Apex Legends finally adds punishment for rage quitters

Respawn Entertainment have made another major change to Apex Legends by re-introducing a punishment for players that decide to abandon their squads during matches. 

The in-game prompt that appears for those looking to exit the action earlier than they should do has been tweaked again, meaning the return of a punishment system. 

Players that decide to leave matches will now be warned of a future matchmaking delay, a move that many members of the game’s online community have welcomed with open arms. After all, nobody wants to be matched up with teammates who will run for the hills at the first sign of gunfire. 

For those who aren’t aware, players that have already been eliminated from a game, cannot be respawned, and decide to leave are absolutely fine to do so. Players leaving a team that isn’t full also won’t be affected by any matchmaking delays should they head for the exit. 

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This punishment only affects players that are still alive and have the potential to help their team in the game. In a post to the Apex Legends subreddit, user trashbag_irl informed other fans of the change. 

One player appears to have worked out just how the punishment system works, too. Redditor Smashmundo says that leaving three matches in a row will result in a five minute ban from matchmaking in Apex Legends, and increasing that leave tally to four matches would result in a further 10 minute ban. 

Many Reddit users seem to have responded positively to the news, with the post attracting over 26,000 upvotes at the time of writing, but one player thinks the punishments may need to go a step further to have a real impact. 

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“It’s extremely lenient and I would prefer it was less [matches until getting a temporary ban], because I strongly doubt that’s going to be much of a deterrent,” the user wrote. 

Whether or not this change will be for the better and succeed in preventing players from leaving sessions early remains to be seen, but many members of the game’s community certainly feel it’s at least a step in the right direction.