Wrestle with Jeff…
Those who repeatedly quit Competitive Play matches in Overwatch will be banned from the mode for life, according to a post made by game director Jeff Kaplan on the official forums yesterday evening.
Whether through actively quitting or unintentionally disconnecting from the game, players currently face an escalating series of punishments for abandoning matches in the game’s official ranked mode. Right now, early transgressions merely result in temporary bans from the competitive queue, with a seasonal ban being applied to persistent offenders.
It looks as though Blizzard is preparing to go much further in a future update though, hitting those banned across multiple seasons with the ultimate player sanction.
“We keep increasing the penalty for leaving and will continue to do so,” Kaplan began.
“We’re in the process of implementing a new policy which would take into account how many Competitive Seasons you have been banned from and at a certain point, prevent you from playing Competitive ever again.”
Such a move would presumably be administered at an account level, forcing the repeat offender to either pony up for a new copy of Overwatch – and commence their hunt for cosmetic items all over again – or be restricted to Quick Play or Arcade games.
How do you feel about Blizzard’s proposal to tackle repeat offenders? Is it too harsh? Do you think they can fairly separate those with legitimate disconnect issues from deliberate quitters? Let us know what you’d do to change the system in the comments section.
