Odd Suggestion: "Fair Throwing"

Competitive Discussion
1

There are many players who complain about leavers in comp. Sometimes, there are leavers in QP, too, and for some reason matchmaking doesn’t find a backfill.

If that is the case (Only in QP), I’ll tell everyone that I stay passive until a backfill joins. That way, the match is a fair 5v5 fight

The “feature” which I’m suggesting is something Blizzard can’t add but the Playerbase.

I’m suggesting everyone to “fair throw” in competitive matches. If a team has a leaver, a player of the other team can “Fair throw” by staying passive to make a fair fight of equally big teams.

There are some rules to “fair throwing” though:

  • The number of “fair throwers” depends on the player gap of both teams. If one team has 1 less player, 1 player can “fair throw”.

  • Everyone in your team has to agree on “fair throwing”. If at least one teammate doesn’t want that, you mustn’t “fair throw”.

  • When “fair throwing”, you stay passive and only attack to prevent an AFK kick.

  • When “fair throwing”, if someone wants to switch to your current hero, you have to switch.

  • When “fair throwing”, if at least one of your teammates ask you to stop, you have to stop.

  • When “fair throwing”, if the leaver rejoins, you have to stop to make the match a fair 6v6 fight again.

These rules should prevent you from ruining the enjoyment of your teammates and it makes sure that “fair frowing” doesn’t break the code of conduct.

“Fair throwing” is kinda like a sacrifice:
You decrease your team’s chance of winning from almost a guarantee to a fair 50% and you will gain less XP because the game thinks that you’re inactive.

However, you would make the other team a lot happier. If your team agrees to “fair throw”, both teams would enjoy a fair match.

:dragon:

1 Like
2

An alternative, would be to add a bot, which would play as character which was played by the leaver.
While some people might complain about an unfair advantage, I think that even “hard” bots are not that difficult. Furthermore, bots do not allow to communication, which does not increase the chance for win that greatly. Nonetheless, the reduction in healing/damage blocking and/or damage dealing would not be that great.

3

This is something that has been discussed before and there were 3 arguments against it:

If the bot is too good, it would be both unfair an exploitable.

If the bot is too bad, it would be basically a feeder and diminish the leaver’s team’s chance of winning even more.

Lastly, there is no way to communicate with the bot. You can’t ask the bot to switch and you can’t shot all to it.

Adding a bot as a replacement would require a lot of fine tuning so one little mistake could make the situation even worse.

Finding a solution to the leaver problem is extremely difficult because that solution has to be unexploitable and it has to “feel fair”

My suggestion is asking the player to take action themselves and to make their opponents unfair match a lot more enjoyable.

No one should be forced to do it, though.

1 Like
4

Unless it’s against of a team with massive problems, I would say that it would most likely be under-performing and I thought about the feeding, however I did not include it in my post.
As for the communication, I already did mention it.

The only true solution would be if each player had an AI learning from their play-style and mistakes. Nonetheless:

  • Much easier said that implemented
  • Would require a massive amount of server storage
  • Might suffer from past mistakes – it might repeat mistakes a player did in the past, which he or she does not do anymore

And those are only few of the reasons why it wouldn’t be possible.

1 Like
5

Behavior that intentionally detracts from others’ enjoyment (such as griefing, throwing, feeding, etc.) is unacceptable. We expect our players to treat each other with respect and promote an enjoyable environment.

What you’re suggesting is already in the game. If you start “fair throwing” and somebody tells you to stop you have to stop or otherwise you’re eligible to be reported for Gameplay Sabotage.

In other words this:

Will never happen because you’ll be told to play properly each time you’d try to do this. If you do it without communicating you’re eligible to be reported. In competitive players mostly care about how to gain as much SR as possible. Even the developers have aknowledged this and has tweaked the system accordingly to avoid players from using cheesy tactics instead of using the best tactic available for a victory.

I personally would be really mad if somebody decided not to play to their fullest in competitive even if there was a DC in the opponent’s team.

6

I’m aware of this, which is why I did set those rules:

Those “rules” should ensure that “fair throwing” is only executed if everyone approves it. If someone doesn’t want that, then you shouldn’t do it.

If you do it without asking the others then, of course, your risk to break the Code of Conduct and thus your behavior can be reported for gameplay sabotage. You have to ask first.

What exactly do you mean by that?

7

That the feature you’re asking the playerbase to put into the game already exists and is enforced by the ToS. You’ve constructed your initial post to imply the contrary. If you want to simply encourage players to act this way you have a wrong way to approach the topic :upside_down_face:

8

Sorry, but you kinda lost me there

You are talking about this part of the ToS right?

How exactly does my suggestion imply the contrary? Throwing itself does detract from others’ enjoyment. However, when asking to “fair throw”, you ask your team whether “fair throwing” would detract from their enjoyment.

If someone is bothered by that idea then you mustn’t “fair throw”.

I honestly don’t see the flaw in my idea so may you point it out?

9

Throwing doesn’t necessarily detract from other players’ enjoyment. That’s up to them to decide. Throwing itself makes you eligible to be reported for Gameplay Sabotage at the whim that somebody decides that they don’t like it. To prevent this you’ll have to communicate with these players.

Which is the flaw of your post. It implies that this sort of system doesn’t exist when it already does. If your post was just about encouraging players to do this sort of a thing and pointed out to the phrase from the ToS that I quoted I wouldn’t have replied :slightly_smiling_face:

10

Yet this is exactly the schtick of “fair throwing”

The problem with this idea is that it might violate the ToS and this Idea can be only applied when the ToS is already broken by another person:

If someone leaves a competitive match, that player jeopardizes the chance of success of their team, causing their enjoyment to be jeopardized as well.

So if the enjoyment is already ruined, why not remedy the situation? There is no solution for the leaver problem (yet) and this is exactly the I mean.

If there is a leaver, there is nothing that makes the situation better

I am not implying that there is no system that prevents people from leaving, throwing, ruining the players’ enjoyment. etc. I am implying that if it happens, there is nothing to make that situation better. The leaver will get penalized but those other 5 players have to play a game that is almost guaranteed to be a defeat.

It is almost impossible to find a feature that solves the leaver problem because it either exploitable, seemingly unfair or technically not possible. The only thing that is possible, not abusable and seemingly fair is self-sacrifice, “fair throwing”.

There is an important part: It is still reportable! Based on the ToS, you are throwing, even with a good intention, so anyone can report you for gameplay sabotage. This is why you have to communicate with your team and you have to trust them. Even if your whole team gives you the thumbs up and no one is complaining, if you get punished for “fair throwing”, telling “the others said it’s ok” might be hardly an excuse.

It might be impossible to do it when solo queuing but then playing with friends or a full group, the chances of doing it is much higher.

I must admit, my thread seems to be just encouraging to do something just for fairness sake. However, I wanted to know what other players think about the Idea. This is a discussions forum, after all, so I’m always happy to hear the opinions of others.

Just don’t expect me to not oppose your opinion :wink:

11

What you’re suggesting is already in the game. If you start “fair throwing” and somebody tells you to stop you have to stop or otherwise you’re eligible to be reported for Gameplay Sabotage.