Apex Legends players call for matchmaking penalties in Arenas mode

Apex Legends players have called for leaving penalties in Arenas, the 3v3 mode that dropped with Season 9: Legacy. 

Arenas constituted the biggest shake-up to Apex Legends’ in some time, introducing an entirely new mode and two new maps to the battle royale. The 3v3 mode pits two teams against one another across a number of rounds.

It allows trios to practice their teamwork in a closed environment, where there’s no risk of a third or fourth party getting involved and throwing the situation into anarchy.

Arenas is, at the start, first to three rounds. However, teams also have to win matches by a total of two rounds. Unless you’re winning 3-0 or 3-1 then, you’ll be playing 6 to 9 rounds.

However, some Arenas regulars have complained that both teammates and opponents are leaving matches after losing the first round. This can pretty much ruin the match for those remaining.

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As a result, many players have been calling on developers Respawn to add matchmaking penalties for players who leave Arenas matches before they are completed.

This would most likely take the form of matchmaking time penalties, meaning players who quit early would be prohibited from joining a new match for a certain amount of time. The more they quit, the longer the matchmaking penalty they receive would become. This is the system already in place for Ranked play in Apex.

A Reddit post from u/waytoofrozen echoed the message, amassing over 16,000 upvotes at the time of writing.

Others agreed with the suggestion, saying that it’s ruining matches for those solo or duo queuing. “I felt bad for the teams me and my friends faced yesterday,” one said. “We face rolled the 1st round in 2 of our matches and each time one of their teammates left. It’s not even fun at that point.”

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It does seem likely Respawn will add a similar feature to deter early exits from Arenas, particularly in the mode’s ranked playlist, whenever it is added.

Apex Legends Ranked Leagues, in battle royale, for example, has penalties if players quit early. A minimum of 10 minutes lockout applies to all modes, as well as the forfeiting of any ranked points earned.

We will probably see near-identical penalties added to Arenas’ ranked playlist, but it remains to be seen whether it’s added across the board in Respawn’s new mode.