Players who leave Arenas matches in Apex Legends could once again face a matchmaking ban. Respawn has re-enabled leaver penalties in the title’s new game mode, but they may take up to 24 hours to come into effect, according to the studio.
The feature made its way to Apex in a patch last week, but Respawn quickly took it out after players mistakenly received matchmaking bans as false positives. The developers identified that the issue was related to game logic, according to director of comms Ryan Rigney. āBasically youād sometimes still get a leaver penalty after leaving the empty game,ā he wrote.
A fix for the issue was slated for last week, but Respawn pushed back a patch while the devs āworked out the kinksā with the feature. A definitive solution was scheduled for today and Respawn delivered.
The abandon penalties in the new game mode are similar to the punishment for leaving a ranked match in Apex’s battle royale mode. It only applies when leaving a team with three members, which means there will be no sanctions for leaving after a squadmate drops out of the match or if there were only two players on a team. One exception to that rule, however, is if players were partied with the leaver. In that case, the corresponding penalty will apply regardless.
