Overwatch 2 players desperate for leaver penalties in every PVP mode

Stephanie Zucarelli
Overwatch 2 Winston

As Overwatch 2 Season 6 reaches its midpoint, many players are urgently calling for stricter penalties for leavers. According to fans, Blizzard’s FPS is facing a major issue with its matchmaking, which is having a detrimental effect on the majority of its PvP modes.

The Overwatch 2 community has rekindled an age-old problem that Blizzard has never fully tackled for its iconic FPS: Leaver Penalties. Fans have pointed out that some PvP modes have almost “become unplayable” since the penalty system only applies to Quick Play and Competitive modes.

“I can’t remember seeing a QP match where everyone has stayed to the end. I’ve had so many revolving door teams in QP because once one person leaves someone else does, then they backfill sees that they’re backfill, and then they leave,” described reddit user Neon-bonez.

However, some think that harder leaver penalties would be unfair for players with unstable internet connections.” For a while back in OW 1 I had really d*gshit internet, so I stopped playing comp, so I wouldn’t be constantly getting leavers penalties. Just wish there was an easier way to differentiate between leaving and getting booted out,” said reddit user Yaangi.

Fans have suggested that Blizzard should apply a system like a “leavers’ queue” or even implement Dota2’s “low priority queue,” which could solve the leavers’ rate in Overwatch 2 PvP. “Have problematic matches? You get punished by being grouped with other similar players, and you have to win to get out of it. Losing/leaving increases the number of matches you need to win,” reddit user nasaboy007 suggested.

What is Overwatch 2 current “leavers penalty”?

With the transition to Overwatch 2, Blizzard addressed the problem with a “Leaver Penalty system,” which was only applied to Quick Play and Competitive Play. According to Blizzard’s official page, these are the penalties for players who leave in the middle of the match:

Overwatch 2 Quick Play penalties

Players can leave during the Assemble your team screen without penalty. After the match has started, leaving games before you see the Victory or Defeat screen will count towards leaver status, which results in a 75% penalty to all XP gains.

Overwatch 2 Quick Play penalties

Penalties in Competitive Play are more severe because of the serious nature of the mode. Leaving a game early or being removed for inactivity prevents players from joining a new game until the original match has concluded (though you are able to rejoin an in-progress game within one minute to avoid a penalty). If one of your teammates has left the match, the game will tell you it’s safe to leave the match without a penalty (though players will still get a loss).

In Competitive Play, leaving a match at any point before the Match Complete screen will contribute towards leaver status (including during the Assemble your team phase). In addition to the 75% experience penalty, players may be restricted from joining a Competitive Play game for a pre-determined amount of time.

Overwatch 2 Kiriko
Blizzard’s current Leaver Penalty system only affects Quick Play and Competitive Play.

Leaving more matches will increase the amount of time players must wait before joining a competitive game, lower your skill rating, and eventually result in a ban from Competitive Play for the current season. Multiple season-long Competitive Play suspensions can lead to a Permanent Competitive Play Ban

That’s everything you need to know about what Overwatch 2 fans are asking Blizzard for PvP modes. For more detailed Overwatch 2 stories, check out some of our other pieces below:

Best Overwatch 2 PC settings | Overwatch 2 crossplay | Is Overwatch 2 free-to-play? | How to get Golden Guns in Overwatch 2 | Best Overwatch 2 Heroes | Who is the most popular Overwatch 2 Heroes | How to check your rank in Overwatch 2 | Is Overwatch 2 split-screen? | How to spectate matches in Overwatch 2 | Is John Cena coming to Overwatch 2?

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About The Author

Stephanie is a Games Writer at CharlieIntel. After graduating as a journalist, she started working as a tech writer for Infobae, Channel 9, and Rolling Stone. She's currently focused on covering Diablo 4, Baldur's Gate 3 and Fortnite, but can't resist anything related to The Sims 4 and Stardew Valley. You can contact her at [email protected].