Numerous Apex Legends players are complaining about unfair abandon penalties in the new Arenas mode, forcing them to sit out of matches for 10 minutes.
One of the more recent reports shows a player quitting an Arenas match after both of their teammates left, only to be hit with a 10-minute abandoned game penalty. Another player claimed yesterday that they received a penalty for leaving an Arenas match that was already finished. Respawn director of communications Ryan Rigney responded to that post, saying it “never happened in playtests” and that the devs are “investigating.”
Yesterday’s Apex patch introduced abandon penalties for Arenas, similar to the penalty applied for ranked battle royale matches. But it appears that abandon penalties are being unjustly issued to players who leave early, regardless of if they have disconnected teammates or skip the ending animation
Players have been joking about the issue, with one commenting that the devs “worked hard on those emotes” and you “gotta watch them or else.”
Arenas is Apex’s newest mode, creating a three-vs-three best-of-nine showdown on custom maps. But with any new feature, there’s bound to be a few hiccups. With Arenas not having a ranked mode yet, however, players at least won’t be unfairly demoted.
To avoid sitting out of matches for 10 minutes, players should probably wait out the end-of-game animations and emotes. Respawn will likely have a fix for the issue soon in a mini-update.
Make sure to follow us on YouTube for more Apex Legends news and analysis.
