Meanwhile, Valve is looking to make the penalty for leaving competitive mode matches even harsher.
Earlier in the month, Valve’s long standing class-based shooter Team Fortress 2 finally got it’s much-requested competitive matchmaking patch. It’s been fairly well-received, but there have been a number of complaints and subsequent tweaks. Today, there are a few more, and some of them are quite major. For example, there is now no penalty for leaving games in the “casual” matchmaking mode, and players can now choose to queue up for a specific map.
While casual players can now come and go as they please, over on the competitive side, leaving penalties are getting harsher. “We are going to make abandoning penalties much harsher,” wrote Valve in a blog post.
“The current system increases matchmaking ban times based on the number of abandons over a period of time. We are making a change to more quickly move serial abandoners into really long ban times. We will also subtract the maximum number of rank points possible, per abandon. The amount lost will be far higher than what could normally be lost in a completed match.”
Finally, Valve claims that it has been working hard to improve the mechanics behind the matchmaking system, meaning that queue times should be greatly reduced for players on both the casual and competitive modes.
Source: Valve