Apex Legends dev responds to request for leaver penalty in public matches

Unlike Ranked play, Apex players are free to leave regular public matches without fear of punishment, something that some want to be changed. However, a Respawn dev has explained why leaver penalties are unlikely to be added for non-Ranked BR.

In the upcoming Collection Event, Evolution, a new warning is being added to Ranked play, if you are about to receive a penalty for leaving early.

This prompted some conversation in the community about whether this would be added to unranked BR as well. The answer is no – as there will still be no penalty for leaving these games.

But should there be? Some players think so, while others are strongly against it. Now, Respawn has explained their stance.

Apex dev responds

Respawn developer RobotHavGunz explained, “from a UX perspective, having a penalty in BR pubs feels overly strict. The idea of leaver penalties is two-fold – one is that you are agreeing not to leave (without consequence) and the second is that your teammates also are agreeing not to leave (without consequence).”

“We only added the penalty to Arena pubs because we saw how impactful a leaver was on the match statistically. We don’t see the same impact on BR pubs. Hiding/camping is a viable strategy in BR in a way that it just isn’t in Arenas, for example.”

So, while it’s unlikely that a leaver penalty will be added in pubs, the developer agrees that they “see the case” for it – but the more serious alternative, ranked play, is where players should be punished for leaving.

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This will be good news for the many players who want to be able to drop in and out of public matches stress-free, even if their teammates hate them for it.