I used to be very passionate about this game. I’ve been playing since Beta and watched the Ranked/QM match quality slowly decline to what I can only describe as a diceroll with player toxicity running rampant and sucking away what life is left in my favorite game. So I walked away from it. After 2+ years away I came back and decided to play ARAM since it is (or was) the least serious mode and was the last place I felt like I could have fun. I still play to win. I pick support and tank when needed and I am not the type of person to ragequit a game. But the other day after incessant spam pinging, toxicity and inactivity from my teammates over the course of several games… ARAM GAMES… I disconnected. Now I have what seems like a permanent leavers penalty. I’m stuck in an purgatory of toxic b.s being forcefully matched with people who stand slightly behind us in lane so they don’t get booted, pick Butcher and afk if they have the only support option, or if you’re lucky they’ll leave halfway through the match so at least you get a bot which sits in the well when I die because nobody else knows how/wants to use it. I mustered the energy to sit through a few of these sh*tshow leavers games over the last couple days. These games are not winnable. They are not fun. This is not a positive use of my time and energy. I refuse to log in after a stressful day in this present world just to be “punished” by a video game because I chose to leave a toxic match that game me anxiety. HotS used to be my fun escape. Goodbye again old friend.
the problem is not the leaver penalty but no escalation of the penalty to people who continuously leave games. two consecutive leaves should result in a complete ban from all game modes apart from AI with a ‘cooling-off’ period. it is not fair for 3-4 people to incur a loss because 1-2 people decided to leave the game; the blizz AI is a complete joke so there is no real assistance from an AI hero. i digress though; it is far too late to rectify now as blizzard has effectively put a death sentence on the game & most people who cared about what it was/could have been have gone
I didn’t know there was a penalty for that. I also did that. The match just begun. And the SG. Hammer was insta killed even before we properly positioned ourselves. I would say bad luck, or don’t go full on if your team is slightly behind, especially with such fragile character. But I was instantly blamed for her death (I played as a Tank). That was complete nonsense so I ignored it. Yet I was heavily and continuously insulted. I just had enough and something broke in me. I wished her good luck and ALT+F4ed. I continued watching though. After me gone, she kept insulting someone else. Eventually every other players in the team wrote about reporting her.
I know I hurt the others too, but with such toxic player the game was doomed to failure and my heart just wasn’t there - so the bot probably did better than I would have anyways.
The current system of punishments for leaving is simply disgusting. I work in IT, and during work breaks or after my work, I start the game to relax and have some fun.
I never left the game because of rage or frustration. A few days ago I started playing ARAM, which, by the way, was going very well, everything indicated that we would win. I played for Li-Ming and was the highest scoring player in our team. After 5-7 minutes of gameplay I received a call that in 2 minutes the courier would make a delivery (which I expected to be delivered the next day). I was forced to quit the game as I knew the process would take some time. I simply could not tell the courier "listen, man, f*** off with my hundred euros order.
As a result, I got a penalty. Since then I have had to play with players who, to be honest, were disgusting. The game began to bring stress and irritation instead of joy. To remove this penalty I had to win. I had to play more than 5 or 6 creepy stress games, after which this penalty was removed. The question is that I try to support the developers, by buying boosts and other loot. But, after that idiocy, I seriously thought, are they worthy of my financial support? I don’t want to support developers who cannot design a system that would not punish people who accidentally or are forced (extremely rarely) to leave the game, but will punish only players who leaves the game regularly and really deserves punishment.
The punishmet before was a joke. Play 2 or 3 games with leavers (i can’t recall what it was, as i haven’t been hit with it).
If people are being toxic, report them and they get silenced. You can also do so you don’t see peoples pings. So those seems to be BS reasons to leave a match