Hey everyone,
I wanted to open a discussion about a growing issue in Epic Battlegrounds—players leaving the match within the first 5 minutes, especially after losing the initial fight.
We’ve all seen it: you start Alterac Valley, Ashran, or Isle of Conquest, lose the first skirmish, and suddenly your team goes from 40 players to 30. The remaining group is now hopelessly outnumbered, morale tanks, and the snowball effect begins. The result? A game that could have been turned around ends in an inevitable loss.
Let me be clear: losing the first fight is a bad sign, BUT doesn’t ALWAYS mean it’s over.
Just the other day in Alterac Valley, we lost both initial towers and a graveyard. Half the team bailed instantly. I stuck around as a Tank, managed to regroup with a few determined players, back-capped two towers and a graveyard, and eventually we made it to the enemy boss. We won and it was a hell of a fight—and fun, even tho we had lost a lot of players.
Now, I understand the frustration around premade groups. Yes, it sucks to queue solo and get rolled by a highly coordinated Discord squad. That’s a separate problem Blizzard should address more directly. But let’s be honest: not every loss is due to a premade.
The 15-minute Deserter debuff is simply not enough of a deterrent. People eat it and requeue later, while the rest of us are left fighting uphill with a skeleton crew. This system punishes the players who actually want to fight it out and try creative strategies.
This is my own opinion, but I think we we need a progressive Penalty System – Like Other Competitive Games: The more often you leave early, the harsher the penalty.
Something like : First offense? 15 minutes. Second? 30 minutes. Third? 1 hour, etc.
Continue scaling up if you consistently leave early. Not every loss is a premade stomp.
This would maybe discourage chronic leavers while giving grace to occasional exits.
A capitulate vote system would be interesting too. So if a team truly feels the match is hopeless—maybe due to a clear premade stomp—implement a vote-to-surrender system. Require a 70% majority to end the match early. This gives agency to the players without forcing ragequits. Either everyone fight, or nobody… but that actual 20v40 Is not possible.
Early exits are becoming too normalized
What do you all think? Have you had matches where perseverance turned things around?