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Overwatch 2’s Season 7 is set to launch in a few days, though ahead of its launch Blizzard have introduced leaver penalties for unranked matches – perplexing fans.
Halloween is just around the corner, meaning that the new Overwatch season start date isn’t too far off either. However, just before things were ready to kick off, Blizzard have played a pretty controversial wild-card.
Before, quitting an unranked quickplay game would reward you with a 75% XP debuff, however the Overwatch 2 Season 7 start date is going to usher in a new feature which will “temporarily” stop players from queuing in match-making altogether.
There’s stipulations to this, such as the still-relevant penalty threshold system: players who have left four of the last 20 games will be in the first penalty bracket, while players who have left six of their last 20 games will be in the second penalty bracket.
The first threshold includes a 10 minute suspension, while the second is 30 minutes instead. You can read more about the penalty system via Blizzard’s patch notes.
According to Blizzard, the reasoning is that they want to make it “more difficult for players who leave games to be disruptive while not applying too much impact to those who don’t intend on ruining the experience for others.”
The community is understandably perplexed by the changes, which are controversial to many. “Now leavers gonna turn into AFKers,” jokingly says one Redditor, while another has a little more constructive critique. “I’ve had countless games where one or two people left while we were losing and the ones who replaced them were much better and helped us get a win. Now those people are gonna be forced to stay and basically throw.”
The likelihood is that players who leave games consistently will be discouraged from playing the game due to the much harsher restrictions in place now.
Other community members are equally glad that there are harsher rules in place for un-ranked play now. “A 10 minute suspension will often mean they won’t play for another hour,” realises one Redditor, while another raises parallels to League of Legends’ disconnect rules which seem to be working well for them.
