Unfortunately due to problems I can not seem to rectify, my PC occasionally experiences drops in connection when entering matches. This is not a problem with my router, dongle, whatever (I have tried everything; it is probably something to do with the motherboard and there are others in my household playing OW without this issue). This is frustrating when getting into a competitive match, disconnecting and 30-ish seconds later the match is cancelled and I am faced with a ban and a penalty, even if I rejoin as the timer is counting down. Most of the time however, I have no problems at all e.g. establishing connection to the servers, ping etc.
I am sure that there are many other players like myself who experience these kinds of minor issues that majorly impact their gaming experience on Overwatch. I know it is hard, maybe impossible, to distinguish genuine leavers from those who DC so I understand why we receive the same penalties.
However as a suggestion, I feel that a longer threshold of time between a player disconnecting upon entering the match and the match cancelling could be implemented as it takes around a minute and a half for the match to actually get started anyway. This would give the chance for any unlucky DC’ers to jump back into the game and avoid any unnecessary penalties.
I want to note that the match does not cancel when a player disconnects mid game so I don’t see how it would be any different, as either way the team with the leaver will be at a disadvantage.
Would this suggestion be viable? I would like to hear everyone’s thoughts on this.
Rejoining a game is only possible during certain phases of the game. If you leave a game either during the pre-game or during the first minute of the game, the game will automatically cancel (remember the 10 second rule does not apply to the leaver, but as a warning to other players that the match will cancel). You can rejoin the match during the initial hero selection screen if you are lucky enough to quickly reconnect though.
Otherwise, you can only rejoin any-time after one-minute of match time has passed up until the match completes. However you only have two minutes to do so without penalty. If you rejoin a match after two-minutes, you will still automatically be marked with a loss an be penalized with a -50 SR cut and a ten-minute suspension. This rule ensures that no one can abusive the leaver system by attempting to return to a match after deliberately leaving in order to avoid such penalties. Furthermore leaving three or more times in a single match will result in an automatic penalty. If you fail to return to a match by the time it ends normally (regardless of match result) you will be penalized.
More details on the policy can be found in the link below, but otherwise please post your thoughts in the competitive discussion forum if you wish to reach out with feedback to the development team as this forum is not used to provide feedback to them.