How does the leaver system work

I just played a match where I played the full first round out then at the start of the second round my pc shut off and I had to reset. The match I left was still going on so I joined back in and helped my team finish the point and we won the match but I still lost 50 sr even though I came back and WE WON. and I had a 10-minute suspension from ranked. I’m super confused as to why I lose points in a match I won and I came back as well.

I feel that, the system is bad and needs looked at. If you leave for more than a minute, for any reason, you get the full punishment. No exceptions.

They could at least make it so that if you come back you get a lesser punishment, especially if you actually manage to turn it around and win.

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From what I understood, if you rejoin within 60 seconds you’re in the clear. If you take longer you can still play out the match but you get punished.

Blizzard doesn’t list the rules anywhere so it’s not real clear. I think they don’t do that because the rejoin doesn’t always work. Some people claim they rejoin within the 60seconds and still get punished.

In short, no one really knows and Blizzard never list then anywhere on the PlayOverwatch site either.

If you have PC or Internet problem and play comp, you’re literally gambling on losing your OW competitive access for your account.

Technically there is a two-minute window, however a full PC reset usually takes longer.

Its mostly on the old forums where there are official details, plus the statement post in technical post. However the general rules are:

  • If you leave in the starting minute, the match cancels. You are automatically penalized and suspended. All other players are given a Priority Requeue and no SR is gained or lost. (PLEASE NOTE: I am currently investigating possible changes to this rule.)
  • If the match has played out for more than a minute (from the time the attacking spawn doors open) the match is official and the leaver has an opportunity to return and not be penalized if they do so within 2 minutes.
  • If the player returns to the match AFTER 2 minutes or leaves and returns 3 or more times, they are automatically penalized and be marked with a loss even if they complete the match.
  • If a player fails to return after two minutes, teammates have the option to forfeit and leave without suspension but will still take the normal SR deduction for a match loss (regardless of actual match result).

I took the 2 minute timer allowing others to leave the match without getting punished once it’s over.

I updated my post above with additional details.

The fact they don’t have this listed on the official OW website is beyond me.

The website itself is more of a marketing front (like all game websites). I would agree a support article would be nice, but the details on leaver rules is more on the side of the dev team and not Blizzard Customer Service.

I am in the middle of a project going through the leftover HTML code from the broken archive pages on archive.org for the old forums, and rebuilding most of the statements from past developer and community manager posts which covers these intimate details. Its taking time but it will be worth it once it is complete.

It is Blizzard they can’t do most things right they allow smurfs to come into ranks they don’t belong & ruin games coming up with the bull excuse that they’ll move on soon enough yet if you drop off for 30 seconds rejoin they still punish you where is the fairness in that

They say they’ll punish player not playing heroes correctly ie DPS Moira, Rein not shielding, reddit Lucio’s yet they never do but we can’t name & shame any of these players to get them on people’s avoid list to really punish them, they way they nerf Tanks & supports to oblivion to appease the DPS crowd is ridiclous aswell

They don’t care one bit it is all about your money & they have it already, as a Tank main i have accepted this even more they care not one bit about our enjoyment cause we’re not DPS the fact they continued to add DPS characters when the Tank/Support category have little to no choice is another disgrace

Blizzard don’t care they have your money

The bigger question is why should teams be punished because of leavers it is still a huge problem that Blizzard have ignored or is it a case of we have your money it is not our problem

Blizzard doesn’t ignore it, it is done this way deliberately. Details:

Source: Old Overwatch Forum Archive

They have ignored it for years i should not be punished because someone leaves this was not my problem or everyone elses issue who stayed it should be the leavers

The same way they ignore smurfs & actually encourage it but if it is the other way around there is an issue with that

The same way they ignore Tanks & Supports for they golden boy DPS

They constantly throw tansk & supports in to games way below there ranks because DPS queue are bigger this is not my fault which means either minimal gain or a big loss depending on there results this also needs to be fixed, i dont want to play games where is really put in maximum effort for lower gains

THIS is the part that I have always had major issues with. As applied, the policy gives ZERO reason for any d/c player to rejoin. If a d/c player rejoins and wins a match they should receive their due SR gain, be marked as a win, and THEN be penalized the 50.

Let’s say the win was worth 25 SR. In the case of a d/c that failed to return in the 120 minute time window, the player should be penalized the 50, but also gain the 25, for a net loss of -25.

Which is still a loss of SR. The d/c player IS penalized. But the penalty is less because they did the right thing which was to come back as fast as they could and contribute to a win. That is an INCENTIVE to come back ASAP if you can.

When honest d/c’d players have no INCENTIVE to come back, everyone loses, is my argument.

Honestly the best place would be pined in the competitive forums. It could simply have a title like “Competitive mode rules and punishments”.

Make that happen… light some fires under some butts.