we dont live in that reality
It won’t affect your endorsement if you leave before the 30s of assemble your team has passed.
I don’t think leaving games in assembly phase is detrimental to a majority. The majority of games I’ve had with a leaver during that phase has had little impact because a backfill will come in 90% of the time before the game started. (And yes, that 10% is a minority). Regardless from my opinion or my experience, I’m indifferent to leaving games affecting your endorsement level as long as Blizzard publicly state this information for the benefit of players who are unaware.