With Season 7 just around the corner, Blizzard has introduced a number of tweaks and changes to Overwatch 2. One of the most heated discussions comes in the form of leaver penalties.
Rage quitting, backfilling, and slightly wonky matchmaking have always been a staple in Overwatch, from the first game all the way through to its current successor. The ability to simply up and leave whenever a trigger-happy Widowmaker continues to one-shot you from halfway across the map is something that feels almost like a rite of passage for any Overwatch 2 player.
However, leaver penalties were only really a thing in competitive mode. Not anymore. With Overwatch 2 season 7, leaver penalties have been introduced to quickplay, and it’s a bit of an issue.
Previously, players could abandon quickplay games with little to no repercussions. If they chose to leave during the hero selection screen, they'd receive no penalties whatsoever, and throughout the rest of the game, upon leaving they'd receive a 75% deduction in their XP.
Not the end of the world by any means, and Overwatch 2 has always been really good at backfilling games quite quickly. This meant that even though you had a teammate rage quit on you, you weren't a player down for too long, as a new one would be drafted in midway through the match.
But now, Blizzard has introduced a brand new leaver penalty for quickplay matches with the October 9th pre-season patch. You can check out the full details in the tweet from Overwatch Cavalry below.
As of October 9, 2023, and therefore Season 7 Rise of Darkness when it launches on October 10, 2023, all quickplay matches will now be subject to leaver penalties.
This now means that players abandoning 4 matches out of their last 20 played will receive a 10-minute lockout from all game modes. Even further, if players leave 6 out of those 20 matches, they will receive a 30-minute lockout.
On the surface, this looks to be a positive change, since it will stop players from rage-quitting, and will force them to keep playing to avoid a timer penalty. However, some Overwatch 2 players have already expressed concerns with this method of leaver penalty.
Fans on Reddit have already started to discuss certain issues that this new method will bring, largely replacing leavers with people purposefully throwing, staying AFK, or generally just being a nuisance instead of actually playing the game.
As well as this, other fans have mentioned how the backfill mechanic had actually come in clutch for them, namely when the weak link on their team inevitably rage quit and the backfill provided them with a far stronger teammate, therefore eventually securing them the win.
As with most changes, only time will tell. The Overwatch 2 community will no doubt eventually become accustomed to these quickplay alterations, but it'd be interesting to see how they play out on day one and going forward. If you're looking forward to the new season, be sure to check out our heroes tier list to make sure you're staying in line with the current meta. Plus we have character guides for the likes of Kiriko, or Genji, so you can brush up on your Overwatch 2 lore while you download the new season!