Overwatch 2 Issue Letting Players Quit Comp Matches With No Penalty

An Overwatch 2 player has discovered an exploit that allows players to leave a match without facing any penalties. Like other competitive games, Blizzard is actively working to ensure a fair environment for Overwatch 2 players. To this end, the developers apply penalties when toxic behavior is detected.

Players who abandon two or three matches out of the last 20 times they played unraked modes receive a penalty wait time of 2 minutes, which can increase to 10 minutes, 2 hours, and 48 hours depending on the recurrence. The penalties for leaving Overwatch 2 matches in competitive mode are more severe, and prevent the player from starting a new match until the one they quit is over. Recurring quits increase the player’s waiting time until they can join a competitive match and reduce their skill rating. The player can receive a ban for the current season, lose rewards, and in extreme cases, be banned from competitive play permanently. However, a problem with this system was recently discovered.

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Twitch streamer Mason “durpee” Kuehne showed that leaving an Overwatch 2 match did not result in punishment. The player shared a video in which he plays as Reinhardt, and when he leaves to add an Overwatch 2 player, he is out of the match for a few seconds. When durpee returns to the match, the game shows the replay of his character’s death, ignoring that the player had left. In deleted tweets, he said that the discovery was made during a 6v6 match and that 10 minutes after it ended, he had not received any punishment or lost any skill rating.

Overwatch 2’s Effort to Stop Players From Leaving Matches

Although there are rules to prevent players from leaving Overwatch 2 matches, this toxic behavior still bothers the community, which often calls for harsher punishments. Adjustments happened over the months: in Season 4, the developers began to treat players who left competitive matches more severely. The current system was introduced with the launch of Season 10, when Overwatch 2 began to punish leavers even more seriously. They also introduced changes to allow gamers to join competitive play with friends regardless of rank difference.

So far, Blizzard has not addressed the exploit discovered by durpree, but as he is a well-known name in the community, gamers presume it shouldn’t be long before the case reaches the developers. Gamers should also avoid using the exploit since it allows them to perform a forbidden action, and Overwatch 2 can issue bans at any time.

Released

August 10, 2023

ESRB

T For Teen // Blood, Mild Language, Use of Tobacco, Violence