I don’t really understand. In a competitive title where communication is crucial, why is leaving voice an option? I understand muting people should be allowed, which is possible to do, but refusing to talk before the game has even started is not a needed feature.
Every other game has a mute feature on its own, which seems to work fine.
Also, this should only be applied to competitive.
Because people like myself don‘t want to hear the 12 year old boys cry.
Because it is not any functionally different than what you suggest. If you couldn’t just completely leave the channel people who wanted that feature would simply just instantly mute all 5 of their teammates in the first second they enter the lobby. It is actually more beneficial that they leave the channel so the rest of the team can actually see that they are not listening. Personally, I usually do exactly this if I am on Zen or Sombra. Mute everyone and just make my callouts. Nobody has any idea that I am not listening to them and I gotta imagine that tilts some but overall helps me focus more.
So the two options are either force the voice chat audio to be part of the game’s entire audio out so it CANNOT be muted without losing sound effects or what we currently have. Your way just adds a bunch of clicks to the scenario that if anything just slows down them picking before we have to run out and Defend while NEVER giving any clue as to who is listening and who is not.
there is a mute button…
Agree, if you dont want to hear people rant at you, you can mute them. I usually get melted in those games when you have 2 groups out of teamchat.
add a function that shows if you are muted? I understand where you are coming from, but it comes across as if you are not trying or being competitive if you don’t join.
Because voice chat isn’t a requirement to play Comp. You can win matches without it. High Elo players prove that all the time.
I don’t join always voice because I tend to focus and play better when I’m not communicating.
it’s because Blizzard has no control over what people say
once Blizzard is able to approve every word spoken over voice comms in real time before it hits your ears, the only practical answer is to allow people to leave voice chat, it’s not ideal, but it’s the best we got
Voice chat is overrated. It is not crucial until the highest level of play.
I agree it’s annoying but if someone’s really sensitive and gets offended by comms or something I guess they have the option not to join 
That’s incorrect, it’s because Blizzard has no control over hardware accessories attached to the computer. You can turn off the microphone, you can turn down the volume on headset and speakers, etc.
but then you couldn’t hear the sound effects
And? What does that have to do with Blizzard allowing leaving voice chat or being able to stop people from leaving voice chat? Some people listen to music instead. Some people just don’t want to listen to bad ideas or toxicity in chat. Some people are deaf and mute.
this is the answer to your question
But that’s not an answer at all. Even if Blizzard could listen to every word you said people could still turn off their microphones and speakers - because Blizzard has no control over hardware peripherals.
yeah but then they couldn’t hear the sound effects or music
I’ve made several post going more in depth about it, but there’s a plethora of reasons. Anxiety, focus, avoiding toxicity, so on. I don’t join for those three reasons and I had no trouble climbing to where I am. I get light headed if I’m nervous so I’d rather only have my own thoughts in my head. I’d rather rely on my own game sense and hearing to detect enemies than someone else’s loud voice that has a delay. I’m a one-trick Junk. Despite me being in Master’s, people still get pissed off if I make the slightest mistake. I’d rather take the time before a match to set up rather than mute each player on my team and mislead them into thinking that I’m actually listening
this is why you are plat
muting features are put in place incase someone thinks they’re a radio station