SR Loss for a Leaver

Competitive Discussion
1

From what I understand, back in 2016 they changed the calculations done when an individual leaves the game, which before adjusted the amount of SR loss one receives for a leaver.

As it stands now, we lose the full amount of SR from the loss, despite a leaver; and personally, I believe this is complete rubbish.

I’m under the strong opinion that they should implement no SR loss when someone leaves your game, but if they’re not willing to do that, at least compromise and implement the old system. You can probably tell by now that Overwatch competitive is completely broken, and many people are upset with the new changes being implemented (This being one of the worst).

The justification for this loss was that one may intentionally bully someone into leaving in order to lose no SR, however, couldn’t the same be said in reverse? People who are tilted (insert 1,000 different reasons why people act like jerks in the competitive scene) and decide to quit so their team loses SR? Plus, it’s not like they receive any major punishment. Your punishment equates to spanking them on the butt and when their lip starts to quiver you hand em a lollipop and tell them “don’t do it again.”

I was in a game just today where a member left, and despite being a 5v6, we made it to the gates of Eichenwalde. We ended up losing, because in order to have two tanks we sacrificed a dps, thus meaning we couldn’t break through their shields effectively. In the end, I lost almost 30 SR. Why? Because someone left and that’s my fault somehow? What you’re saying basically, is that my SR calculated to show my skill and capability in game is lower because of a leaver and that the leaver somehow reflects my skill in the game? You apply a handicap to one team but not to the other when a leaver is involved. We don’t get anything in return to make the game more fair or evened out, and at the end you have the audacity to say “well you weren’t good enough to win, so here’s some -SR… thanks come again.”

This system is broken, and you need to fix it Blizzard. The game is fun, and I really enjoy comp, but this just makes something that’s meant to be fun and enjoyable into an absolute nightmare some days.

14 Likes
2

I do like how casual comp queue’ing is in this game, but the drawback of that is that a large part of your own success is reliant on random players you don’t know and many times won’t see again.

Having an ingame clan/guild system where you could easily build a team 6 stack would go a long ways in helping this problem out. At least that way you know you won’t have 5 people instalocking dps and refusing to switch.

6 Likes
3

Yet another reason the comp system in this game needs a major rework.

This season I lost 6 placement games, 3 of which was due to a leaver. From my personal experience, it’s becoming more of a problem simply because people do not care about the mode.

There is so much that can make you lose SR in this game that is completely beyond your own control. Extremely frustrating, and little to nothing is done to address it.

It’s so ironic that this is a team game that attempts to measure you individually as if the performance of your team mates has no influence on your own. And yet is more than willing to screw an entire team’s SR progression because ONE member of their team left.

So many problems with comp would be solved if they simply incentivized (instead of punished) people to group up.

At this point I have completely given up on comp. I will no longer play the mode until sweeping and drastic changes are made to the system.

7 Likes
4

Agreed, and glad to hear I’m not the only one with these thoughts. I think many of the issues here are fundamental problems with core game design, and yet the developers refuse to do anything about it. They instead continue to screw up the balancing on pretty much all of their characters,making some unplayably weak and others broken into being a must pick. I could look past these issues though, if we could just fix some of the teamwork issues in this game.

2 Likes
5

Thank you for confirming that you are aware of the current policy. It saves me the speech.

Unfortunately the starting 10 minute suspension is not just for serial leavers, but also for those who have a disconnection. I cannot emphasize this enough, disconections can happen to anyone including you without any warning! As such the leaver penalty system is designed to allow an honest player a chance to get back in after they take time to troubleshoot their problem, but quickly stack up penalties if a player is either ignorant of their technical issues or is a serial leaver.

Just remember, that is a single match. Yes it sucks, but it does average out over the long run and you maintain and continue to develop your SR. Realistically no amount of increasing penalties can work and we can’t go back to the old way of compensating for the loss because then leavers would dramatically increase. Believe me, Season 1 was notorious for leavers, virtually making as much as 80% of battles meaningless.

THERE IS GOOD NEWS…

Please remember that Principal Director Scott Mercer has confirmed new social features are coming to Overwatch this Summer to give us more control of our play experience. I want them badly as much as all of you, but they are coming.

1 Like
6

Social features and leaver penalties aren’t going to do squat until Blizz addresses the proliferation of alt/smurf accounts. Reports and punishments are a joke when anybody with $50-100 to spend on a smurf or three can basically make themselves immune from consequences for ruining the game for everyone else.

4 Likes
7

I understand the concept of DCing, but the likelihood of that is very low, and if it is a consistent issue to the point where players need time suspension implemented into the game, the fault is in them for continuing to play on poor connection. Back in season 3 I would often get the infamous “Disconnected from Blizzard servers” and relog problem. I quit comp for about 2 seasons, because I knew it wasn’t fair to put my team through that. Since then, it’s stopped happening, but, if you have consistent DC issues, you shouldn’t be playing comp.

1 Like
8

It is low for most players but not all, and its relatively common to have issues that affect an entire region. For example, a select portion of Australia and the Pacific Region are getting high latency and frequent disconnections due to a damaged fiber optic line that reaches the Signapore servers right now.

But I think you are missing the point, a random technical error can happen any time. I average about one disconnection per competitive season. However because I have one disconnection should I suffer a larger penalty? What is fair for all players to penalize a leaver? An hour, a day? I really don’t think Blizzard will risk increasing the initial penalty too severely as players would become discouraged from even playing, to begin with.

As a forum MVP who spends a great deal of time trying to give players answers to common questions, there is a never-ending battle between players who disconnect and feel they are penalized unfairly with the current rules, and those like you who are frustrated with leavers in general, whether they disconnect or leave deliberately. So I try to show each side of the coin to all players in hopes of enlightment. Now if you have specific ideas to improve the balance of the Competitive Leaver Penalty System, please feel free to brainstorm and post ideas, however I also still recommend waiting to see what the developers have planned this Summer.

1 Like
9

While it may be crappy that one gets punished for a technical error, again, the liklihood is very very low. You average one DC per season, very low. If you got punished, you’d get right back in afterwards and be fine. However, if we look at it the other way, the liklihood of having a leaver in game (intentional or unintentional) is MUCH HIGHER. Therefore, I’m getting punished through SR loss by having more leavers than an unintentional leaver would be for DCing once a season. In general, the only issue is intentional issues and they must be punished as opposed to punishing us. Furthermore, for those who DC very often, just don’t play comp until you fix the technical issues… simple as that.

1 Like
10

You do not understand, the moment dishonest players realize they can bypass a penalty by simply unplugging their ethernet cable out from computer, forcing a disconnection, they will start to do so instead of hitting the “Leave Game” button.

Season 1 in Competitive Play was a lot more generous with leavers. Players could disconnect the first time and not get penalized, and that resulted in a serious epidemic of leavers. As such penalties were increased to the system we have today. Simple as that.

2 Likes
11

If there is a leaver in one of your games, there is a 54.54% chance that the leaver will be on the enemy team. So actually, everyone has a net gain of SR under the current Leaver Rules. The leavers are the only ones who lose.

12

Until they force all SR loss on the leaver, they’ll keep throwing matches on purpose. I can understand the random d/c but that person can recover from it if they could truly climb. Ruining the match for 5 other people has to come with a severe penalty.

13

You are below diamond. The amount of SR you lose is entirely based upon your personal performance compared to others of your rank that play the same hero. I’ve literally lost 5sr before for a loss and gained 35sr for a win. If you stick around after everyone else leaves and rack up stats, it helps blunt the loss a lot.

14

Idk what world you’re performing so well in that you only lose 5sr and gain 35sr. I almost always lose 24 and gain 24 no matter how well I perform. I’ve had games with 40+ elims as Lucio, gold healing, 6-7 minutes of objective time, silver or gold objective kills (gotta love Lucio’s ability to contest) and still gained 25/lost 25.

Only time I’ve ever lost a ‘small’ amount of sr was when I was matched into a game with masters and high diamonds when I was very low diamond, I only lost 17 or 18 or sr because I was so much lower.

15

Big edit: You’re diamond. You don’t have perf based SR. You will always lose/gain the same. We in plat and below have a different system.

We were steamrolling the other team and had a leaver on our team, some emergency. I was the last man standing, everyone else left, I had performed very well that game and lost 5sr. I though it was kinda screwy but appreciated it. This was S2 or S3, can’t recall.

The time I gained 35sr was a nearly flawless game immediately after being suspended for a power outage. Had a thunderstorm. I even posted about gaining 35sr after a penalty and wondered if penalties are given back over the course of the next several games. It’s in my post history, search penalty.

I don’t make this stuff up, but playing over a 1000 hours since launch, you see a lot of screwy stuff.

I do appreciate your skepticism though.

16

Literally every point I was going to make once I saw the post. Good job

17

What about we go for a simple voting system? When you get a leaver, remaining players should be asked whether to penalize the leaver or not. Usually, intentional leavers do so after not communicating properly or being toxic.

18

The vote would have to be cast after the match. Too many tilted players would auto vote leavers to oblivion. I do believe if a player has only DC’d ONCE and you win the game, no penalty should be given. Multiple DCs or a loss is the standard penalty. Most people only DC once.

19

No, I am not in diamond. I have been in diamond for about 4 season but this season I only touched diamond and then lost 400sr (this is a baddddd season for me). You’ll notice my forums profile says my sr is 2600. My icon is diamond because I got to it once this season.

I am very familiar with performance based sr, especially as it’s only been implemented for a season or two and I used to still get affected by it in diamond.

The fact that you lost only 5sr in season 2 or 3 is probably the reason for it, I wasn’t around then but I think they made some big change to sr in one of those seasons. I have gained 30-40sr before, but only about 5 times total and they honestly didn’t feel like they were on games where I performed that amazingly above average, I did well sure, but not great. My teams average was probably very low.

Edit: it’s not entirely performance based in plat and below like you say. I think sr still takes into account the difference between team average sr and if you’re in a stack, the sr difference between you (highest person in group loses a little more). Honestly sr is a mystery, who knows.

20

I one hundred percent agree. I have not had a DC even once in the last three seasons(four?) . Blizzards and my fault for playing during an update last summer when the servers were completely screwed up and kicking everyone.

Why should I lose Sr or be put in a handicapped situation that is out of my control for someone’s rage quit or internet? I never met this person or do I know them. Why should they effect my sr? They should not that’s the answer. Don’t penalize teams with leavers after two minutes go by at least giving them the chance to return. Unless they stack with that person.

Hell, even give us a bot to replace the person. Increased ult charge or health. Something to make the game less of a handicap against you for something you can’t control.