How is the penalty of being disconnected in Overwatch fair, if I couldn't even connect to the server at first place?

Competitive Discussion
#1

Although it happened few times to me, where I get " Failed to connect to Game Server" , and then get penalized for not getting connected at all and losing the 50 SR for this. I never understood how is this my fault, if the server doesn’t allow to connect me in, it’s not my fault or my network’s or anything client-sided or so, it’s the server’s fault.

So why am I getting penalized for doing nothing wrong? The match didn’t even start, and the team members being shown at the start of the match, didn’t even show me in my team, which led into the " Waiting for players" bug in competitive. If I was never in the server first place and didn’t lose connection or leave intentionally, I shouldn’t get penalized at all, and if it is ‘somehow’ my fault (for the “Failed to connect to Game Server” problem only) , then don’t remove the 50 SR but just penalize me.

What if it was the server’s fault?
Often we hear mentions of one off issues when we discuss penalties. “What happens if the servers crash or if Blizzard’s ISP has a problem?” or something of that nature. This does happen from time to time, but it’s pretty rare. The system is built to take that sort of thing into account, and periodic issues like this shouldn’t tank your skill rating too much. This is why the first few penalties are lenient compared to later ones. Over time even the Skill Rating drops will even out as you keep playing normal matches. As long as you aren’t intentionally leaving or having tech issues, this shouldn’t affect your account too much.

I may also rarely face network problems where I may get disconnected from the match/game, but those disconnection doesn’t seem to get pardoned… But when it’s the server’s fault and I cannot connect, I get penalized for no reason and Blizzard just pardons themselves from their own mistakes.

How is that fair ?

#2

it is a joke of a server system and penalty system. I made a post over the weekend about it too. My instance was I had a thunderstorm roll in that was not forecasted, and thus loss power briefly twice. I got penalized for that each time. These type of issues, both yours and mine, can be easily detected by Blizzard as they do have the tools for it in their other games as well.

At this point, we have to consider this game abandoned since the updates are only for show to get ready for OW2.

#3

They dont, actually.

There is no way to tell the difference between a genuine disconnect vs someone pulling their ethernet cable out on purpose.

That is why they are punished the same.

Whether you left on purpose is irrelevant, the results for the team left behind are the same.

Dont queue in a thunderstorm. Your situation is nothing like OPs, and its disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

4 Likes
#4

Yes there is ways, one example is actions/keys per minute, which they do track for purposes like detecting macro variables.

I didnt know I was in a thunderstorm, hence the “not forecasted”. I would never have queued if I have had known.

I did not say or suggest my experience was anything like OP’s. In fact the only similarity I brought up was that the penalty system is a joke and broken.

Thanks for your input forum warrior, im so glad you know everything.

#5

Nope. Plenty of current and previous network engineers on these forums. There is no way to tell. Sorry.

Except you said you lost power/DC’d twice, so even if this holds up as an excuse for the first time, you requeued anyway. Selfish.

Sounds like the system is working exactly as intended in your case.

Sorry that ruins your narrative and makes you react so defensively

1 Like
#6

I left once last week for a family emergency and other than that I can’t remember purposely leaving a competitive match. I have, however, been disconnected because the Blizzard server went down or my internet went down quite a lot of times. I don’t have flaky internet and don’t live in an area where this should be a problem. I’ve experienced it with a fiber line, cable internet, and company T3 connections. Each time I get dinged. This is a major reason to dislike playing competitively, even though the matches tend to be more fun for me personally. In the latest example, I was banned for half an hour and downgraded from a 4 to a 3 for reputation, even though I joined the game again as soon as I could and we won. I was rep’ed as a good teammate by two people. How does suspending me temporarily after I helped win the game make sense?

The second reason I’m frustrated with competitive is that Overwatch is very much a team game and so favors those who play with friends all the time. I’m older and don’t have a lot of young friends that like to play the game and so I get stuck with the “luck of the draw” for teams. I’ve learned that this makes it almost impossible to rank up.

Between these two issues I’m thinking about bailing on Overwatch and looking for different games to play, even though this has been my favorite for the last few years.

#7

When queuing for competitive, if it says “game found” or “joining game” for 3 seconds, quit overwatch and relaunch. This has worked for me to get around the “failed to join” error. By the time you get back you should have the option to rejoin the match if it had actually found one, otherwise it will be the normal “play” link but you won’t be suspended.

If you leave it at “joining game” for too long, then it fails, you’ll get the suspension if it actually had 11 other people in a match waiting for you.

#8

Ok but

You do tho

This doesn’t mean you don’t have a problem

1 Like
#9

Doesnt mean he does have a problem either. Quit acting like shill protecting this game, everyone knows its not working properly, has these problems. Players like you who are single minded saying everything is the problem of the player and the game cant possibly have anything wrong with it.

If his account is getting booted on 3 separate strong networks, that sounds like an issue of the games servers, not his account or networks.

#10

You react poorly when people challenge your narrative

#11

You are a charlatan troll, throwing your ignorance around with SJW verbiage while trying to be passive-aggressive with everything; especially when someone is capable of pointing out you are wrong.

#12

Let me know when that person shows up :joy:

#13

BrokenNinja & Koringul . Please don’t go off topic.

#14

It wasn’t off topic. I’m simply preventing the spread disinformation.

Entitlement breeds narrative bias. What you went through was a bug. Others are equating that to the consequences of their ignorance.

#15

Well yea the servers have been Werid ive been gettiing dc and random lag spikes ONLY in overwatch recently i can play smite apex legends and leauge with np but as soon as i play overwatch it starts to mess up

1 Like
#16

Update, it has happened once again!

Thank you Blizzard for penalizing me, a daily player of Overwatch because of some server sided problem!

#17

This is a you problem if it’s this frequent

#18

No its not. Server side issues are frequent for some clients. Its not a local network problem, or a client application problem. This has been going on since before launch during beta. Their Authentication Servers and Match Servers fail to communication and drop Auth. Tokens; so thus the player gets dropped for no reason. Some players get it a lot, some get it rarely at random.

1 Like
#19

Some players need to stop queuing for comp

#20

It’s not frequent and not ‘me’ problem.

Big brain idea right there.