Ranked "quitters" need to be handled better (and I have a suggestion)

Games Halo Infinite
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Sorry there doesn’t seem to be a “ranked”/“competitve” tag and this new forum reckons I’m a new user so I don’t think I can make a tag like in Stack Exchange sites.

I’ve been trying to crawl up the ranks and I think I’m a good player, but definitely not an excellent one, so it’s slow, but every setback hurts (as it should, not much of an achievement otherwise).
But unfair setbacks are brutal.

The other day my internet cut out for a couple minutes, in a game we were mere moments from absolutely winning.
When my internet came back, not only had I lost that day’s progress, but it put me in the negative as much as I had gained that whole day!
Here’s a video of the whole experience, timestamped to when the game showed me the updated rank (you can go back to the moment the net cut out and I throw a grenade through the floor).
This forum really doesn’t know I’m an existing user from the old forum, I cant post links: youtube, v=ObGyXjawpj0, t=1m20s

I’ve heard from others whilst playing that they’ve had random disconnects that aren’t due to their net (I haven’t experienced this) and I’ve definitely met with a few quitters (one I actually know by gamertag because he does it so frequently, [incorrectly] cussing out the team for poor play…) so I know people on both sides exist, but how the system handles it I think can be done so much better.

Now, as it stands, it looks like if you quit a ranked match you can immediately matchmake again (different to MCC) and in Social I know people can join already started matches.
I propose that like Mechwarrior Online, if anyone’s played that, that for ranked your character be locked to a game. You quit, that’s fine, we cant tell whether it’s a crash, a ragequit, an internet issue, whatever. But if you try to matchmake a ranked game again you just get put back into the match.

That way if it wasn’t due to bad sportsmanship, you can get right back into it and help the team. As for the punishment, I’d err more toward accidentally protecting bad actors than overly punishing innocents. So, remove the progress penalty for quitters, and the game-lockout should be punishment enough: they wont be able to keep playing til the quit game ends anyway (lest they just get put back into it).

Another thing MWO does, and I think battlefield did too (when I played it, so like BF3…4?) is that your account earns points at the end of the game, whether you were there or not.
If this approach is taken, not forgetting you gain/lose rank based on your performance and whether your team wins, which is likely very poor for a quitter, when the game naturally ends quitters will take a big hit anyway without an artificially added “quitting”/technical qlitch -fine.

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Very good suggestions.

My viewpoint is that I would prefer the game to bring in another player straight away after someone leaves. The new player should get a match loss pass if the team they join losses.

The issue I have with your proposal is that, if your internet drops out 2 minutes into the game, the team is down to 3 players and will likely lose. If another player is brought in, the team may be able to win.

Internet drops are frustrating but the other 3 people in the team shouldn’t be penalised for someone else’s poor connection problems.

The best solution for me is that each time you quit the penalty gets worse and should be a ban on joining any matchmaking game, something like- 1 minute delay, 10 minute delay, 30 minute delay etc. These penalties should last as well for at least a couple of days.

The only problem than is that if you do drop out for poor connection, you get penalised as a quitter which is wrong but not sure the solution.

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It’s ranked, you shouldn’t (and probably cant based on how the rewards are calculated) have a random just drop in. It’d be super annoying for that player too. It’s a good system for social, and they do use that there.

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I disagree, why can’t matching making drop someone in of a similar rank?

Why should the 3 other players be penalised because someone unfortunately disconnects or some impatient player decides to quit. The answer is the 3 other players shouldn’t be penalised.

The solution, find another player as quick as possible.

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The mind-blowing part is that this is actually implemented in casuals: when a player leaves a bot joins instantly and when a player is found the bot is swapped with the player immediately so seamless that most don’t even notice. Why don’t 343 do this in competitive ranked playlists is literally beyond me lol

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Yeah that is bizarre, let’s hope 343 wakes up, smells the roses and has a strong coffee :grinning:

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That’s why I mentioned it in my post. Tying into what Jag said, I wanted the suggestion to be as minimal as possible/more in line with what 343 has seemingly already decided so it’s more likely to actually be taken on board.